When you enter a situation, try to reduce the interference of other factors to you as much as possible, reduce your cognitive load and attention burden, so that you can devote yourself to the situation without thinking over and over again. What is its purpose? Just to make you comfortable. The following is a complete collection of reasons I sorted out for you. Let's have a look!
Text / lachel
I did a little experiment last week.
I usually choose the "follow" page by default to see the users I follow. But this time, I tried to turn it into the "recommendation" page to see what the algorithm recommended to me.
Then, I roughly estimated the time I spent in those days.
The results are interesting: Although I consciously control the time, and although the content quality recommended by the algorithm is not as good as the users I pay attention to, the former still consumes more time than the latter.
Why? One of the most important reasons is that I don't pay much attention to users, so it's easy to brush to the end - that is to say, "ah, I've seen this content before.".
In theory, even if I brush to the end, I can look at other things - such as other answers to the same question, related questions, etc. - but the idea of entering consciousness will give me a signal that I have been brushing for a long time and it's time to do something else.
Writer Adam alter calls it a "stop signal". You can also understand that it is a kind of "psychological boundary", which will remind you "it's time to stop".
Don't underestimate this thing. Many times, its impact is beyond imagination.
You must have had such an experience: originally, you just wanted to check the information, but it got out of hand. Click on the links one by one, and the pages kept jumping. When you wake up, it has taken a lot of time. But what did you see? But I can't say it.
This is the "time black hole" brought by the Internet. The reason is that it blocks the "stop signal" to you.
Later, pinterest invented waterfall flow, social networking sites invented information flow, and even jump links are omitted: you just need to slide down, and new information will flow to you.
The mode of information flow further reduces the resistance to obtain information. People rarely touch the "boundary" unless they brush "where they last started" as at the beginning of the article.
The rise of the algorithm has pushed this model to the extreme: through your behavior, the algorithm can find the most attractive content for you, save the cost of manual recommendation and the uncontrollability of the timeline, and continuously distribute the content.
What's more interesting is that your every behavior is contributing material to the algorithm and becoming its nutrient. It will strengthen and improve yourself according to your behavior, and better master your preferences.
In 2015, Cambridge University and Stanford University conducted an experiment. They invited a series of relatives and friends of participant a to answer a test questionnaire for a to test their understanding of A. At the same time, they synchronized the algorithm to answer questions based on a's behavior data on the social network.
What is the result? With just 10 likes, the algorithm will surpass your colleagues. Once you have 300 "likes", the algorithm can know you better than your partner.
Even, in some cases, the algorithm knows themselves better than the participants - in some predictions of future behavior and decisions, the accuracy of the algorithm is higher than myself.
In this case, are you actively absorbing information or being fed by algorithms?
The answer may be worrying.
This blurring and dilution of boundaries is called "immersion" in psychology.
Specifically, when you enter a situation, try to reduce the interference of other factors to you as much as possible, reduce your cognitive load and attention burden, so that you can devote yourself to this situation without thinking over and over again.
What is its purpose? Just to make you comfortable.
This practice is actually very common.
For example, when you shop in the mall, you will never see the clock or the window that can see the sky. The purpose is to make you pay no attention to the passage of time, so that you can stroll for a while and make more contributions to the odd number.
Media content continues to move towards multimedia, from text to graphic, audio, audio-visual... It is also a way to improve the sense of immersion. By stimulating your senses and brain areas in an all-round way, you can feel comfortable and reduce the cost of obtaining and understanding information, so as to "stay".
Electronic products continue to move towards intelligence, large screen and portability. They constantly launch adaptive apps to create and create ecology, so that you can use them more easily and more comfortably.
And all kinds of "game" educational software and learning software, as well as all kinds of content products that constantly cut, break and story content, all have the same purpose: to reduce your use and cost.
These behaviors are good, but there is only one question: do these people who try to create a sense of immersion and make your experience more comfortable really need - or like - this feeling?
Maybe not.
In 2014, an article in the New York Times pointed out that many leaders, executives and investors in the technology industry will restrict their children's use of electronic devices at home.
For example, when the iPad was first launched, jobs told reporters that his children had not used the iPad, and he would restrict their use of scientific and technological products.
Chris Anderson, a former editor in chief of wired and the author of long tail theory, has enabled parental control and restricted time strictly on all digital devices at home.
Evan Williams, founder of blogger, twitter and medium, said he did not allow children to use the iPad, but provided them with a large number of paper books for them to read at any time.
And so on. The author points out that parents in non technology industries may provide digital devices to their children at the age of 8, while parents in these technology industries usually don't give their children mobile phones until the age of 14 and allow their children to open mobile Internet access until the age of 16.
