They Finally Found Out We Like Our Computers 184
I'm Not There (1956) writes "Sociologist Clifford Nass is talking about how people think of their computers as something like human beings. In one of his experiments, Nass found that people are more willing to 'help' computers when the computer helped them previously: 'When people were then asked to help optimize the screen resolution on a computer where the program had been "helpful," they were much more likely to do so than with the less helpful version.' He also found that people evaluating software's performance were more forgiving if the evaluation was done on the same computer the software was tested on. Nass has recently published the book The Man Who Lied to His Laptop, in which he 'uses our interactions with machines to investigate how human relationships could be improved.'"
Sounds right to me (Score:2, Interesting)
Some people must be SICK! (Score:2, Interesting)
So if people think of their computers as people why do they not care about their computers getting viruses? Some people are ignorant, some are lazy and don't care that their computer/friend has a virus. Some think that it is not their problem! There is clearly a type of person in our society who receive minimal respect for the work they do - in fact they are treated worse than animals!
People who go around giving STDs to people knowingly are prosecuted - why not people who do the same with computers?
Why would you care about your pet or your friend getting sick and not your computer?
As you can see, I respect my follow peoples. (Even if I don't like them... damn Windows people).
Re:Of course we like our computers (Score:3, Interesting)
Be careful with those warm, fuzzy computer moments. The oxytocin [wikipedia.org] that triggers may make you trust [scientificamerican.com] them too much. Think of it as a new sort of user vulnerability.
Re:Not me. (Score:3, Interesting)
I work in a school and from many years ago I remember the best (imho) moments.
1. In a classroom with computers, 1 mouse broke, I nailed it to the wall at the head of the room to show the other mice what I would do to them if they also broke down, for the last 3 years in that classroom no mice broke.
2. One of the administrative staff was having a problem with her computer, she called me and I came downstairs.
She showed me what she did and sure enough, the machine gave an error message.
Me: Ok, do you treat the computer nice enough?
Her (confused): What do you mean???!?
Me: Oh, just the little things, an encouraging word, a caress on its case, you know.
Her (angry): I never heard of such a thing, that thing is a machine, it doesn't have feelings!!
Me: Oh no? Let me show you (as I slowly caress its case), there there, she is not such a bad person, you can trust her, won't you work for her like you work for me hmmmm??
After that, I repeated the same actions in the software as she did 100%, but I did not get the error message.
She was REALLY confused, but saw that my method of working with computers worked better than hers and I cannot count the times I walk into an office and the problem disappears.
So you see, sometimes the stick, sometimes the carrot.
Re:A proposition (Score:3, Interesting)
And this is the mistake most men make. Once men figure out what they like, they see no reason to change.
I'm not sure if that's a mistake..
Women like mystery.
I understand, things like impulsiveness, surprises, and The Unknown are attractive. I enjoy setting things up like this for people who appreciate it, although I don't really like the convention that it's essentially the man's job to come up with everything. Maybe I've just dated the wrong women, but it seems like there are significantly more things expected of men than women. Even right down to the first meeting, traditionally it's the man's responsibility to approach the woman. It seems like the burden is always on the guy to find something new and exciting for the two to do. I just surprised my ex-girlfriend and current friend with a $5k custom guitar for her master's music degree graduation. She's a great girl, but I would have loved it if any one of my girlfriends had ever put in an effort to do something like that for me. Not even financially, just something fun and unexpected. I appreciate the draw, I just dislike how it's a man's responsibility to initiate everything. I understand there are women out there not like that, who actually are willing to give back everything they get, but it's pretty disheartening when every single one I've dated has shared at least that one trait.