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Using Technology To Enforce Good Behavior

Posted by Soulskill on from the hey-it-works-for-dogs dept.

Ismellpoop writes "With the new year upon us and resolutions being made to change unwanted behavior, many tools are now available to help people stay in line, such as a GPS-enabled app that locks down texting once a car gets rolling and a program that cuts off credit-card spending. Another device monitors your workout and offers real-time voice feedback. Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can't manage our own desires?"

15 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. How is this any different than my alarm clock? by h4rr4r · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How is this any different than my alarm clock?

    Is it my mother because it wakes me?

    1. Re:How is this any different than my alarm clock? by click2005 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why not just fit everyone with a V-chip. If they have impure/illegal/un-patriotic/ thoughts they get a shock.

      --
      I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.
    2. Re:How is this any different than my alarm clock? by fearlezz · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It is your mother if the manufacturer programmed it to go off every day at 7.00, even if you don't have school/work.

      Your alarm clock goes off because YOU instructed it to. Not because someone else is enforcing their habits and/or rules on you.

      --
      .sig: No such file or directory
    3. Re:How is this any different than my alarm clock? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The difference is the purpose. When I am sleeping I don't know what time it is, the alarm clock is there to notify me when I should wake up. In the case of these programs, the person knows they should or shouldn't be doing something. If a person is driving down the freeway they know they shouldn't be texting on a cell phone. The only reason they would download this program is if they lack the will power to not send text messages.

      It would be the same as buying an alarm clock without a snooze button because you aren't be responsible/mature enough to get out of bed when your alarm goes off.

  2. The blurb misses something in the proposition. by Seumas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can't manage our own desires?

    If you're the one setting up these utilities for yourself, then you are managing your own desires.

    1. Re:The blurb misses something in the proposition. by Seumas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, if you're utilizing an application to determine your diet and you eat accordingly, you're choosing to make use of tools likely developed by those who have spent their life specializing in something (nutrition, dietary needs, etc) that you likely have not and therefore have accepted the benefit of their expertise through the piece of software. The same way I use a piece of software to help me file my taxes every year, because I am a software engineer and not an economist or tax advisor or a CPA.

      Of course, being forced into some big brother situation is evil and abhorrent. Having the choice to use something or not or to stop using it is hardly a significant concern.

      You could argue that I have no assurance that such a program would be developed by anyone who has a clue what they're doing, but that's the reason I use things like Turbo Tax and not "Bob's Tax Stuff".

  3. Flamebait summary by mcgrew · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can't manage our own desires?"

    Poppycock. These technologies aren't for government, aren't for ME keeping YOU from texting; they're tools for helping you help yourself.

    Here's one not covered in TFA -- your alarm clock. Don't have the discipline to go to bed early enough to get to work on time? Set this handy little gadget and it will wake you up in the morning, just like your mom used to do.

    --
    Free Martian Whores!
  4. We can and do manage our behavior, but... by eepok · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We can and do manage our behavior, but we also like to have some sort of silver-bullet placebo. It's the only way some people can convince themselves that there will be results for some exertion of effort.

    It's particularly bad, though, when we make major purchases under the pretense that we will guilt ourselves into conforming to a regiment or else risk wasting a significant investment. Bikes, gym memberships, new running shoes, etc -- these are all things that most people buy as a means to shift a desire from second level (I want to want to...) to first level (I want to...).

    In the end, people just stop using those crutches (for the most part) and recede to prior, bad habits.

  5. Cel phone jammers! by snarfies · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I own two cel phone jammers. I have been trapped in too many inescapable situations (bus, train, lines, etc) with somebody having a loud and/or annoying conversation near me that even my headphones cannot drown out. I jam their cel phone signal and shut them the hell up. And I feel good about it, too. I'm like a secret superhero to everyone else within earshot.

    I use a P20B jammer, which seems to jam most ATT, T-Mobile, and Verizon phones. It isn't 100% effective - Cricket and MetroPCS seem to to completely immune, not sure about Sprint/Nextel, and Alltel doesn't exist in my area. I recommend it for just about everybody.* If anyone knows of a jammer that ALSO works on those other carriers, I'd love to know about it.

