Pressures Shaping Experience
Technology is rapidly reshaping the conditions of human experience. Issues are interconnected, evolving and rarely act in isolation. This is a starting map of some of the most important individual and collective psychological pressures we face.
Issues primarily relating to how the mind processes information, maintains focus, and determines truth.
A1
Attention Capture
Attention & CognitionEngineered variable rewards and notification loops fragment focus and leave the nervous system chronically overstimulated.
A2
Fragmented Attention
Attention & CognitionFrequent switching, interruption and layered stimulation can train attention towards shorter cycles and make sustained concentration harder to maintain.
A3
Mental Fatigue
Attention & CognitionPersistent cognitive load and overstimulation can leave the mind tired, reactive and less able to process information with depth.
A4
Cognitive Outsourcing
Attention & CognitionWhen systems increasingly perform the thinking, remembering and formulation we once had to do ourselves, effort falls — but so can the capacities that effort helped develop.
A5
Synthetic Authority
Attention & CognitionFluent machine output can acquire the appearance of knowledge, confidence and judgement, encouraging trust in the form of an answer before its basis is examined.
A6
Reality Distortion
Attention & CognitionGenerated, selected or manipulated representations can make it harder to distinguish appearance from what is actually the case.
B1
Loss of Agency
Agency & WillRepeated delegation of judgement and action can weaken the capacity and confidence to choose and direct oneself.
B2
Loss of Motivation
Agency & WillAutomation and external optimisation can weaken intrinsic motivation, initiative and self-directed purpose.
B3
Passivity
Agency & WillConsumption, automation and delegation reduce active participation in decisions, effort, relationships and everyday life.
B4
Algorithmic Steering
Agency & WillPredictions, recommendations and defaults quietly alter the path through which choices are encountered.
B5
Synthetic Persuasion
Agency & WillAdaptive systems can generate persuasive language at scale and increasingly tailor it to the person receiving it.
C1
Identity Drift
Identity & SelfRepeated narratives, recommendations and feedback gradually shape the sense of who we are and what we should become.
C2
Digital Personas
Identity & SelfPeople construct and maintain mediated versions of themselves for social and digital environments.
C3
External Validation
Identity & SelfSelf-worth becomes increasingly dependent on reactions, metrics, visibility and recognition from outside the self.
C4
Disembodiment
Identity & SelfExperience becomes increasingly detached from bodily awareness, physical activity and direct sensory engagement.
D1
Synthetic Companionship
Relational & SocialArtificial systems begin to occupy roles associated with companionship, emotional support and social presence.
D2
Relational Displacement
Relational & SocialMediated or synthetic interaction replaces rather than supplements reciprocal human relationship.
D3
Relational Decline
Relational & SocialReduced practice of patience, vulnerability, reciprocity and repair can weaken the quality of human relationships.
E1
Loss of Meaning
Expression & MeaningReduced effort, contribution and participation can weaken the processes through which significance and purpose are formed.
E2
Loss of Authorship
Expression & MeaningThe connection between expression, effort, ownership and the person who creates is weakened or obscured.
E3
Substitution
Expression & MeaningGenerative systems perform creative work in place of the human practice through which skill and expression develop.
E4
Cultural Homogenisation
Expression & MeaningOptimised recommendation and generation push expression and culture towards more similar, predictable forms.
F1
Surveillance
Systems & PowerPersistent observation and data collection become normal conditions of participation in digital environments.
F2
Behavioural Profiling
Systems & PowerBehavioural data are used to build increasingly detailed models of preferences, vulnerabilities and likely responses.
F3
Automated Evaluation
Systems & PowerPeople are increasingly ranked, classified or judged through metrics and automated systems.
F4
Institutional Outsourcing
Systems & PowerInstitutions transfer human judgement, responsibility and decision-making to automated systems.
F5
Power Asymmetry
Systems & PowerInstitutions and platforms gain far greater capacity than individuals to observe, predict, classify and influence behaviour.