The People Inside My Head

To think that people are "inside" my head knowing what I want and need, before I do, just scares me. These days personal privacy is a concern with everyone wanting to know everything about you. With the advent of digital mediums such as Facebook, it is hard to hide anywhere, let alone keep your thoughts to yourself (hence why we created blogs...to keep our thoughts to ourselves right?). However, now we have to be cognizant of scientists and marketers trying to get a look at our thoughts. What we once thought of the last frontier of our privacy, our own brains, is now being invaded by companies looking for information.

As the New York Times called it in a recent article, "mind mining," companies are starting to hook people up to electronic devices that measure brain activity. The result being, that when you see something that you like in an advertisement, your brain will show increased activity and thus marketers will know what products to present to you. I find this interesting because it is essentially mapping your thoughts, or "mining" for information, to gather which brands and items you like. This is only the first step to what could be a major leap in the direction of intelligent target marketing. In the future, ads will recognize us through iris scans or facial recognition (see: future marketing way too personal) and therefore, customize marketing to specific needs.

This could be potential good or bad...On the pro side, commercials and ads will be targeted to what we would like to view. However, contrary to this advantage, our minds will be accessed by other parties. For some, including myself, that is scary. It doesn't concern me that they will know what products I like or need, but I figure if they can find out that information, what else can they discover and reveal? I have reason to believe, and I am not alone when I say, that some of my thoughts are not to be publicized...ever.

Whatever the case, being good or bad, I leave you with this last thought. If marketers have a crystal ball to the thoughts inside your head, who else has that information and how will they use it? In the meantime while you ponder over the people that might be inside your head, let the following video educated you a little further. Enjoy.





Article Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/business/14stream.html?_r=1
YouTube Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUzo7fhRpFY&feature=player_embedded#!