Why? The reason is simple: the more convenient and comfortable things are, the lack of "boundary" often means, and the easier it is to indulge you.
I want to emphasize the difference between "addiction" and "addiction": addiction means that you know it's bad, but you can't control yourself to reach out and get close to it. Addiction means that you are so involved in using it that you forget everything around you, let alone leave, exit and return.
It's very similar to heart flow. The difference is that: flow is a creative process, which is accompanied by a sense of happiness and achievement. Addiction is a process of consumption, which is often accompanied by loss, depression and chagrin - "why did I waste so much time again?"
But you're not to blame.
A characteristic of consumer society is to let you take off your guard, give up your vigilance and immerse yourself in the "illusion of satisfaction" created by everything outside. Then, honestly invest your time, attention, and money.
In other words: almost everything around you is carefully designed.
In 2014, a new scientist article pointed out that the United States consumes an average of 40 kilograms of sugar per person per year, equivalent to 109 grams per day.
What is the concept of this data? The who's recommendation is to limit the daily intake of free sugar to 25-50 grams. When you pick up a bottle of beverage (such as 500ml coke), its sugar content is in the early 50g.
This is the illusion designed by the food industry for us: hide high sugar in food, and by stimulating your reward circuit, make you unaware of this, eat them comfortably, and then continue to buy and consume.
Another example.
In 2011, the experiments of researchers charterjee and rose showed that there is a difference between people who use cash and credit cards: the former will pay more attention to "cost", while the latter will pay more attention to "income".
What is the direct result of this? Consumers who use credit cards are more likely to spend impulsively and overdraft.
A report in 2018 pointed out that almost all studies on credit cards have come to the conclusion that credit cards will make us spend higher amounts. In some studies, the gap even reached 82%. In the lowest case, even if the credit card logo appears, it will make us pay 10% more money.
The reason is very simple: when using a credit card, your whole payment process is very comfortable - you don't need to touch paper money, count, or change... Money is abstracted into a number and symbol, so psychologically, your "vigilance" to your account will be reduced.
Of course, these studies are aimed at European and American countries that use more credit cards. In China, we can convert it into "mobile payment" by ourselves. The essence is the same, or even simpler: you don't even have to take out your wallet.
More common are various membership cards, stored value cards, gift cards
When your consumption is completely separated from "payment", you hardly have any "Boundary Consciousness". You may not even know how much you spent each time, how long you last recharged, how much you spent on average, and how much "extra" you paid.
When you give up controlling your mind, others will occupy it.
Therefore, I have a habit: subconsciously guard against all things that try to "immerse" me.
I don't like immersion except creation. Because immersion often means that it tries to take off your guard, relax your control, and master your emotions, behavior and mind.
For me, this is unacceptable.
Whether it's movies, novels, games, or other forms of entertainment, I have two basic criteria: 1) whether it requires me to use my brain. 2) Whether it has a clear boundary will not make me unconsciously invest too much emotion, attention and energy.
Following these two guidelines, you may feel uncomfortable, troublesome and tired - but it's a standard to keep yourself alert and "feel".
If comfort is to let go of vigilance, what you have to do is to keep your ability to "regain vigilance" at any time.
I have a basic judgment: when you read an article or a book, if the author keeps trying to stir up your emotions and make you angry, excited, anxious and excited, you may need to pay attention - the author's content may not be so tenable, so you need to make up with emotions.
As we all know, our emotional brain and rational brain inhibit each other. Therefore, if the author tries to immerse you in some emotion, it will inevitably weaken our thinking and judgment.
Like the mob (written by Le Pen), which is regarded as the standard by many people, there are many disputes in the academic circle. Why? Because there are too many content views and assertions, it is easy to cause public emotion, but it lacks rigorous demonstration and data.
Even Steven Pinker, whom I like very much, has been pointed out that he has made the problem of subjectively selecting data and ignoring negative arguments in several books.
It's comfortable to massage your brain and let your emotions churn and release - but what can it really give you? This needs to be vigilant.
Similarly, if you feel particularly comfortable and fluent when absorbing a message, be more or less careful: you may just get an "immersive experience", but you can't leave anything behind.
Why? I mentioned that without breaking this cognition, it is useless to read more books: our memory and understanding effect are positively correlated with the energy we pay. You can acquire and consolidate as much knowledge as you spend your brain.
Many times, immersing yourself in comfort is not necessarily a good thing - it may mean that your control over yourself is being replaced.
See here, you should also be able to understand:
What I want you to be vigilant is essentially the opposite of autonomy.
It often leads to a kind of alienation - you think your behavior is from your will, but in fact, it may be the result of being influenced, interfered and manipulated by external information.
This may be a bit serious, but it's not alarmist.
