My career has run parallel to advertising for many years. I worked in radio and television for nearly two-decades where I wrote commercials and created content that led people to want to watch or listen. There was a direct correlation between my pay cheques and advertising revenue. Today, I use those same skills to help post-secondary leaders to persuade audiences. I appreciated what Tristan Harris (2017) called the “race for attention.” As humans, and technology users, we are being prompted to follow certain rules and logic that are being spoon-fed to us. Task 10 provided several glaring examples of what that looks like.
As a user, you needed to read (and not follow your “technological” inkling) in order to not push the green or lock button but instead read the fine print. Nearing the end, I struggled with proving that I was human!? How I wished there was a “select all” option. The other attribute that also jumped out at me was the concept of patterns. The Task 10 game “User Inyerface” brilliantly created persuasive architecture that was intended to not have the user complete the questionnaire with ease. Zeynep Tufekci (2017) described the usage of persuasive architecture within the digital world, but it got me wondering if everything should be easy?
Taking my time and reading carefully, I was able to complete the task in a reasonable amount of time (probably less than 10-minutes including two false-starts). If I hadn’t been prepped by reading and watching Module 10, I would imagine it would have taken longer.
From a pedagogical perspective, you can definitely see the possibilities for empowering and assisting learners and educators through this technology but unfortunately most of these tools are being used for nefarious purposes from marketing to politics.
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 (Links to an external site.)
Tufekci, Z. (2017). We’re building a dystopia just to make people click on ads. Retrieved from (Links to an external site.)https://www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_we_re_building_a_dystopia_just_to_make_people_click_on_ads?language=en (Links to an external site.)