It’s back-to-school season for USask students. Vendors are showing up and showing out with free items. How is this affecting the student body here on campus?

With all of the buzz around campus in September comes vendors of all sorts lining The Bowl and the Arts Tunnel. These vendors and clubs in booths may offer friendly conversations or warm smiles, but that does not counteract the temptation of free things. As students, we are asked repeatedly if we want free items such as swag, snacks or even stickers. Generally, we are trying to save money for school or daily living so receiving something we want or need for free is enticing. But is it really free if we are exchanging our emails or phone numbers to their mailing list in order to get a bag of popcorn? 

Winning, earning, or receiving things sets off dopamine receptors which give us satisfaction or enjoyment. These receptors are targeted during the busiest and arguably the hardest week of our student lives. We’re trying to figure out schedules, running from class to class, meeting so many new people, and dealing with other mentally draining tasks. Having booths set up to offer free stuff repeatedly conditions us to adopt a toxic learned behaviour. We learn that we can get something in exchange for something else which, in this case we get free items in exchange for our email or our time spent listening to them talk about their company. 

Some vendors will even give you more valuable items if you sign up for their service. Students are more likely to sign up for something if the chance of reward is higher. The term ‘classical conditioning’ refers to learning through association. It was first studied with animals, mainly dogs. The theory was determined to be something experienced by dogs and was then tested on humans where it was observed again.  In this case, we are learning to associate signing up for something with receiving free items, which will ultimately make us more likely to sign up for things. This reinforces that behaviour. 

While signing up for numerous services, we end up registering for ones we do not want whether we realize it or not. This could either benefit or negatively impact us in the future. Students with cell phone plans are providing their email to other providers to be added to their mailing lists, students who already have credit cards are giving their phone numbers to other banks, and students with no interest are joining clubs.

It could also be argued that this is a form of ‘operant conditioning’ instead, which is rewarding or punishing based on the behaviour. In this case, it would be rewarding to receive free things after we sign up for something. Getting positive reinforcement would teach students that signing up for things is good. We then associate signing up for things with getting free items. 

Regardless of which type it may be, it is still conditioning and is therefore a learned association between two things. These two elements are signing up and free items. Operant and classical conditioning are both very interesting and useful tools in modern media, advertising, and entertainment. Looking into why this works and why we find it enticing will help us grow, and we may finally be able to choose whether we truly want something or not. 

From dropping a puck to spinning a prize wheel, we are falling for a trick. The more students sign up for a service, the more popular the vendor will become, making it likely they will return next term. The cycle will repeat itself, and more and more students will continue to fall into the problem of flooded emails. While this problem might seem minuscule, spam and unfiltered ads in our spaces can easily overwhelm us or hide the important things. 

Cluttered workspaces lead to disorganization and distraction, both of which are students’ biggest enemies. Overcoming this is harder than just avoiding mass mailing lists, it may even be more time-consuming to clear out clutter and return to our baseline. When we sign up to their mailing lists, we are often sent these multiple times a week, so it is not always as simple as deleting a few. Returning to our baseline is not so easy when we feel we owe a group something such as reading their emails or boosting their popularity.

Although the ideas I present seem inherently negative, receiving free items can be exciting and fun. However, there is value in questioning this marketing tactic. Learning to ask and search for answers is something that makes us more well-informed and knowledgeable. The more we understand, the better we are at managing our lives, spaces, ideas, and studies. Perhaps after some time spent mindfully avoiding these traps, you may realize that it is not all that exciting. 

You may notice you were just interested in the word “free” — but perhaps you will still enjoy the free swag around campus during Welcome Week. It is up to you to agree or disagree with this theory. Neither opinions are correct, but neither are wrong either. Free things will never cease to be exciting, but they may actually come with some sort of mental cost. 

The question is, are you willing to pay that price?