Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The Pavlovian Response to Social Media

My wife, a practicing clinical psychologist, made an interesting observation this morning, comparing me to a pigeon.
"You talk with your wife, and it's not very pleasant. You text your kids and get no response. You even call the kids and still, they don't answer. And yet, you Twitter about the last time you blew your nose and get 10 responses and 4 'likes.'


Which behavior will be reinforced? Which behavior will increase in frequency? Everyone is receiving a stream of virtual pellets all day to help them cope with the exigencies of ordinary life. It's a sobering image.


But human beings aren't pigeons, right? Human beings are capable of higher order functioning, provided they are conscious, awake, and aware - and not if their just pecking through the day trying to get some comfort for themselves."
Now, wonder why I haven't been blogging as much lately? 

I guess I'm trying to reach a higher order of consciousness..

* sigh *

-Wes

2 comments:

Named Just Bob said...

Too funny. And too true.

Anonymous said...

Well Wes, you can tell her that I've made some observations of clinical psychologists who were my patients. They can be sneaky because they pick up some behaviors from their patients and try them out on others. They think they have "game" when they do this, heh.

You just need to look her in the eye and firmly say, "Look Timothy Leary..."

Should go over really smooth...
-SCRN :D