In the past few decades, an important research topic of communication is the potential influence of the media on the audience. "Magic bullet", "agenda setting", "mimicry world", "gatekeeper effect"... Now to the opinion leaders, communication nodes and public opinion momentum in the era of social media and new media
Many of the ideas we "think" of ourselves are actually just instilled in us by others.
As an interdisciplinary subject of economics and psychology, behavioral economics has made achievements in recent decades, which is to find that people are irrational. We are extremely vulnerable to external species Influenced by kinds of clues and inherent thinking, make kinds of A kind of judgment with traces to follow.
Science fiction also has an eternal motif, that is, in the future society, people are fed by machines. We lose our perception of the outside world and our control of ourselves, and leave everything to machines and processes. In this comfort, we gradually paralyze and weaken.
……
Therefore, in many articles, you can see my concern about this phenomenon and my repeated calls for "taking me as the main and for my use" - we are our own masters only when our actions are completely out of "autonomy" and "subjectivity".
So what can we do in the face of this situation?
I want to share some thoughts with you.
1. keep apart
How to avoid being immersed? The most direct solution is to keep a distance.
Not only keep a distance from external things and situations, but also from your own heart. In other words, it is such a process: withdrawal, awareness, and control.
It is an effective toolbox that can help you improve your ability to perceive and intervene in the outside world.
Specifically: withdrawal: jump out of the situation and observe yourself from the perspective of a third-party bystander. Awareness: be aware of your own state, what you are doing, what response you have, and what kind of interaction you are having with the outside world. Control: consciously control your behavior, restrict your attention and interfere with your thinking.
You will find that they are actually part of "metacognition" - that is, the examination and control of cognition.
Start with these simple scenes and try to "keep a distance" from yourself and the outside world:
1) when you have any emotions, ask yourself: what emotions have I had? What happened to it? Is this reaction reasonable?
2) when you "naturally" come to a conclusion and make a reasoning, ask yourself: does this reasoning necessarily hold? Are there counterexamples and other possibilities?
3) when you hear or see a point of view, examine: is this point reliable? What is the source? To what extent can I believe it?
4) when you observe a certain phenomenon, you might as well step back and think: is there any deep reason behind it? Is there any factor that I may not see?
Try to turn this way of thinking into instinct and call it whenever you need it. It can effectively improve your ability to control your thinking.
But of course, it also has disadvantages - you may be like me, it is difficult to "immerse" and "invest" in a film, novel or game, and you have to sacrifice this fun.
2. Establish "boundary awareness"
The importance of boundaries has been mentioned earlier.
However, relying on external "boundaries" is unreliable and very weak. What we need to do is to always maintain such a "Boundary Consciousness" in the brain.
You can refer to these examples:
1) when performing any action, set yourself a period of time as the boundary. Let yourself always keep the initiative of time.
For example, if I want to check a term, I will set myself 15 minutes and stop immediately when the time comes to avoid my endless involvement in the "time black hole".
I suddenly have an inspiration, so I will set half an hour to spread my thoughts and brainstorm. When the time comes, stop and avoid spending too much time on it.
2) for the massive amount of information, tasks and events received every day... It is advisable to draw a boundary and ask yourself: are they valuable to my goal?
Try not to do low value, short-term things that others "want me to do". Similarly, don't stick to external information and knowledge - information that doesn't guide your behavior and help you get close to your goals is invalid.
3) when buying anything, ask yourself: do I really need it, or do others make me think I need it?
It's interesting to know that someone has proposed a way: ask yourself, if I get a sum of money equivalent to it and get the thing, which will make me happier? If it's the latter, buy it again.
This is a kind of "desire boundary", which can be referred to.
3. Appropriate "discomfort".
Taleb put forward an example in anti fragility:
Since the emergence of autopilot, the attention and skills of pilots have been gradually passivated. In case of accidents, the aircraft is often destroyed and people are killed. Therefore, even with autopilot, pilots still need to receive a certain intensity of training. This seems redundant, but it can help them deal with all kinds of accidents.
This is an "discomfort", but it is a "necessary redundancy".
Another example: I have a complete set of work processes and modes, but as long as a new productivity tool appears, I will try to use it and try to create a new process.
This is also a kind of redundancy and "discomfort", but it can make me always maintain my insight into the industry and "feel" about myself.
To stay sharp, try doing something "uncomfortable". It can help you keep improving.
Many readers told me that your article is too complicated. Sometimes it takes an hour to read an article and take notes. I feel overwhelmed
I can write the article more simply, which makes me relaxed, but in this way, I lose its own meaning.
I hope that this not very "comfortable" reading and thinking process can slowly exercise your thinking ability and help you chew and absorb information better.
Thinking is like a sharp sword. It needs to be sharpened often in order to maintain its edge.