Are our choices really ours?

In today's world, the truth is defined by google. Suppose you want to know which movie is trending or which is the best place to go on vacation. You will simply take out your phone and ask google about it. In today's world, we trust technology even more than ourselves. From which clothes to wear to which car you should buy, you take the help of technology. Our choices don't come from the blue they are the result of biochemical processes which happen in the brain these choices are highly volatile and are shaped by our surroundings like our society, friends, schooling. A person living in a tribal area will be more concerned about how to make it through the day rather than the looming danger of global warming so the decisions he will take will be centred around it, he will vote for a political party that will promise him employment rather than a political party that will reduce carbon emission.

Even our career choices are largely influenced by our society. Every year millions of youngsters need to decide what to study at university. This is a very important and very difficult decision. You are under pressure from your parents, your friends and your teachers, who have different interests and opinions. Your judgment is clouded and manipulated by blockbuster movies, trashy novels, and advertising campaigns.

If we humans see a recurring pattern, we tend to generalize it. So if you use google maps for navigation and it has successfully helped you to reach your destinations a few times then you start to trust it and eventually you let google maps take your decisions regarding navigation. Similarly, if you searched on google for the best nearby ice cream shop and you find it good then the next time you will trust the google search engine and you will let it make choices for you.

So nowadays the best ice cream shop is not one that makes the tastiest ice cream but which ranks higher on the Google algorithms, hence in today’s world, companies pay more attention to making google algorithms happy rather than the customers.

Similarly, the art of advertisement is used by Businesses, Companies like Amazon, Netflix etc use big data to use the data of the customer in an understandable manner, for example, if your search for a wristwatch on amazon it will show you the lists of thousands of watches and when you click on a particular watch or click on a specific brand for watches the amazon can easily find out what exactly you are looking for and next time you open Amazon you will find most suitable recommendations of watches, it is all possible with the help of monitoring the data of costumers. In the case of Netflix, if you watch a series, Netflix will automatically show you the movies or series which are most relevant to the previous one. All these things consciously or subconsciously interfere with our choices.

Nowadays data is the most valuable resources but common people does not understand its importance. We tend to provide our personal details to avail a free pdf or to get the trial version of a paid app, in the same manner as the tribal people sold their lands to East India Company for a few colourful beads.

The companies in today's world are very much aware of various psychological baits than ever, so next time when you are about to make a decision whether which burger to eat or which car to buy, stop and think for a minute the choice you are going to make is that really yours or it is polluted or influenced by several factors around!!