If the technology you use everyday doesn’t offer you any resistance, it means you’re doing exactly what the creators of that technology want you to do.

There’s a little test you can use to find out if your behavior is being subtly controlled by technology and the people who create it.

It’s very simple and I’m sure it’s something many our usual readers are familiar with.

When you use social media or other technology, does it offer you any resistance?

For example, do social media media platforms shadow-ban or censor you? Are you constantly struggling with your phone or PC to try to maintain some level of privacy? But no matter what you do, does it always feel like a losing battle?

These are the things I’m referring to when I talk about resistance from your technology. You want to live, work, and communicate one way, but the technology offers you resistance, and tries to force you into a different direction, and even a different opinion.

If any of that sounds familiar, these are good signs for you as an individual. It means you haven’t succumbed to the hive-mind that has taken over much of the population.

However, if you don’t feel this resistance and instead, you feel all your technology and social media platforms allow you to work more easily and view the world better, then you are most likely being subtly manipulated to some degree, if not fully.

That’s not your fault if that’s the case, and I’m not here to shame you. These companies are very powerful, and they spend billions of dollars using the most talented people on Earth to make this technology as manipulative as possible. So you have nothing to be ashamed of.

But instead, be aware of what you are doing and how you interact with technology. Is your life and your well-being really improved by it? Is what you get out of these platforms equal to what they are getting from you?

Be honest and objective, and the answer just may surprise you.

Note: This article was originally published at The Culture Chronicles.