Can technology hijack our minds? Facebook has com under scrutiny for allegedly ignoring conservative articles. We’ve heard many, many allegations of government agencies and tech corporations spying on everything we do on computer based products. So this sort of question needs to be asked.
A blogger named Tristan Harris tries to tackle this question. He believes technology can hijack our minds and lists different ways it can be done. One way Harris believes technology controls our minds is through limited choices. He used Yelp as an example. When friends want to go out, you type ‘restaurant’ or ‘club’. But it’s the list of places they want you to go to. Harris talks about the ‘slot machine effect‘. Are you aware the average person checks their smartphone 150 times a day? That’s to see if what notifications we get on an hourly basis. The slot machine is the most profitable gambling tool in any casino. That’s because it’s easy to play and you play over and over. You’re afraid to stop playing because the next spin could be ‘the big win’. That draws me Harris’ next argument: the fear we’re going to miss something. We’re more glued to our devices than ever before because we might miss that important email. We want to see who accepted our Facebook friend request. We look forward to that next You Tube video or Netflix release. What’s the next video game going to be? We don’t want to miss anything.
And that’s how technology hijacks our mind. They’re nine other points Harris makes here. I don’t agree with all of it, but he made valid arguments. But I do notice a pattern on certain hotel sights. When I try to book for a certain city and certain neighborhood, I’m given only certain hotels, often the more posh and expensive ones. But when I Google for more budget hotels, I often find a bunch that the hotel websites don’t have. These are the ones I’m looking for. What’s up with that? Can technology really hijack our minds?