I am on a little research kick concerning persuasive technology, which is (in Wikipedia) defined as “technology that is designed to change attitudes or behaviors of the users through persuasion and social influence”

Having been battered by television advertising throughout my youth, the idea is nothing new. But now that the delivery methods and levels of interaction with the media are changing, I feel like it is time to take a serious look at how machines are being used to change us.

Stanford has a lab dedicated to the the study of what they are calling “captology”, with a number of youtube vids to go along with.

Here’s one of the videos:

Alarm Clocking is nothing insidious, and indeed most current uses of persuasive technology may be nothing more than clever marketing spins on how to get return customers, but with so much of the developed world online, it seems worth being aware of the trends.