    * May not be legal in your jurisdiction.

    1. Re:Cel phone jammers! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I hate assholes like you. Wile you can feel smug because you shutup the one annoying person, how do you feel about the woman further down trying to connect with her kid, or the doctor trying to manage prescriptions, or the 10 quiet business people just trying to check their email. You fucked up their connections as well. Congratulations, you made the problem even worse by inconveniencing even more people than the original offensive individual.

      There's a reason why jammers are illegal, and they are everywhere in the US because they violate FCC regulations.

    2. Re:Cel phone jammers! by tophermeyer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      how do you feel about the woman further down trying to connect with her kid, or the doctor trying to manage prescriptions, or the 10 quiet business people just trying to check their email. You fucked up their connections as well.

      Not to mention anyone else not on the train but still in range of the signal. Running one of those things on a bus or subway is like setting up a big mobile bubble of "fuck you" for everyone in the city.

      As gratifying as it might be to dickishly and anonymously kill their signal, the grown up thing to do would be to simply ask the person to pipe down. If the GP is so socially backwards that he can't even manage that, I humbly suggest that he does not belong on public transportation.

    3. Re:Cel phone jammers! by Nyder · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I own two cel phone jammers. I have been trapped in too many inescapable situations (bus, train, lines, etc) with somebody having a loud and/or annoying conversation near me that even my headphones cannot drown out. I jam their cel phone signal and shut them the hell up. And I feel good about it, too. I'm like a secret superhero to everyone else within earshot.

      I use a P20B jammer, which seems to jam most ATT, T-Mobile, and Verizon phones. It isn't 100% effective - Cricket and MetroPCS seem to to completely immune, not sure about Sprint/Nextel, and Alltel doesn't exist in my area. I recommend it for just about everybody.* If anyone knows of a jammer that ALSO works on those other carriers, I'd love to know about it.

      * May not be legal in your jurisdiction.

      I have to say, your pretty rude.

      I own a mp3 player. I use it to drown out conversations, peeps on cell phones, teenagers who think that the whole bus cares about the convo they are having with the kid sitting next to them, so on. I don't step on anyone's rights listening to my mp3 player, I don't keep people from making or receiving calls.

      While I understand the usefulness of a cell phone jammer, I can't see using it because you find peeps on cell phone's annoying. Grow a backbone, learn to ignore, or get a mp3 player.

      Ya, i'll get off your lawn, you probably about to let an emp loose anyways.

      --
      Be seeing you...
  6. The cookie, will it crumble? by Professr3 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Does ending a news post with a provocative yet insubstantial question guarantee its success? Do all recent Slashdot stories seem to end this way? Find out, right after the break.

  7. Nannystate? by kimvette · · Score: 1, Insightful

    such as a GPS-enabled app that locks down texting once a car gets rolling

    Thanks, but I would like to be able to text while riding as a passenger, and even if I am the driver I still want to see SMS traffic updates. I chose not to text of my own free will prior to the nannystate laws which solve nothing, and still won't text while driving. Go pull someone over for failure to yield, running a stop light, failure to come to a stop at a stop sign, or failure to maintain control of their vehicle and leave my phone the fuck alone.

    Thanks.

    and a program that cuts off credit-card spending.

    I will decide when I have spent enough, thankyouverymuch. I spend a lot but I also pay my bills on time. I don't need you to tell me I can't buy one more blu-ray disc this month, or I can't order more camera gear, etc,. - if AmEx agrees I can handle the financial transactions I choose to engage in, who the fuck are you to decide otherwise?

    Personal responsibility, folks. That's all I ask for.

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  8. Software police? by Shaiku · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So far I haven't had any iPhone apps kick my door in at 4am, shoot my dog, drag me around the house half-naked while pointing guns in my face, make sexual remarks about my startled wife, stand on my chest so I can't breathe even though I'm not resisting, and then drop some coke when they fail to find anything and then admit to having entered the wrong house 10 years later after I'm financially ruined from lawsuits and losing my job.

    So no, we haven't entered a time when apps and gadgets are taking the place of cops.