With the evolution of technology and the internet in particular, there’s more information available for us, so it’s fair to say that we own our decisions and are certain about them, but is the internet really giving us the “freedom of choice” we think we have?
The truth is, we are restricted to the options technology gives us when making a decision.
For example, when people are on a website looking for a specific item to buy, their decision about what to purchase is conditioned by the options available on it and instead of looking for another, more suitable option, people tend to adapt their decision on what to buy to the items accessible to them.
The fact that technology is available to almost everyone in the world, causes what we like to call the “peer pressure” effect.
Nowadays people spend most of their time sharing what’s going on in their lifes on social media, and because humans are naturally social creatures, we feel the need to fit in, making social approval a “technologically-focused concept”.
If people see something trending on the internet, they’ll subconsciously feel the need to have it too, in order to belong to a certain group.
This fenomenon influences not only our decision making process but also our needs and the things we take interest in.
Another aspect that makes technology influence our decision making is “the inconvenient choice” that we are exposed to everytime we use the internet.
Imagine someone signed up for a subscription to a website or app. The process to enter the membership is quite simple, few personal information is needed and the steps are easy to follow. However if you want to give it up the process is usually much more complicated and requires more time to do.
As most people don’t have much time to spare, they end up giving up on the idea to unsubscribe, which ends up influencing their decision to leave the membership.
To sum up, yes, technology gives us a lot of options to choose from when making a decision but the free will we think we have is highly conditioned by the choices we are given.
Sources:
Mind & Technology 