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People Relate Personally To Their Computers
from the anthropomorphic-tales dept
It appears that people tend to believe the computers they use have human characteristics, which often makes them much more loyal to a particular computer. The study focused on students using machines in a computer lab, and saw that certain students always wanted to use the same machines - even if others were free. The researchers are suggesting that computer makers start to take this into account in their advertising, and focus more on the human-like characteristics to entice buyers to buy their particular machine.
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Human Nature
IMHO, I will tend to try to use a specific computer repeatedly ( like when I was in college ) if ONLY for the simple fact that I knew that terminal to be fairly reliable, defragged & not loaded up with PSP software and a bunch of spyware. I really don't believe people are experiencing " human characteristics " from the terminals as much as likening it to people choosing to sit @ the same lunch table or cubicle each day ... we know what to expect, and it is how a majority of people tend to react when given the choice of something they know or another option.
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No Subject Given
While I do think it is true that people like to imagine human attributes on computers, the study doesn't for me really show so as much as it does show "the love for consistency". And that's a usability thing. Some computers may have different configurations, while other people may just like sitting in the same place irregardless of the computer. And many people are no doubt used to computers being slower and more crash-prone in the past due possible hardware flakiness, so they stick with something they know works. The study doesn't seem to say whether all machines had the same configuration and whether it saved any possible customization. It would be far more telling if they did that and also tried switching the location of computers to see if it's more the location than the computer.
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What?!
People sit at the same computer only because they know it works, not becuase they are "emotionaly connected to it" or "they believe it has human characteristics"
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Testing the theory
Of course, an easy variable to test would be to switch some of the computers around. I know that there were certain lab computers I liked to work on b/c of where it was located and not b/c of what the computer was like. Pretty much everything was the same except there were Mac labs and PC labs. I liked to sit next to hot coeds or in the back so I could eat in the lab.
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It is true that comptuer is replacing human
To support my subject that it is true computers are replacing human friends or time, take a visit at cafe or homes individuals spend hours on the yahoo messenger chatting with friends then visiting their friends in the neigborhood.even is you go to their homes they do not pay attention to you as a guest but encourage you to come and see what on the computer or talk less to you and chat more.Computer has made our parent to lost their jobs and poverty is their food.computer is not good.
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