Over the years I have met all kinds of people and as you would expect different kinds of people interact with their computers in a variety of different ways. I read the Media Equation (Reeves et al., 1996) with a smile on my face as I thought of some of these people.
I know them all, the ones who talk to their computer, sometimes actually pleading with it to work faster or magically perform some function it was never asked to do. I also know the ones who blame the computer for “messing up”, usually not allowing entry after receiving an incorrect user name or password. But my all time favorite is the one who gets mad because something is in a “stupid place”.
Humans tend to humanize things to help them understand. They often give animals and objects human traits and think nothing of it. It’s only natural that we have also done this with computers. As I put down the reading I reflected on the importance of what the authors had to say.
Humans have become media dependant and many often confuse what they see on the screen as real life. They take things literal and we have to help guard against that. I have spent hours assuring family members and friends that just because there is a flashing sign on the screen that says their computer has some kind of awful virus, that doesn’t mean that its really there.
We have a responsibility as educators to remember this when we teach. One of the important things to point out to our students is the “Media Equation”. In other words, to some perception is reality and media can give many people false, unsettling perceptions which they construe to be real.
Now this doesn’t always mean this is bad. We can use this to create simulation for teaching that can hold the learners attention and provide a safe, inexpensive way for people to learn expensive or dangerous things. But it is something to remember and work into our teaching.
Here is a nice review of the whole book http://www.ics.uci.edu/~jpd/publications/media-review.html and I also found a small PowerPoint http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~fishwick/ac/2009/MediaEquation.ppt
Let me know what you think.
Mike
Reeves, Byron, and Clifford Nass. 1996. The media equation, pp. 3-18. Cambridge University Press.
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I was fascinated by the book review. Here's the last paragraph--
ReplyDelete"In this vein, they conclude, "The research showed that people are more simple than we often imagine." This seems to me like an assumption behind their work rather than a conclusion from it, and it raises an interesting point. The authors and their students have worked with Microsoft and they refer in their preface to "the great pleasure of seeing some of our work included in their products". The primary example which they point to is "Bob"-- a system which most people seemed to regard as an insult to their intelligence. Somehow, I'm not surprised."
Did you notice the reviewer works for Apple?
The Media Equation can be worked into teaching. Even in asynchronous communication, we can use the written word to make the text take on human dimension. That is, give your text a bit of speech pattern. As an example: "I thought Nancy's comment on your blog posting was so-o-o insightful!" I really did. Especially when she noted that the reviewer works for Apple! But, is it an insult to your intelligence?
ReplyDeleteNancy,
ReplyDeleteYea, but do you remember "Bob?" It was horrific. I think it was the only time in the history of MS that they flat out admitted, "Yea, we screwed up."
I think the takeaway here is that developers don't need to TRY to anthropomorphize in their designs, but users will just naturally see media from a human perspective. If it walks like a human, and talks like a human, it must be human... like.