[Air-L] Literature wanted: what does it feel like to use a computer?

Jacquelyn Burkell jburkell at uwo.ca
Tue Sep 18 07:02:39 PDT 2007


Clifford Nass and his colleagues have done a great deal of work on how people relate to computers. While this work doesn't exactly address the question you pose, it does examine the nature of human-computer interactions. Bascially, their results show that under surprisingly varied conditions people treat computers as they treat other individuals, invoking and following the same social rules and norms. 

Jacquelyn Burkell

----- Original Message -----
From: elw at stderr.org
Date: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 9:46 am
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Literature wanted: what does it feel like to use a computer?
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org

> 
> 
> 
> I'd suggest that you start with Sherry Turkle's _The Second 
> Self_ - I'd 
> think that that book, with all of its discussion of how we 
> conceptualize 
> the computer as tool and otherwise, would be the eventual 
> lynchpin of 
> whatever argument you're constructing, or at least on abutting it...
> 
> --elijah
> 
> 
> On Tue, 18 Sep 2007, David Brake wrote:
> 
> > Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:36:44 +0100
> > From: David Brake <d.r.brake at lse.ac.uk>
> > Reply-To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> > To: AoIR mailing list <air-l-aoir.org at listserv.aoir.org>
> > Subject: [Air-L] Literature wanted: what does it feel like to 
> use a computer?
> > 
> > I presume there is literature out there taking a phenomenological
> > view of what using a computer feels like but I am not sure 
> where to
> > start looking. I hope to use it to buttress a hunch I have 
> about why
> > people seem to have trouble in managing public vs private space
> > online. My feeling is that its because typing stuff into a computer
> > just doesnt feel like you're addressing a large crowd at that moment
> > - it feels like you are talking to yourself (unless you are
> > addressing it to particular named other people who you can then
> > visualise). One can make a similar point about the long life 
> of blog
> > postings. They feel conversational, not like having something
> > published and indexed.
> >
> > Anyway given this example I hope you can see the kind of literature
> > which might help here. Any ideas? If not of texts directly 
> about the
> > experience of using a computer then perhaps just the best literature
> > to apply to approach the subject generally. Schutz?
> >
> > ---
> > David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London
> > School of Economics & Political Science
> > <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/
> > mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm>
> > Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/
> > (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog)
> > Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/
> > dealingwithemail/>
> > callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)
> >
> >
> >
> > Please access the attached hyperlink for an important 
> electronic communications disclaimer: 
> http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/secretariat/legal/disclaimer.htm> _______________________________________________
> > The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> > is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers 
> http://aoir.org> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: 
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
> >
> > Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> > http://www.aoir.org/
> >
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: 
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
> 
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers: 
> http://www.aoir.org/
> 

Dr. Jacquelyn Burkell, Associate Professor
Faculty of Information and Media Studies
The University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario

Phone: 519-661-2111 ext 88506
Fax: 519-661-3506




More information about the Air-L mailing list