Category: Uncategorized

Understanding how algorithms manipulate our behavior and what to do about it (play audio) On my recent birthday, only four of my 711 Facebook “friends” wrote on my wall. It was tempting to assume that people scrolling their news feeds saw it was my birthday and thought “Nah, not interested.” My rational brain, however, knew it wasn’t my friends who lacked basic decency, but the algorithms that ran their online social behavior. Being an occasional user of Facebook, the algorithm doesn’t freely grant me visibility to others — part-timers like me have to work for it. So I played ball and posted a photo of me enjoying my birthday. My motivations for doing this were mixed — part of me wanted to see how the algorithm would respond, but a bigger part of me irrationally feared I was being shunned and needed validation that this was not the case. Having

When personal development hinders our capacity for self-acceptance (play audio) For most of my life I have alternated between an admired version of myself, and a version I would rather disown. I was never sure which one I truly was. In times of accomplishment, I was exactly who I wanted to be, yet in times of stagnation, I wished I could be someone else. The cycles were always the same. They began with dissatisfaction with who I was and a rejection of the parts of myself I disliked. Then I invested my inner resources in personal development. As I moved closer to the admired self, I felt I had finally solved the problem of being me. But in the peak of self-admiration, a perceived flaw would abruptly come into conscious awareness, and the veil of false actualization would fall away. Once again I was who I did not want to

The evolution of time management in 5 stages and 3 epiphanies

How we can address the empathy deficit online

Why does social distancing feel so unsettling? The psychology behind personal space

Why you shouldn’t despair in these trying times