In class, we’ve talked a number of times about the issues with interventions or theories that fail to focus on behavior change through a values-drive approach (though we’ve also spoken about the difficulty of this). While it may be easy to dismiss approaches using technology as either fleeting or bad for the environment, it is important to think about how technology can be utilized differently in environmental behavior change. The question for me then becomes: how do we best mesh values-drive approaches to behavior change with popular technology.
Some may argue that our increased use of technology shows that we are changing in fundamental ways and that our societal values are shifting as a result. I would argue that in many ways, new technology makes it easier for us to incorporate our values into increasingly varied aspects of our lives. In the US, our society values efficiency and timeliness, and technology can certainly assist us to access those more easily. As a society, however, we also value togetherness and connectedness. The social media apps that have been most successful (such as Facebook) leverage this fundamental value in a way that easily incorporates new technology. Social media apps that have not been as successful (Secret) failed to connect people in the same way because they allowed users to interact with one another anonymously (Katz, 2017).
New technologies and app development have not been limited to the social media sphere. Behavior tracking or behavior change apps are abound in the health and medical fields, and are even finding their way into schools. The National Association of School Psychologists acknowledge the importance of technology in many aspects of our lives and give recommendations to teachers in how to best utilize apps in behavior change and classroom management approaches in their classrooms. The apps selected for review involved behavioral reinforcement and feedback for the users, which we have also spoken about in class as being important for behavior change interventions (Fefer, Brown, Rossi and Kuehnel, 2015).
In the same way that successful technologies, such as social media apps, are able to harness long-standing and important American values (like connectedness), and that behavior change apps in the classroom utilize behavioral feedback and reinforcement, we should think about how to incorporate those strategies for behavior that is beneficial for the environment. Is there room for a social media app involving feedback and reinforcements to encourage environmental friendly behavior? Or is the use of such technology mutually exclusive with long-lasting and effective environmental behaviors?
References:
Katz, Miranda. Backchannel. March 10, 2017 https://backchannel.com/these-failed-apps-discovered-a-hidden-rule-of-the-web-391471ca5952#.vq2976vs2.
Fefer, Sarah, Brown, Kayla, Rossi, Catherine, & Kuehnel, Carolyn. “Apps for Behavior Management: A Review.” Communique. Volume 44 Issue 1. September 2015. https://www.nasponline.org/publications/periodicals/communique/issues/volume-44-issue-1/apps-for-behavior-management-a-review
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