Showing posts with label behaviour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label behaviour. Show all posts

Friday, November 21, 2025

上癮:現代人的無聲戰場

AI Copilot-generated image 


講到「上癮」,好多人第一時間就諗到毒品、酒、賭錢。腦海即刻出現嗰啲人生失控、家破人亡嘅畫面。但係,「上癮」真係只得呢啲咁簡單咩?

其實,上癮最核心嘅意思,就係你個腦被某樣嘢「捉住」咗——明知有害,都停唔到手。個腦好似被重新編程咁,日日夜夜都諗住嗰樣嘢。多巴胺一衝上嚟,意志力就即刻冇晒。

例如:
一日唔食煙就坐立不安嘅人;
食飯都要五分鐘睇一次電話嘅朋友;
又或者你自己——可唔可以試下一星期唔飲晨早嗰杯「咖啡」?
如果停一停就覺得心煩、唔舒服、唔自在,咁其實都係一種上癮。


上癮背後嘅黑暗力量

講真,呢度先係最可怕。

如果一間公司可以令你「上癮」,佢就控制到你。
你會不停返嚟買、明知有害都照做,因為你個腦已經被制衡。

煙草公司早就精於此道。
佢哋喺支煙入面加化學物,令你「一試上癮」,仲將吸煙包裝成型格、自由、成熟。其實背後只係一個目的:要你做佢哋終生顧客。

快餐店同樣策略。
糖、鹽、脂肪——完美比例,刺激腦部如同煙花爆發。
你知唔健康,但照樣想食。
呢啲全部都係設計出嚟嘅。

遊戲公司更加誇張,請心理學家設計獎勵系統:
每日登入、有獎;
完成任務、有獎;
連續幾日登記、又有獎。
一步一步將你變做「行為上癮」。

你唔係意志薄弱。
只係你面對緊一班專門研究「點樣破解你個腦」嘅專家。


歷史證明:上癮可以毀國

清朝嘅衰敗,有一大部分係因為鴉片。
而最諷刺嘅係:鴉片唔係中國人自己造、自己賣,而係英國人為咗平衡貿易逆差,故意走私入華。

短短幾年,千千萬萬人沉迷,包括官員、軍人、勞工。
生產力暴跌,國力大受打擊。
當政府想禁,英國竟然為咗維護自己嘅毒品生意而開戰——鴉片戰爭。

結果大家都知:
中國被削弱、香港被割讓、一百年屈辱,由一樣「上癮品」開始。

呢段歷史唔係古仔。
而係一個 blueprint——上癮可以係武器,一種唔使開槍就能摧毀一個民族嘅力量。


現代戰場:小朋友與螢幕

睇下我哋今日嘅社會。

餐廳、地鐵、屋企——
細路面前永遠有部電話或平板。
兩歲小朋友一開 YouTube Kids 即刻安靜,好似魔法一樣。

但呢個「魔法」,換嚟係咩?

亮麗色彩、極速反應、無限內容、自動播放——
全部都係為上癮而設計。

你試下攞走部機,比咗佢一個鐘之後。
佢哋會喊、尖叫、發脾氣——
嗰種反應,活脫脫係「戒斷症狀」。

好多父母都會講:
「算啦,畀佢玩吓啦,起碼佢唔嘈。」

但係,冇規限的話,呢班細路被編程咗。
佢哋嘅腦被重新連線,習慣即時滿足、快速刺激、零等待。

長遠會變成:
注意力下降、社交能力弱、冇耐性、冇專注力。
而最恐怖嘅係——
佢哋長大後會變成「完美消費者」:
需要不斷刺激、唔停滑手機、極易被推銷、極易被控制。


「徐氏陰謀論」:真係咁巧合?

你以為呢啲全部係意外?巧合?

如果有人想控制一個社會,
最好方法係令所有人沉迷佢嘅產品。

邊個最受惠?
科技公司——「使用時間」係佢哋股價。
廣告商——俘虜咗你嘅眼球。
政府——沉迷嘅人唔會反抗,唔會提問。

一個沉迷螢幕嘅人口好控制:
追蹤容易(每一下點擊都被記錄)
操控容易(演算法決定你見咩)
分散容易(整個 viral trend 就搞掂)
銷售容易(數據已知你最想要咩)
管理容易(人人沉迷,邊有時間關心社會?)

