Rat Rebellion

I found myself glued to Charles Duhigg’s story in the New York Times on How Companies Learn Your Secrets.  His expose on Andrew Pole’s work at Target kept opening new avenues of thought for me.  Psychologists and others have long studied rats running in mazes to understand how we think.  We’ve reached the point in history that all we do, is now naked to someone, somewhere.  It annoys me.  They know that too!

We all have our habits, bad or good.  We enjoy some things and hate others.  Personally, it seems all my stuff should be locked up inside my own world of privacy.  Deep inside my thought processes, hidden away until I invite only my closest associates to come inside.  Not so.  We seem to have run the maze so many times and by so many generations, that they now know us.  Who are the “theys” you ask?  An old phone man told me that he knew where they lived… he saw a mailbox with “the Theys” on it, on highway 11 in Reece City.  Mobile home on the right…  Nope, this is a different group of theys.

They are the watchers now.  Those people who watch and analyze you when you go into a store.  They pull data off your phone and can track you going down the aisle or the highway.  They know you were downtown last night and using three cell towers can triangulate your immediate latitude and longitude.  They pull data off your facebook page and can pick your favorite color from your twitter feed.  They have your contact list and based on the purchase you just made can tell what you’re having for dinner.  From Duhigg’s’ story, they can predict your due date when you’re only at the second trimester.

It’s kinda like training your dog, only we’re the ones being trained.  The science of behavior modification has evolved to the point that everybody’s doing it.  Department stores, grocery stores, churches, and the Government.  Companies even do it to their workers.  Toss me a treat for completing the maze.  Ring a bell and I’ll start salivating.  Reward me, and I’ll do it every time…  Are we really that easy?  Yep, we are.

They say a habit once formed is hard to break.  Most smokers can attest to that.  Habits can be very expensive.  The wrong ones can get you a divorce, drive your kids away, and make you homeless.  Really bad ones can kill you!

It shouldn’t be that easy.  I’m calling for a rat rebellion.  Let’s all do it.  Stop running the maze in such a predictable manner.  Last time you went North then West.  Tomorrow, go South then East.  That will really mess the “theys” up.  I’m kicking the habits and dumping the data.  They’ll never catch me.  I’ll walk backwards, stay upwind, and wear sunglasses.  I’m also saying away from the baby section at Target!