The ‘game’ that we played was extraordinarily frustrating. I could not get to the end. I was dumbfounded and confused. I eventually started to find my way and realized that I needed to be counter intuitive in order to get through.
Intuitive….
Now there’s a concept to think about. What makes something intuitive? Why are things online intuitive? Does it begin with a learned behaviour and then change from there? Is it actually intuitive within our soul? Would something online be ‘intuitive’ to my 1994 self or to my 2004 self or do things online something become intuitive from the previous year or month or day?
Tristan Harris states that ‘we are persuadable!’ This is a profound statement. I so often think that it is other people who are persuadable. I can navigate my way around that. In reflection over the readings and videos this week and thinking more deeply about how advertising online affects me, it is clear that I am very persuadable. The addiction to phones is not just a teenage thing…it transcends from the oldest people I know in my life to the youngest kids. My teenager is deeply affected because as he says, ‘if I don’t communicate on my phone at the moment, then I won’t communicate with friends.’ I also see his behaviour on YouTube that the loop that YouTube creates provides simple addiction to the medium. And yes when I watch a tennis video on YouTube it addicts me to it as well. Why not watch another Federer great shot video? And then from there Google takes that information and targets tennis gear in my direction. And then why not purchase a new racket…it’ll fix my game and make me a better player.
So how do we engage in positive things online meanwhile navigating through the pitfalls of the advertising and click baits that are minefields as we spend time online? I think it is this…we need to know how we are being advertised to and how we are being manipulated
This is a fantastic podcast that I’d suggest you give a listen…
https://www.nytimes.com/column/rabbit-hole
I won’t make the above link a link so that you can decide if you’d like to copy and paste my click bait!
References
Harris, T. (2017). How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/tristan_harris_the_manipulative_tricks_tech_companies_use_to_capture_your_attention?language=en