Can computers be used to motivate people?

David Allen asks whetheranyone has used web-based services to change their habits. The main trick here is to think beyond computers.

In Educational Games Don’t Have to Stink, Ernest Adams contrasted learning from computer, compared with learning from people.

I had had two courses, both ostensibly from the same man, and the contrast between the two modes of teaching could not have been greater. The former went in one ear and out the other, and I learned the material only for so long as it was necessary to solve the problem sets. The latter introduced me to ideas that I still think about today. It wasn’t just a question of the nature of the content, but how I learned it and what I could do with it.

And what was the secret sauce? Quoting Adams again:

There were only three people in the class, so we all just sat around a table and talked about the things that we had read. …. I felt as if I were back in ancient Athens, sitting under the tree with Socrates. It was scary and exhilarating, one of the best classes I ever took.

In Adams case, the in-the-person act of tutoring formed a credible emotional impression that was treasured while the computer-based instruction barely registered.

What about learning how to change one’s habits? Habits can’t be broken using a logical approach, since a person already knows that he’s got a problem. The question is whether an emotional linkage has been made between the desired result and the required behaviour?

Can a computer program elicit an emotional response? Apparently, this has been done in a computer game called PlanetFall, where a friendly robot died.

The model of a facilitator and peer-support groups are the tried and tested way to help people break their bad habits, be they smoking, drinking or they simply want to lose weight. As I watched “The Biggest Loser”¹ on television last night. One scene that touched me the most, was when the participants were tied together and went jogging. The people were having so much fun, and they helped motivate each other, and all of them worked hard because they didn’t want to let other team members down. Computers alone will never be able to provide this kind of emotional hook, although the web might be able to function as the digital rope that binds all the people together, so encourage them to work together.

To close, I would like to quote Adam Bosworth’s intriguing message:

The platform of this decade … is going to be around access to community, collaboration, and content.

If David wants to develop a tool to help people change their lives, it is going to have to revolve around fellow journeyers encouraging and coaxing one another to complete their tasks, and a leader who provides the necessary tools and provides guidance whenever someone hits a roadblock.

Bibliography

• Persuasive Technology - using computers to change what we think and do
• Richard Rouse, Can a computer game make you cry?

Notes

¹that’s a reality TV show I stumbled upon, where people were challenged to lose weight in a group, with the assistance of a trainer