Taylor Definitions Chapter 3 – Want/Should Conflict

Katherine Milkman’s “want/should conflict” explains the multilayered push-pull relationship of the user’s desire of immediacy and desire for quality content with the user’s willingness to compromise quality (the “should” self) for immediacy (the “want” self). The web is more than eager to play into this compromise and offer immediate content, pulling the user into a cyclical engagement of continued clicks on low quality websites and web products. The web’s competition for most timely posts to attain the most clicks means it prioritizes new posts over quality material. A news story time stamped five minutes ago that only summarizes an hour-old original post with more information will generate a higher ranked search result despite not having as much information. The web urges us to click on the most timely material, not the most substantial.

The overlaying layer of conflict is not between the user and what the web so readily offers, it is the user’s choices in web use and need to recognize that, as Taylor puts it, “we have… multiple selves and they want different things.” Though our choices on the web define a version of us through algorithms designed to offer us more based on past consumption, it cannot define us by knowing what we do not tell it. The internet will not offer us the opportunity to see past ourselves and engage in what Milkman calls the “should want.” We need to be aware of web use, how it uses us, and mindfully engage in thought out topics and activities rather than blindly consuming what the web offers.

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