Life Simulator:
Modes of Control in Technology
My work Life Simulator aims to explore modes of control in technology, through the form of a questionnaire game. It aims to raise awareness about how consumer technology and social media companies exert certain amounts of control on our lives.
The four modes of control explored in Life Simulator are agreements, the illusion of choice, the pressure to conform and inconvenience.
The Agreement
Before using a product, users will always need to accept its terms and conditions. Often, users will blindly accept these terms, trusting that the companies will operate fairly. These agreements usually also request the user to give up certain rights. In Life Simulator, the player agrees to accept the presented choices and attributed scores without complaint, but tech companies would request the user to voluntarily provide data for advertising analytics. If users disagree with the terms, they will be prevented from using the product.
The Illusion of Choice
Each question in Life Simulator presents three choices while smartphone app stores contain a large catalogue of apps. Users will believe they have free will over the choices that they make. However, in both scenarios, the choices have been pre-approved to be displayed. Published apps require a review by the company that owns the app store before being listed. Any choice that a user makes will be within the company’s accepted range of behaviour, hence giving the user the illusion of choice.
The Pressure to Conform
After completing Life Simulator, a table is shown commenting on the different range of scores and their level of acceptability. The score attributed to each choice nudges the player towards the good choice for the fear of receiving a low score. A player with a high score is praised while a player with a low score is criticised. Similarly, social media companies can promote accounts and posts sharing about positive topics while banning those that share about controversial matters. As a result, the companies have set a standard of what content users should share on their platforms. Hence, users face pressure to conform to the rules so that they will remain on the platform.
The Inconvenience
The neutral choice is locked in every scenario presented in Life Simulator. It hints to the player that alternative options are available but are difficult to achieve. The option can be unlocked but will require additional effort. This parallels with the ability to install unofficial apps onto smartphones. Although many users are unaware of alternative app stores, they are in fact available but require certain technical knowledge to install unofficial apps. Thus, it might not be worth the effort for the average user to learn the additional technical knowledge to enable such a feature. Installing an unofficial app is too inconvenient and users are much more likely to the catalogue of pre-approved apps.
Unlocking the Neutral Choice
