How Apps Influence Our Lives

Why Neuralink already exists

In October 2013, Snapchat launched Stories - an ephemeral narrative of snaps that users could post for their friends to view for 24 hours.

It sounded innocent enough at the time. However, due to this single feature, the app’s popularity exploded.

By merging the real world with the digital world so intimately such that something experienced could be seen through the lens of ‘let me post this as a story!’ users around the world installed the app onto their brains.

In other words, they started using Snapchat compulsively.

Fast forward a decade, and by now every major communications platform (Telegram, IG, FB, WhatsApp) has integrated the same story feature. What was once a feature for the kids, is now a normalised part of all the communication apps we use.

By linking the real world with an app in such an intimate manner via Stories, more worldwide usage is guaranteed. More attention is extracted by the populace which is then monetized.

Of course, the unfortunate outcome of this is greater global phone addiction. But more subtly, due to the way we now use smartphones, the values of society have shifted towards a greater desire for novelty, vanity and status.

Apps have become interlinked with us

If our phones and computers are extensions of our minds, then every app we regularly use has the potential to become installed into our brains.

If you regularly think about how something would look if you post it on Instagram, then the app is installed in your brain. If you regularly think about whether the person on the street is swipeable, then Tinder is installed in your brain. If you regularly think about a particular news topic e.g. Russel Brand then the news app is installed too.

The app/site is using your mental resources even when you're not using it. Which means it is influencing your behaviour and interactions on a subtle level.

This is a big deal - and something that doesn’t get enough attention.

Cognitive Installation

The single best way to determine whether an app is installed in your brain is to ask yourself: Can I live without the app for a few weeks without withdrawal symptoms?

If the answer is no, then the app is mentally installed. 

Neuralink is already here.

Should we just stop using these apps?

Removing our capacity to access information at ease and communicate with people around the world would be a step backwards. 

The best way to use these apps skilfully is to first recognise that their creators want us to use them as much as possible.

Is it any wonder then, that on the 13^th September 2023, Mark Zuckerberg introduced the world to WhatsApp Channels — a broadcast tool in WhatsApp designed to deliver updates from people and organisations to users.

Once again, it sounds innocent enough.

Now, you can follow any organisation or celebrity updates. Translation: they now have another way to extract more time and attention from you.

The antidote? Avoid the ‘extra-new features’ in social media/communication apps and recognise that they are disguised side apps — apps within apps. 

Mental Residue

When you use an app, the aftereffect of the usage lingers in the background of your mind, kind of like a movie that leaves a bunch of information to process. 

The single best way to minimise most of this residue and mitigate any possibility of installing an app in your brain - is to use it minimally within selected time windows of the day with the primary intent of communicating or creating (as opposed to consuming).

Naturally, any thought based behavioural modification loops, which are dependent on what you consume, will be mitigated. Your mind will become lighter and your ability to have creative independent insights will grow.

Summary

When people say social media apps have mechanisms that manipulate us, oftentimes they say that under the presumption that the manipulations only happen on the app/s. 

However, when we use these apps to the full extent their creators envision for us, they affect our minds and the way we live our lives. They can make us more promiscuous, desire-seeking, and identified with a particular point of view/s.

If we don’t use these apps with skilful balance, we become sculpted by them; as we slowly risk morphing into projectors of a digital world; instead of the independent sculptors of our lives.

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