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Can we hijack this loop to create or reinforce good habits instead of selling ad space? Can we use the skinner box to dole out intangible rewards for activities

Can we hijack this loop to create or reinforce good habits instead of selling ad space? Can we use the skinner box to dole out intangible rewards for activities with real, long-term benefits like exercising and eating better? This looks like an obvious opportunity to me, so what work is being done in this area?

0xcde4c3db 9y ago
I think that was pretty close to the basic premise behind a lot of public broadcasting 30+ years ago (the bits I've seen lately strike me as more commercialized, but I'm not sure whether that's a change in the shows or in my perspective). There's a lot of contention underneath that topic, but the fundamentals of shows like Sesame Street or Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are much closer to what you describe than to modern television and gaming material.
prostoalex 9y ago
A bunch of companies are using this primarily for learning via spaced repetition. I use Memrise and Drops for foreign languages. The problem is training your brain to capture and monopolize that brief moment of boredom and inactivity.
floatrock 9y ago
For all its downsides and astroturfing, reddit actually does some pretty good things in that regard. Some of the best posts on there are when people go out of their way to be, you know, human towards other humans. There are subreddits out there dedicated towards exercising and eating better... the orange you-got-a-new-response seratonin-bump envelop icon appears when people give social acknowledgements towards someone's exercise progress or meal prep. It most definitely gets co-opted... karma whoring, reposting, marketing campaigns posing as that goodwill to the kid in the children's hospital with cancer amateur picture... but that's exactly what this article is about: the forces of maximizing shareholder value find what works and wiggle their way in. The resistant subreddits appear to be the ones that look at it as a human problem, not something needing a technical fix. That is, they create community rules around what is acceptable content and what isn't welcome, they encourage the content that furthers the subreddit's mission, they moderate away content that seems to break the rules, etc. Some communities are even organized around recognizing these things (eg r/hailcorporate) Again, all of that can be (and does get!) co-opted for evil, but there are methods that can make groups in social media more resistant. Problem is at the end of the day, those things don't pay the bills. Ultimately you need to find a way to align profits with good habits. Until we find that, go hit the donate link on the Guardian article. And I think Wikipedia was doing a fundraising campaign recently too. If you're not paying for it, you're the product.
TACIXAT 9y ago
I've been trying to figure out how to implement this for myself. Increase friction to tasks that do not provide long term reward (e.g. video games, social media) and decrease friction to tasks that work toward goals I'll be stoked to have achieved 2 years from now. What I haven't figured out yet is how to do a reward system. I need random jackpot noises to play each time I get something done.

0xcde4c3db 9y ago

I think that was pretty close to the basic premise behind a lot of public broadcasting 30+ years ago (the bits I've seen lately strike me as more commercialized, but I'm not sure whether that's a change in the shows or in my perspective). There's a lot of contention underneath that topic, but the fundamentals of shows like Sesame Street or Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are much closer to what you describe than to modern television and gaming material.

prostoalex 9y ago

A bunch of companies are using this primarily for learning via spaced repetition. I use Memrise and Drops for foreign languages. The problem is training your brain to capture and monopolize that brief moment of boredom and inactivity.

floatrock 9y ago

For all its downsides and astroturfing, reddit actually does some pretty good things in that regard. Some of the best posts on there are when people go out of their way to be, you know, human towards other humans. There are subreddits out there dedicated towards exercising and eating better... the orange you-got-a-new-response seratonin-bump envelop icon appears when people give social acknowledgements towards someone's exercise progress or meal prep. It most definitely gets co-opted... karma whoring, reposting, marketing campaigns posing as that goodwill to the kid in the children's hospital with cancer amateur picture... but that's exactly what this article is about: the forces of maximizing shareholder value find what works and wiggle their way in. The resistant subreddits appear to be the ones that look at it as a human problem, not something needing a technical fix. That is, they create community rules around what is acceptable content and what isn't welcome, they encourage the content that furthers the subreddit's mission, they moderate away content that seems to break the rules, etc. Some communities are even organized around recognizing these things (eg r/hailcorporate) Again, all of that can be (and does get!) co-opted for evil, but there are methods that can make groups in social media more resistant. Problem is at the end of the day, those things don't pay the bills. Ultimately you need to find a way to align profits with good habits. Until we find that, go hit the donate link on the Guardian article. And I think Wikipedia was doing a fundraising campaign recently too. If you're not paying for it, you're the product.

TACIXAT 9y ago

I've been trying to figure out how to implement this for myself. Increase friction to tasks that do not provide long term reward (e.g. video games, social media) and decrease friction to tasks that work toward goals I'll be stoked to have achieved 2 years from now. What I haven't figured out yet is how to do a reward system. I need random jackpot noises to play each time I get something done.