According to the Wall Street Journal, the true future of consumer surveillance is taking shape inside the cellphones at a weather-stained apartment complex in Cambridge, Mass.

For almost two years, Alex Pentland at MIT has tracked 60 families living in campus quarters via sensors and software on their smartphones—recording their movements, relationships, moods, health, calling habits and spending. In this wealth of intimate detail, he is finding patterns of human behavior that could reveal how millions of people interact at home, work and play. » Read more: How Mobile Consumer Surveillance could shape future Marketing decisons

I was mildly interested when an associate at work recommended ‘Chief Cultural Officer’ by Grant McCraken. Expecting another endless stream of ruminations like Thomas Friedman’s mighty tim – The World is Flat, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Mr. McCraken is a writer who is both astute and concise in his delivery. His insightful observations are tethered to societal as well as corporate cultural changes which makes for relevant and topical reading. I was able to walk away with many takeaways which I’ll share later.

Today, I want to write about and expand on Mr. McCraken’s observations on Twitter. » Read more: Phatic Communication – Grant McCracken’s definition

The big visitor conversion question? Are your prospects doing what you want ‘em to do on your site? Are they ordering your product, opting into your brand via email or RSS or clicking on your links?

If not, you’re missing out on something very simple. It’s called a Call-To-Action. You have to get your visitors to act. Or even simply put, you ask them to act. You can’t assume that your customers will know why they should act, how they should, or when they should act. Having call-to-action elements in your site drives your visitors to do something.  » Read more: 4 Compelling Call-to-Action Tips

Digital media has penetrated our lives completely through electronic and digital devices. We listen to music digitally on our iPods, iPhones and iPads. We also watch video on these devices and communicate with our friends through email or social networks. Our new wi-fi ready blu-ray players along with broadband connections give us access to movies and videos instantaneously. The Apple set-top box can stream Netflix to our televisions promptly. It goes on and on.

There is a paradox however, to this technological advancement that saddens me. » Read more: How Technology has affected Quality & Fidelity in our lives

What do we call it when people form beliefs based on popular misconception and then convince themselves subconsciously that those beliefs are true? Psychologists would call that delusional behavior. Realists probably call it “human behavior in some form”.

I’m not surprised. As humans, we’ve been thinking without reason for centuries now. Think about the Salem Witch Trials, beliefs about certain products or organizations, frenzied riots or genocides around the world.

» Read more: Motivated Reasoning – Or Reasoning without Thinking