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Internet Addiction and Ethics from the lens of a Software Engineer

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What Neither the WHO nor the APA has officially classified the use of the internet and services on the internet as an addiction. But, excessive use of the internet can now be accepted as an addiction for several reasons Excessive internet usage follows the patterns of other behavioral addictions like cigarettes and gambling. Neuroimaging studies have shown that users with internet addiction have the same areas in their brains active as those with recognized behavioral and substance addictions ( link ) Another issue with the word internet addiction is that, despite our use of it to refer to a single type of addiction, it appears to contain numerous distinct addictions. The internet is merely a platform for other activities and services. It's important to keep in mind the different services that can cause an addiction Games Social Media Gambling Shopping Pornography I will mostly try to highlight the addictions related to Social Media, Shopping in this blog and maybe even touch base ...
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Cognitive Biases in E-Commerce from the lens of a Software Engineer

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What Psychology is a very effective technique that could be leveraged when selling online. We all believe that we are making rational decisions when making online purchases. But, this is not the case. There are a number of factors that come into play when we decide to buy something online. Most of these factors are called cognitive biases. When people receive and interpret information from their environment, they frequently make systemic errors in thought that have an impact on their decisions and judgments. This is called a Cognitive Bias that companies leverage to drive up their sales and their bottom line. Some of the most common Cognitive Biases in online shopping are - Social Proof It is the idea that we all tend to follow the crowd. Hence it is critical for online stores to show how much everyone loves their products. This is why e-commerce websites rely on testimonials, reviews, and ratings. Another type of social proof is social shares. The more people who share a prod...
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Aggression and operant conditioning in Video Games from the lens of a Gamer

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WHAT To give a little background, I have been playing video games for about 25 years since one had to type in P-R-I-N-C-E in the command line to start up the original Prince of Persia. Since then, video games have fascinated me and I have spent countless hours playing all types of video games. I have owned almost all the generations of the Sony Playstation and played almost all the first-party titles. I would categorize myself as an Achiever and Explorer gamer type as I try to milk every part of the game for what it's worth and try to get all trophies and achievements. I rarely if not ever play video games online except for an occasional Call of Duty Warzone or Pubg game. With that aside, I have noticed several patterns of aggression/frustration within myself that I will highlight here. But before that, we will see a paradigm shift in how online games are played now and how operant conditioning (OC) has changed in video games. OC was something new that picked up and researched and ...
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Correlation of Psychology with Software Engineering (UI/UX)— Personas

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  As Software Engineers, we often build digital solutions for our end-users. In the last 5 years, I have created 3 production-level web applications. NimbleBuy : A portal for users to buy groceries. Diaspora : A portal for immigrants to get acclimated to a new place they move to. ( mobile app ) Banter : A portal for students to connect, converse, exchange ideas, trade books, and other items. It can easily be inferred that the target users for each of those 3 applications are entirely different. Our job isn’t just to churn out code for the bottom line. In my opinion, building digital solutions go beyond the realm of computer science and into the realm of psychology. When I work on any project that involves some type of UI that a user sees, I spend a big chunk of time doing the following - Picking a color palette (Good Color Theory) Picking a UI design pattern/philosophy (To Minimize Cognitive Load) Prototyping the user interface (Visual Harmony) Getting feedback (To increase empathy...
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Social Engineering in Psychology through the lens of a Software Guy

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Social Engineering WHAT This is a very interesting topic covered in this week's seminar and pertains to the social aspect of hacking i.e - hacking humans. From an Information Security standpoint, social engineering is a danger to privacy since it involves psychologically manipulating individuals into completing actions or disclosing personal information. Social engineering is a con used to obtain information. Social engineers are essentially con men that use some of these techniques to con people [1]-  Authority - People are exploited for their respect or fear of authority Reward - People are misled to divulge sensitive information as a means to get some reward like prize money etc. Moral Compass - People are led to act out of a sense of moral duty. Guilt - People are imbued with a false sense of empathy and manipulated to give away information. Desire to Please - People naturally want to help others and a social engineer can leverage this.  Coming into this seminar, I knew ...
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