Look around any public space today ? an airport gate, a coffee shop, even on a bus or train ? and you?ll see human behavior that not very long ago would have been unthinkable: most of the people around us are peering intently at small, hand-held screens. Every so often they type on their devices; often using just two thumbs that, especially in the case of teenagers, move at warp speed. And, of course, when they leave those public spaces to enter their work places, the first thing most of them do is switch their attention to bigger, computer screens.
The amount of attention we give to screens big and small is unprecedented in human history. It?s changing the way we interact with family, friends, colleagues and even strangers. It is also creating new, very powerful tools for persuasion.
My interest in new technology, and particularly its persuasive power, is the reason I am so intrigued by the work being done by BJ Fogg, PhD and his team at the Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab. Dr. Fogg and his associates are asking ? and answering ? some of the big questions that reside at the intersection of technology and human behavior. The results of their research are fascinating not only to those of us with an interest in improving human health, but to any individual or organization with a desire to influence people to take specific actions.
As a doctoral student at Stanford in the early 90s, Dr. Fogg used methods from experimental psychology to demonstrate that computers can change people?s thoughts and behaviors in predictable ways. He coined the term ?captology,? an acronym for ?computers as persuasive technologies,? to describe the discipline.
Attribution: Meet the Media Guru
In 2007, he created a Facebook-focused course at Stanford. In just ten weeks, his students created apps that engaged more than 16 million people (and helped some students cover their tuition). The course was so spectacularly successful that the New York Times covered it.
Dr. Fogg?s work has garnered him an impressive following. In addition to being an academician, he is an author and an industry consultant. He was named by Fortune magazine as one its ?Ten gurus you should know,? his corporate clients include Nike and Procter & Gamble, he has close to 13,000 Twitter followers (@bjfogg) and his lab has (of course!) a popular Facebook page.
One reviewer of Dr. Fogg?s book, Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do, summed up its central thesis this way: ?Computers can adapt the message, its frequency and many other variables based on the response of the user. Television and print can?t do that. This ability gives computers great power to persuade, closer in some ways to a human adapting a speech based on crowd response.?
Dr. Fogg and his colleagues are now looking at how mobile computing, specifically texting, can be used to improve human health. The reason for such an intense focus on texting is its ubiquity as ?the only viable interactive channel for reaching people on a mass scale around the world,? according to the Stanford experts.
In the interview below, Dr. Fogg discusses a variety of topics related to captology. Ever wonder what a ?hot trigger? is? You?ll find out from Dr. Fogg himself in this video.
?
2012 nfl draft order rashard mendenhall rachel zoe penn state football mt rainier national park rose parade mount rainier national park
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.