Internet-based persuasion techniques and mechanisms

Internet-Based Persuasion

The feature of the web site that I found most persuasive was the Smoke-o-Scope. I knew most of the information in the Tobacco IQ Test. Moreover, I actually found the way that the Tobacco IQ Test was presented to be very reminiscent of the insulting communication that the site was accusing tobacco companies of using with their potential customers. However, I liked that the Smoke-O-Scope asked about people's personal interests and living conditions and tailored the information available on it to the individual's life. It made me realize that smoking was not really a personal decision, which, even though I am a non-smoker who is very sensitive to cigarette smoke, I had been raised to believe in the myth of the polite smoker. When I was confronted with some of the facts on the website, I actually had an epiphany.

The web site compares very favorably with more traditional methods of persuasion. The website is interactive, which draws users in and encourages them to spend more time exploring the information found in the website. The media form allows information tailored to a specific user, which means that the user gets the right information in as short a time as possible. However, there is a significant problem with any internet media; it is not as easy to capture a passive audience with the internet. Websites can advertise, but the user still has to choose to visit the site. This differs from a billboard or television advertisement, which his more likely to capture a passive user's attention. Of course, those forms of media are simply too limited to provide the type of in-depth information as the website. Therefore, one must conclude that there are strengths and weaknesses to each form of persuasion.

Whether the web site is more persuasive when it comes to preventing nonsmokers from smoking or getting smokers to kick the habit is difficult to answer. Cigarettes are often described as the most addictive of all drugs; persuading a smoker to want to quit smoking does not equate to ending an addiction. Therefore, because it is much easier to prevent a person from smoking than it is to get a smoker to stop smoking, I must say that the website is almost certainly more successful at prevention, but that opinion is not based on the website itself. I do not believe there is anything the website could do to persuade people out of an addiction; the best it could hope for is to persuade people to begin fighting an addiction.

The web site really did not impact me personally, but it was not due to a design flaw in the web site. I am a non-smoker who does not have any plans to ever become a smoker. I grew up in a smoking household and am sensitive to cigarette smoke, so I spent much of my childhood with smoking-related illness. A website that tries to prevent people from smoking does not have to be very persuasive for me to listen to its message.