How Technology Is Hijacking Your Mind

How Technology Is Hijacking Your Mind

Hijack 5:
Social Reciprocity (Tit-for-Tat)

  • You do me a favor; the next time, I owe you one.
  • When you thank me, I must respond, “You’re welcome.”
  • You sent me an email; it would be impolite not to respond.
  • Since you follow me, I should follow you back. (Specifically for teens)

We are sensitive to feeling like we need to return others’ kindness. But much like with social approval, tech firms now control how frequently we feel it.

Sometimes it happens by accident. Email, texting, and messaging programs are factories for social reciprocity. But in other instances, businesses deliberately take advantage of this weakness.

The most obvious issue is LinkedIn. Because each time someone reciprocates (by accepting a connection, answering a message, or endorsing someone back for a skill), they have to return to linkedin.com, where they can attract new visitors, LinkedIn wants as many individuals to create social responsibilities for one another as possible.

How Technology Is Hijacking Your Mind

LinkedIn uses an asymmetries in perception, just like Facebook. When someone invites you to connect, you assume that they did it intentionally, but in truth, they most likely responded unconsciously to LinkedIn’s list of suggested contacts. To put it another way, LinkedIn converts your unconscious urges (to “add” a person) into brand-new social obligations that millions of people feel compelled to do. All the while making money off the time that people spend doing it.

Imagine millions of individuals having this kind of interruptions throughout the course of the day, reacting to one another like chickens with their heads chopped off — all because firms who benefit from it built it that way.

Welcome to social media.

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