Pandering to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

One criticism of technology is that it panders to dysfunctional behavior, exacerbating or even creating problems. In particular, it's been suggested that technology feeds obsessive-compulsive disorder and may go so far as to create it in otherwise mentally sound individuals, or at the very least leads them to mimic the symptoms and suffer the consequences.

Perhaps that seems an exaggeration - but consider the mentality of a person who carries a small notebook. Every time he goes anywhere, he makes a note of his route and places a tick-mark on the page with each step that he takes. Every meal he eats is recorded in detail, how much of what things, where he was at the time, what his opinion of the taste and texture of each element. Every conversation he ever has, he writes down the names of people present, the time and place, and everything that was said, verbatim. Every waking moment of his life is cataloged, recorded, and quantified. He goes home at the end of the day and transcribes everything into ledgers, makes charts and graphs, writes a list of prescriptions and admonitions he will follow the next day.

Such a person would be considered unusual, borderline insane, and the very act of recording and ruminating over the minute details of his daily life is behavior that should likely be discouraged. He's not really harming anyone but himself, though likely annoying quite a few, and causing everyone who observes his activities, or to whom he describes his mad plans, wonder if he might be dangerous.

And yet, there's a mobile application for each of the behaviors described above, and more. Granted, the act of recording the details in a notebook is a serious intrusion and impediment into real life, and he could seem outwardly more well-adjusted if the task were facilitated by an electronic device. But it's not the act of recording that is most questionable, but the compulsive need to keep track, and his obsession with the data he collects.

The clinical definition of OCD indicates that behavior is to be considered problematic when people devote an inordinate amount of attention to unnecessary details and, by doing so, cause themselves grief and distress. We tolerate and even admire to some degree a person who is able to accomplish things by being meticulous and attentive to detail - but when they don't seem to be accomplishing anything, yet persist, the behavior is questionable.

Take for example "diet" products and programs that require participants to record their food intake in detail. How many people do you know who are on this program, who have been on this program for a period of years, and who have not accomplished much by it, except to give themselves a task of recording details at every meal, suffer woe and regret over the things they do not allow themselves to eat, and turn any conversation that has anything to do with food into a lecture about calories and "points," so frequently that people avoid mentioning the topic in their presence? I don't think anyone can convince me that this is sane and healthy behavior.

It's worse that this is further encouraged by the healthcare profession, whose consideration of statistics leads them to ignore the patient before them, and instead prescribe medication to treat numeric data when a person is clearly suffering from neither disability or discomfort. And the medication isn't taken to cure a problem, but becomes something the "patient" has to purchase and consume constantly, for the rest of his life.

The alleged point to this obsession over numbers is a desire to understand and ultimately improve the human condition. The numbers impart an arcane knowledge of things that cannot be seen with the naked eye, or might be seen but would normally be dismissed as unimportant unless they could be recorded and quantified (as if the act of recording and quantification imbues some significance onto the insignificant) - but even advocates of this are hard pressed to demonstrate that this obsession with data ever makes possible any real improvement in the vast majority of individuals who are encouraged to obsess.

Aside of my ranting about bizarre and disturbing cultural trends that make people tedious and boring, there lies the question of ethics. I have the strong sense that the future will regard our present obsession with numbers as the equivalent of the dark ages obsession with spirits and demons. Wouldn't "triglyceride" makes fine demon-name?

And isn't this obsession with numbers accompanied by just as much quackery, superstition, and downright stupidity as belief in mystic forces? And is it at all ethical to sell a gullible public various powders, potions, talismans, and other devices that don't even cure the conditions they probably don't even have, but are convinced are important because they are represented by mystic sigils we call "numbers"?

I have the sense this has turned into a rant for the opposite extreme, which was refreshingly purgative, but perhaps muddles the point: to measure what matters and gather data to make an informed decision is a sound practice that leads to a more informed decision and a better outcome. So in some instances, arguably many, it's entirely worthwhile: but when it becomes a pointless exercise - the data doesn't inform any decision, and positive outcomes are not achieved, and when then act of measurement becomes intrusive, it's clearly dysfunctional.