The Serendipity Switch: A Human-Centered Framework for Meaningful Digital Discovery Beyond Engagement

Abstract Contemporary social media platforms are largely organized around engagement-driven design principles that prioritize continuous interaction, emotional salience, and algorithmic optimization. While effective for sustaining attention, these systems increasingly function as attention-extractive environments, contributing to cognitive fatigue, compulsive consumption patterns, and diminished opportunities for reflection or meaningful discovery. Existing responses to these challenges often focus on moderation tools or individual self-control, leaving the underlying design logic largely unexamined. This paper introduces the Serendipity Switch, a conceptual framework that re-imagines digital discovery as a finite, human-scaled process rather than an endless stream. Instead of optimizing for retention or performance metrics, the framework emphasizes natural stopping points, curiosity progression, and information saturation as signals for disengagement. The Serendipity Switch operates through three interdependent pathways that address cognitive, behavioral, and semantic dimensions of interaction, collectively enabling discovery that concludes rather than escalates. Grounded in perspectives from cognitive science, human–computer interaction, and design ethics, the framework advances an explicit anti-addiction philosophy: digital systems should support users in reaching closure, not dependency. The paper clarifies the scope and limitations of this approach, positions it as complementary—not substitutive—to therapeutic or clinical interventions, and outlines a methodological outlook for future empirical exploration. By reframing how discovery, curiosity, and disengagement are structured, the Serendipity Switch contributes a human-centered alternative to engagement-driven platform design, prioritizing digital well-being, reflective use, and behavioral recalibration over optimization.