Human behaviour is a very fickle thing, it morphs in so many ways and due to so many things, its a wonder we even have a name for it. Scientists and researchers throughout the decades have tried in so may ways to understand this, predict this and even control this, but there has never been as much success as was seen in the last decade. Human behaviour is defined as a reaction to something, we see something and we react. This is the external effect. There is also the its opposite, when we want something and we act. The latter has been leveraged and capitalised upon so much in the past decade.
There’s a lab called the behavioural design lab at stanford university, run by a researcher B.J.Foggs. This lab is supposed to be the birth and growing place of a field called ‘Behavioural design’, it studies how human behaviour can be changed. Foggs might have started with the honest goal of understanding human behaviour to change it for the good, but as it has happened throughout history, the insights from this lab and many others were utilised for other purposes that were not entirely good. Insights from fields like cognitive science, behavioural design, gamification, motivational studies, decision making and behavioural economics have been used to create and power what we now call the digital world.
The digital world has so many facets, dimensions and venues that people can lost into, most of these are purposed this way. Recommendation systems, personalised suggestions, training based on past data and many more technological innovations that are combined with the magic of psychological scientific research have led to the day where digital devices have become mandatory. Studies conducted on teens in japan reveal that more than half the kids believe that there is no life without phones, internet dependency has grown tremendously in the past years, internet connections and mobile phone subscriptions has grown manyfold and they are only projected to rise. This is not all bad, there is good out of this progress, but it is unchecked and uncontrolled. Most of us are just reacting to whats happening without trying to take a break and understand it, we don’t have the time to take a break, and the really bad thing is we don’t exactly know what is happening.
Going back to behaviour, another really important thing about behaviour is that it can be influenced, and we never know if the behaviour we are displaying is addressing our want and need or is responding to some external influence. This is exactly whats happening to a majority of population today. Humans undeniably have psychological issues, these range from anxiety, trauma to approval, acceptance, social fear or bad parental influences. Everything that happens around us has an impact on us, we might just not be aware of it. So many experiments have proven that you only consciously process about 20% of what you see or hear, the rest is processed and stored you just don’t know it. All of this has an effect on how we behave. Our mind divides experiences into repeatable and non-repeatable, it will do anything in its power to do the repeatable ones and prevent the non-repeatable ones, even without our conscious effort. Think of the things that scare you and try to find reasons for them, I can’t find reasons for more than half of my fears. They are not unrooted, I just don’t know them. And now science has caught up to this fact. The fields mentioned above have uncovered tons of insights about influencing human behaviour without us ever recognising it. Think about why you can’t stop to binge watch shit, or why the first thing you do when you get on public transport is open your phone and look at it, when you take your phone out you don’t even know why you’re doing it, you just do it.
Our mind protects us from repeating behaviour that makes us feel uncomfortable. Research has shown that most addictions are just symptoms of greater underlying psychological problems/phenomenon. For me I take out my phone because I get self-conscious on public transport, this behaviour is a way for me to cope with my problem. This is what the digital world helps you do, just cope with stuff without ever having to deal with it. On top of it, you’re also showered with digital rewards like dopamine to reinforce this behaviour. You’re encouraged to keep relying on these coping mechanisms whatever they are ( social media, porn, youtube, news, games and more). You’re behaviour is being controlled, directed, influenced , reinforced and rewarded.
The digital world has also removed the friction for influence, now there are not only companies influencing your behaviour but people. It has become supremely easy to make you do things or not do things. Individual identity is becoming scarcer and scarcer, collective stereotypes are replacing it. Do you use the latest finance tracking app? Do you use this cool new water bottle? Do you also follow this productivity blogger? If yes, you’re a part of them, part of this large collective identity that is bubbled and fuelled by your need to be socially accepted. It doesn’t give you any capital or benefits, it alleviates your fears and takes one more step in crushing your individuality. The digital world that has seeped into every aspect of your world and being is making you a part of something and removing yourself from you. It is enforcing that being a part of something is important than looking into yourself. What do you do now? Now that you recognise that you live amidst imposters, that you’re reflecting behaviour instead of acting by yourself. Now that you know that you live in a world of distractions and rewards that make it hard for you to think independently, what do you do? Where do you look to find a solution to this, to protect your identity and individuality.
It’s pretty obvious, you inside yourself and you look towards intentionality.