唔怪得中國限制細路每星期只可以打幾個鐘遊戲;
唔怪得 Steve Jobs 自己小朋友唔畀用 iPad——
但佢公司賣咗幾億部畀全世界。

佢哋知乜嘢對小朋友嘅腦有咩影響。
佢哋知得太清楚。


上癮嘅秘密:可以毁滅,也可以成就

好多時,上癮唔一定係壞事。
用得好,可以變成你成功嘅武器。

有人上癮睇書,成屋都係書,日日夜夜都唔捨得放低。結果點?
知識豐富、思想深刻、視野更廣。
比爾・蓋茨一年睇五十幾本書。
係咪一種「正向上癮」?
可能係,但佢就變成全球最有智慧嘅人之一。

有人上癮跑步——日日清晨六點無論落雨落雪都出去跑。
啲朋友話佢癲,但佢身體健康、心態堅強、壽命更長。

運動員訓練到身體崩潰,都係因為佢哋「上癮」於進步。
Michael Jordan 因為「上癮」練波,先成為 GOAT。

正向上癮,用同一套腦部機制,但方向相反——
唔係摧毀自己,而係建立自己。

上癮本身係中立嘅。
係一把火——可以暖屋,亦可以燒毀一切。

真正問題係:
邊個掌控緊嗰把火?

你係咪用上癮來成就自己?
定係比人利用你嘅上癮去控制你?


當你畀部平板畀個小朋友,

究竟係你控制緊佢,
定係演算法控制緊你?**

歷史已經講咗畀我哋聽,上癮可以毀滅一個王朝。
今日,呢個相同嘅力量,以另一種形式再度出現。
你嘅小朋友會唔會係下一個被餵「數碼鴉片」嘅清朝?

可能我講錯。
可能你覺得只係娛樂、一種時代變化。
但當你仔女為咗部電話喊到好似失去咗咩咁痛苦——
你不妨問下自己:

到底佢哋上癮嘅係乜?
又係邊個最終得益?

你又覺得點?


Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Chicken Woes and Customer Blues: A KFC Saga of Ignorance

I want to share an enlightening and somewhat hilarious experience I had at KFC during what should have been a simple lunch escapade. Brace yourselves for a tale of fried chicken, communication mishaps, and the perplexing disappearance of customer service values.

Picture this: A customer, armed with an insatiable hunger for some finger-lickin' goodness, goes into KFC. The ordering process at the kiosk? Flawless. The crowd? Non-existent. Everything's smooth sailing until I uttered those fateful words: "Just the chicken breast, please."

To my amazement, my polite request for a breast-only ensemble was met with stone-faced silence from the dynamic duo behind the counter. Maybe chicken breasts are the unicorns of KFC, I pondered. But no, it seems I was dealing with the Houdinis of the fried chicken world, as they magically vanished into a realm of mutual indifference and fried chicken fascination.

Not knowing if they hear me, again, I attempt to pierce through their chicken-centric trance, I graciously increase my vocal amplitude. The response? "Not enough chicken breast," declared from afar, without turning around to look at me.

The Social Conundrum:

Well, before you think this is just another fast-food complaint, let's reflect on a more profound issue. It's not merely about the elusive chicken breast but the state of our society. Are we witnessing a decline in communication skills, a surge in self-centeredness, and a general disregard for others' basic expectations?

The perpetrators in this case were not ancient relics but spry individuals in their 20s. In an era of advanced technology and kiosk-driven orders, their responsibility seemed to vanish faster than a bucket of original recipe. Was it a lack of critical thinking, sheer indifference, or a disdain for the art of customer interaction? The plot thickens.

These incidents beg the question: Are they aware they represent a global brand? Customers don't owe them a chicken dance; they're there to fuel the fast-food economy. Ignorance may be bliss, but in this context, it's downright scary.

What's Next?

So, what do we do about this? Is it a symptom of a larger societal ill? How do we reignite the flames of communication, consideration, and common sense? I leave you with these questions, pondering the state of our chicken-loving, communication-challenged world.

In the grand scheme of things, my quest for a simple chicken breast unveiled a deeper truth. Let's hope the next time I visit KFC, the staff has found their voices and, perhaps, my beloved chicken breast. Until then, stay crispy, my friends.

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Getty Images Personality Quiz - Personality Test Using Images

Many organisation use personality tests to assess the attribute of candidates as part of the interview process. Some use the test as self-assessment or reflection. Others may use the test to find a match. Whatever is the purpose, personality is something that worth to find out. There are many personality test out there which requires a person to answers various lengthy questions, which the process can be quite boring.

As such, I find that Visual DNA offers a free personality test that can be quite interesting - integrating Getty Images (visual) to run the test.

