When I slow down and think about my motivations for the actions I take, I sometimes realize that I am responding to external stimuli, in other words, being manipulated into a response that suits someone else's purpose. Sometimes this is okay, especially when their purpose and mine are aligned. But we are often led to behave in ways that are contrary to our own best interest, and we're discouraged from noticing, considering, or examining what is happening. Some things can't be un-noticed.

Not long ago I noticed I was spending a lot of time looking at my smart phone. My first action to correct this was to purchase a feature phone with fewer capabilities as a way of curtailing the behavior. Only very recently did I realize that I had never truly considered modifying my own behavior, rather than modifying an aspect of my environment. Couldn't I just... not look at my smart phone as often? Why didn't I think of that course of action?

The problem with a society driven by ever-expanding communications technology is the inability to escape the message that to the majority of the world, each of us is simply a data point. It's one thing to know it and another to be bombarded with constant reminders of that fact.