This week’s reading:

The Perfected Self – David H. Freedman, The Atlantic, June 2012

My reaction:

As we become more digitally social, the opportunities for receiving rewards of encouragement from the environment are everywhere. The caveat here is that you must share your experience with others. We are notoriously terrible at self reporting. This is where technology like embedded sensors are helpful. But it takes courage to involve your community in your goals and your process. I’m sure the author’s brother had to get over that at some point to publicly post his weight every morning. At the same time, it makes you take responsibility for your behavior, the good and the bad. In return, the encouraging tweets from his group was a pretty big factor in helping him reach his goals. It’s one thing to get the data from our bodies and behavior and expose it to ourselves, and it’s another thing to share that data with your environment.

Skinner’s theory says that “all organisms tend to do what the world around them rewards them for doing.” It could be interesting to explore other forms of rewards. What about rewards from the system itself? Apps like Foursquare use badges and titles as rewards from checking in. My CardioTrainer app gives me medals. But I’m pretty sure these aren’t as effective as rewards and encouragement from a system of people. It made me wonder if I shared my personal workout data, which I am somewhat motivated by on its own, but not really, how it might or might not change my behavior.