{"id":19838,"date":"2014-09-21T17:55:15","date_gmt":"2014-09-21T15:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/?p=19838"},"modified":"2014-09-21T17:55:15","modified_gmt":"2014-09-21T15:55:15","slug":"can-technology-change-the-real-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/can-technology-change-the-real-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Technology Change the Real You?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Vivian Giang writes:\u00a0 If you want to lose weigh or free yourself of a Facebook habit, there<\/header>\n
s an app for it. But it probably won’t break a habit.\u00a0 Many technology companies are teaming up with psychologists to figure out how to make apps more effective.<\/header>\n
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.Rewards are key to long-lasting behavior changes.<\/strong> What we\u2019ve learned in the last 10 to 15 years is that there\u2019s an automatic behavior and then there\u2019s a reward after, which is really important because that\u2019s how our brains latch on to behaviors.To change a behavior, you need to receive an even greater reward than the one you get with the old habit. For example, when you exercise and you give yourself a reward like a piece of chocolate, that behavior, after some time, becomes automatic. But if your schedule changes and exercise makes you late, then the reward of not exercising (not being late) becomes greater than the reward of exercising. They’re not changing you. They\u2019re training you to do something differently, so once you\u2019ve trained yourself, you can stop using the app.<\/q><\/p>\n

If technology can provide the rewards needed to change your behavior, what happens to your behavior after you stop using the app or program?<\/p>\n

There are three kinds of behavior changes:<\/strong><\/p>\n