Was revisiting the Atomic Habits from my shelf, and came across this chapter where the author explains how building habits depend on the environment we need to setup and not the external motivation.
It made me curious of how actually taking control of ourselves feels nice. Perhaps, the "All things are under my control" mindset gives us a sort of a royal feel and .. when it goes a little overboard, that dictator in each of us, slowly peeks out from nowhere.
The last couple of years, smartphone softwares had started to roll out features to monitor the user's screen time , where users can control their own activities by restricting/allowing a downtime to apps that are taking too much time and energy of the user's day.
From a user's point of view, it is extremely helpful as this feature is a big leap in mobile usage as it gifts the user to have control of their day and their precious time.
As a user, the best part of all this is when I get a notification every Sunday morning, on how my phone/device activity has been. Did I use more this week? or just averaged the last week?
Now I know my usage! Isn't that just wow, right!? It is, it is.. Makes me feel in control.. . . But, but... Let’s keep the customer usability to one side, may be there’s another side to it! Why does the technology have to do this? Why does it notify "you're using more" when you're actually? Isn’t the restriction a loss for them?
Recollect the local grocery store which prints you a long scripture like bill containing aaaaalll your items and finally there is this hook line at the bottom in your bill stating:
"Congrats, you've saved Rs.94.52" which gives an instant joy of "Wow, I'm a saver, I'm in control of my expenses"
Have we saved really? May be, That's not the point here! It gives us a sense of "I'm under control". That's where the company wins big time. From an entrepreneur's POV, this move not only makes the user feel good but also making them feel 'in control' of their activities. Such an outstanding move. It's pure class!
Whenever a buyer sees that he/she has saved XYZ amounts of time/money/energy, it gives them a sense of happiness (sometimes pride)! This makes the buyer/user to get back to the same store again.
This ironically leads you to spend more (products or time), more than you’ve allocated.. just to feel "I know i'm in control, but i'm just going gift myself with some more today, just today"
And.. it keeps going. Both are happy. Customer feels in control. More selling for the business.
It all boils down to only one question, that we need to ask ourselves: “are we really in control of our activities?”
Answering this question in a classic Kamal Hassan’s tone would be:
Namma nammaloda control la illa nu sollala, Irundha nalla iruppom nu thaan solren!
Translation:
It isn’t that we can’t control ourselves, but it’d be good if we actually can!