Try it out:
https://www.visualdna.com/quizzes/ 


Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Gen-Y Mindset: What a 'Waste'

Teaching the Gen-Y allows me to observe their behavior and understand how they think. I personally find that it is important to study their attitude towards assignments or work. This could explain why many companies have been questioning about the quality of work from Gen-Y.
I gave an assignment to my students this semester where they have to form a group of 5 and identify a company of their choice for examining the marketing strategies. After a week, they came back to me with a company they have chosen.

Everything looks fine but not until I asked them how many companies they have selected as alternatives before they make their decision to choose one of it. The answer given by almost all the groups.... one. Basically, they don't have any alternatives but decided on a company that they know and thought it is the only company that is the best for the assignment.

So, what is the reason and why don't they look for more alternatives before making a choice? I want to know why. The answer I got from them are:

"We thought this company we "know" is the best.
No time.
We want to focus on one company"

From their feedback, I learned that they do not like choices when it comes to a task or assignments. They find that it is a waste of their time and effort if the companies that they investigated were not chosen. Meaning to say that if given a choice, the students do not see it as an advantage but more work is needed to identify the alternatives. They are lack inquiry skills and do not see the benefits of the exploratory approach in the learning process.

In life, we need to make a lot of decisions to solve our everyday problems; and we always have many choices/alternatives to solve a problem. While we explore alternatives, we learn and improve our skills in making a decision. Nothing is a waste if we keep exploring the alternatives/choices; even if it is not the best choice for solving the current problem it can be used for the future.

Learning is a process. If one only focuses on the goals and ignores the process of achieving the goals, then it is really "WASTED"!

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Education Fair 2013 in Malaysia

Every time when I go to the education fair, I find something is different. I guess I am witnessing the evolution of education industry in Malaysia. 

Most private institutions dominates the main halls in the education fair, with unique constructions of a large area which consist of many booths (12-16 open booths size). Also, there are actually many private higher education providers in Malaysia and growing larger. So far, I don't see any public university there (even if they are there, they will only take very few booths with minimum spending on the booth design). It shows that the private institutions are still more desperate for students than the public. Well, this has always been the norm, just that the private institutions are becoming more competitive and aggressive in sales and marketing.

Secondly, more students involvement in the marketing efforts by various institutions. They call them the 'student helper'. Their task is to give out flyers, goodies and to collect database by stopping everyone to fill up the enquiry form. Some institutions are like those Telcos (in blue, red, yellow t-shirts), assigning there student helper to try to grab anyone who passes by their booths to fill up the form (just like Telcos promoters-signing up a data plan or buying prepaid SIM). I just wonder if this is how education fair suppose to be - "selling" or it should be a place for counselling and to find out about courses available.
In this education fair, there are also some European universities participating under the European Union education booths. Their counsellors are all standing near to their booths welcoming the potential students to approach them to ask about their courses. It is not so much on collecting database as they are mainly here to create the awareness, provide informations and encourage the candidate to apply for their programmes if they are interested; not on "selling".

To some extent, I find that the approach used by many institutions now is more like trying to sell the visitors a product, just like in PC Fair (for ICT) or Matta Fair (for Travel and Tours). It is scary because the institutions are supposed to promote their courses by creating awareness, help the candidates to choose the right course, provide information on financial aid and to cultivate learning and development in younger generations.

What say you?

Friday, November 15, 2013

Cultural Diversity

While I was having dinner at Madam Kwan restaurant in Pavilion shopping mall, I saw a couple came in and seated next to my table. Immediately, the guy took off his shoe and put his leg on the chair while going through the menu. People around, including the staffs were shocked.
Minutes later, when their orders came, the girl also did the same thing; took off her slippers and put her leg on the chair too. While she was eating, she starts to shake her legs (sorry, I didn't take any photo because my Lumia cannot take it). I guess she was enjoying the food while satisfying her self-actualisation needs.

At this point of time, you may be wondering where do they come from. Very obvious, they are not Malaysian. Surprisingly, this couple is from Korea. I do have Korean friends and taught some Korean students before but I don't think anyone of them will sit and shake legs like this couple. Dealing with international culture and diversity are always challenging. There are a lot for us to understand and to study in order for us to deal with the international stakeholders in business.

For some, this behaviour might be acceptable; but for others, they may get offended. I can 'simply say' that we all should respect and adapt to the local culture or practices wherever we go. Even when someone tells you to make yourself like home, that doesn't mean you can do anything you like. Having some sense of respect and courtesy to learn the local customs may helps to create an esprit de corps environment.

No offence to this couple, but it is something good for all of us to ponder on.