This notion that healthy adults need mental herding is very pervasive

Need is a strong word, but it is very true that the environment you put people in will influence their behavior. Grocery stores filled with attractively packaged highly processed foods will drive more highly processed food consumption than if you had to show proof of age ID and sign a disclosure before being allowed into the back room to buy those same foods in plain brown wrapper containers blazoned with all the health warnings that apply to them.

Handheld screen tech delivers dopamine release as powerful as most recreational drugs / experiences. People are definitely “herded” by how that tech is delivered, default settings that most of them never take the time to learn how to change, other settings that annoyingly constantly reset themselves to undesired PAY ATTENTION TO ME configurations, etc.

So, yeah, mindfulness of how your devices are shaping your behavior is a “higher level of awareness” that we as a society should be collectively trying to attain.