PROCESSING-BEHAVIOR
How does digital technology effect our behavior in processing information. When we process information we filter data through our senses, transpose and file the data into pre-created categories, and immediately begin to develop associations in order to gain perspective. Many of us allow this sequence to occur autonomously without any cognitive intervention. This is possible because over time we develop habits of categorizing information. Our minds recognize these habitual patterns and create rules to automatically filter information in similar future situations. This process is necessary for developing reactionary instinct; does this mean our routine interaction with digital technology is effecting our human instinct?
There is a growing trend in digital technology and software design for programs to become more “intuitive”. Software interfaces are becoming more transparent and users are more easily able to navigate and operate digital programs. But, how does this effect how we process information and how we develop instinctive behavior? We are designing digital technology to take more responsibility for creating and exercising those behaviors for us. That is to say, we are designing digital technology to recognize our habitual patterns for us. For example: many media and advertisement agencies use this concept to track and target online behavior. They [ad agencies] use this information in order to direct more specific advertisements to the online user. This can potentially stunt an individual’s ability to exercise their cognitive intervention with a diverse range of event and occasion types. Another example is our use of digital “reminders” and alarms which potentially lessen our ability to develop routine behaviors and habits on our own; under our own will power.
If we’re beginning to share more responsibility with digital technology (to exercise our behavioral patterns and develop our human instinct), how does that effect our expectations of technology itself; how do those expectations begin to manifest themselves spatially? How will this change the way we anticipate; or have we already begun delegating the responsibility of “anticipation” to digital technology? Do we trust our digital technologies more than we trust ourselves?