Find a Doula does not maintain social media accounts, promote social media platforms or provide links to social media profiles. This is a deliberate ethical decision based on concerns about the way many major social media platforms are designed and operated.
The business models of dominant social media platforms commonly depend on capturing attention, maximising engagement and collecting behavioural data. Algorithmic recommendation systems determine much of what users see, while features such as continuous feeds, notifications, autoplay and personalised recommendations are designed to encourage repeated and prolonged use. These systems can also amplify material that attracts strong reactions, including sensational, misleading, hostile or divisive content.
Find a Doula does not believe it is appropriate for us to contribute to that system by supplying content to social media platforms or directing our visitors towards them.
For the purposes of this policy, Find a Doula defines social media by the way a platform operates rather than simply by the name or category it gives itself.
We consider a service to fall within this definition where its design or business model substantially depends upon capturing and retaining users’ attention through algorithmic recommendation, continuous feeds, engagement mechanisms or similar features intended to encourage repeated or prolonged use, particularly where those systems are combined with large-scale public sharing and amplification of user-generated content.
Relevant characteristics may include personalised or engagement-driven feeds, algorithmic recommendations, follower and reaction systems, continuous scrolling, frequent notifications, behavioural profiling, targeted advertising and mechanisms that allow content to spread rapidly between large numbers of users.
A platform does not fall outside this definition simply because it describes itself as a video service, professional network, community or content-sharing platform. Equally, a website or online service is not social media merely because it allows information to be published, shared or viewed online.
The distinction we make is between services that primarily help people deliberately access information or communicate with one another, and platforms whose operation substantially depends upon continuously selecting and presenting additional content in order to retain attention.
Direct communication does not require an algorithmically curated feed. Telephone, SMS, email, messaging services, video calls and conventional websites all allow individuals and organisations to communicate without placing an engagement-optimising platform between them.
Social media platforms operate differently. Recommendation systems can continuously determine which stories, videos, opinions, advertisements and other content are most likely to attract an individual’s attention. The resulting experience is therefore shaped not only by what the user has deliberately chosen to see, but also by what an algorithm predicts will keep them engaged.
Find a Doula is concerned about this approach because the commercial interests of the platform and the interests of the individual using it are not necessarily the same. A system optimised for viewing time, interaction or repeat visits may favour material that generates engagement regardless of whether that material is useful, accurate or beneficial to the person viewing it.
We are particularly concerned about design techniques that can encourage habitual or compulsive use. Infinite feeds, automatically playing content, repeated notifications, personalised recommendations and the removal of natural stopping points can all increase the amount of time people spend using a service.
There is also continuing concern about the relationship between intensive social media use and mental wellbeing, particularly among children and young people. Social comparison, appearance-focused content, public measures of popularity, cyberbullying, compulsive checking and repeated exposure to distressing or harmful material can contribute to pressures that deserve serious consideration.
Find a Doula does not consider it necessary or appropriate to direct people towards these environments simply in order to communicate with us or learn more about one of our members.
Social media has also changed the speed and scale at which information, misinformation and harmful material can circulate. Platforms that rank content according to predicted engagement can give disproportionate visibility to material that generates strong emotional reactions, including anger, fear and outrage.
This does not mean that social media is responsible for every form of hostility or division in society. Those problems long predate the internet. However, algorithmic amplification can increase their reach and intensity by repeatedly distributing provocative material to very large audiences and by rewarding content that attracts attention.
Our concern is therefore not simply about individual pieces of objectionable content. It is also about systems in which the mechanisms used to maximise engagement can unintentionally create incentives for sensationalism, conflict and polarisation.
Many social media platforms collect substantial amounts of information about how people use their services. This may include what an individual searches for, views, follows, reacts to, purchases, ignores and spends time looking at. These behavioural signals can be analysed to personalise content, make recommendations and target advertising.
For Find a Doula, this requires particular consideration because people visiting our website may be dealing with serious illness, dying, bereavement, caring responsibilities or other highly personal circumstances. We do not believe someone seeking end-of-life support should need to enter an environment based on extensive behavioural observation simply to obtain information about a practitioner or organisation.
Our policy therefore aims to minimise unnecessary pathways from Find a Doula into platforms whose commercial models depend heavily upon tracking, profiling and engagement.
Our decision is not limited to avoiding paid social media advertising. Social media platforms also depend upon a continual supply of photographs, videos, articles, discussions, professional information and personal stories to attract and retain their users.
When an organisation maintains a social media account, it contributes content to that ecosystem and encourages its audience to visit the platform, follow the account and return for future updates. This remains true even if the organisation never purchases an advertisement.
We therefore consider both advertising and content provision when deciding whether Find a Doula should participate in a platform. Our current position is that we should not contribute our content, audience or reputation to services whose underlying model conflicts with the principles set out in this policy.
Find a Doula does not provide links to social media profiles from member or organisation listings, and does not maintain its own presence on platforms falling within the definition above.
This policy is intentionally platform-neutral. It includes services such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X/Twitter and other platforms operating on substantially similar principles, but it is not intended to be an exhaustive list. New services will be assessed according to their design, business model, approach to user attention, use of behavioural data and methods of distributing content.
This allows the policy to remain relevant as technologies and individual platforms change.
This policy applies to Find a Doula and does not restrict the independent choices of our members. Doulas and organisations listed with us remain free to maintain their own social media accounts and to promote their work through whatever lawful channels they consider appropriate.
We do not require members to share our position on social media, nor will a member’s decision to use or avoid social media affect their standing on Find a Doula. We simply choose not to make Find a Doula itself a route into those platforms.
Find a Doula also does not use social media popularity as a measure of professional relevance. Follower counts, likes, shares and engagement statistics do not necessarily indicate experience, competence, compassion or suitability to support someone approaching the end of life.
Our platform is intended to help people find practitioners using information that is directly relevant to that decision, including their location, services, background, experience, training and verified professional credentials.
A practitioner who chooses not to participate in social media should therefore be at no disadvantage when using Find a Doula.
Where appropriate, we encourage members to maintain their own websites and other direct sources of information. A conventional website allows someone to deliberately seek out information, read it at their own pace and leave when they have found what they need, without requiring them to enter an algorithmically generated feed.
It also allows practitioners and organisations to retain greater control over their professional presence and the information they publish, while allowing visitors to access that information without creating a social media account or participating in a wider engagement ecosystem.
Find a Doula supports this more direct relationship between the person seeking information and the individual or organisation providing it.
Find a Doula cannot determine how major technology companies design or operate their platforms. We can, however, decide whether we maintain accounts on those services, contribute content to them or direct people towards them.
For the reasons set out in this policy, we have chosen not to do so.
We will keep this position under review as technology, evidence and the practices of online platforms evolve. If a service operates primarily as a straightforward means of communication, publishing or video hosting without relying substantially on algorithmic attention capture, behavioural profiling or engagement-driven content distribution, it may fall outside this policy.
Our objective is not to reject online communication. It is to make a clear distinction between useful digital tools and systems designed primarily around capturing and retaining attention.