Human-Computer Interactions

What does Turke mean when she suggests that the computer is an "evocative" or "marginal" object?

Objects that make us think about ourselves and understand identity

What is the computer meant to evoke as it enters social and psychological life?

Provoke emotional and contemplative responses

What are the two toys that the young children interact with?

Merlin (tic-tac-toe), speak and spell (toy that can talk)

For children, the computer is a marginal object at the boundaries of the…?

animate and inanimate, the physical and psychological

Turkle argues that different objects shape how children understand the world, T or F?

True

Computers are not just tool, they are objects that help children what?

Think about thinking, minds, and what it means to be human

When computers are evocative or marginal objects, they are machines, but also seem?

Human-like and intelligent, creates a blur

Through interacting with computers, children define?

What a mind or thought is, figuring out what makes humans different from machines

Why is it that they are seen as "child philosophers"?

They need to ask deep questions about the computer in order to understand humans

When kids used to learn from physical objects like rocks, nature, and animals, what differs?

Computers are a new object that reshapes how they think about life and mind

How do traditional objects help children develop a "physical understanding of life,"?

Visible and physical traits, often has movement or change

In contrast, computers push children to think in psychological terms, why is this?

Whether something can think, behave, and act with intention

Children are often disturbed or curious about computers, what's an example Turke gives?

A little girl who became upset and curious when her speak and spell was glitching

Because computers create confusion and discomfort, how do children respond?

Developing new theories about minds, intention, and psychology

When toys glitch or act in unexpected ways, how do kids feel or react?

Scared/unsettled, but curious and fascinated

Computers are lifelike, can respond and play, but?

clearly not alive, creates contradiction

How do the kids respond by building psychological theories?

They start thinking about intention, awareness, thought, and mind

What are the three development stages of the "cheating"?

Physicalist, behaviourist, and psychological

What is first stage of physicalist?

Cheating requires physical body and action, computers cannot cheat

What is second stage of behaviourist?

Computer behaviour seems "tricky", maybe it cheats "from inside"

What starts to happen in the second stage of behaviourist?

Children start to suspect computers can cheat

What is third stage of psychological?

Cheating becomes intention and self-awareness

What do children ask in the third stage of pscyhological?

Does the computer understand or know what it's doing?

Why does Turkle also characterize computers as "special"?

They can think, reason, and seem intelligent

They are "special" and that's new to Turkle, why?

Machines/computers are doing things we used to think only humans could do

So… what's "special" about humans according to children?

They say humans are different from emotion/feeling

Computers are just thinking and logic while humans can experience what as they think?

Feel and experience emotion

What is the "romantic reaction"?

Children value what is "most unlike" the computer

What does it mean to value "most unlike" the computer?

Because computers are logical, children value emotion/feeling/humanity

Why is Turkle concerned about this dangerous split between thinking vs feeling?

Oversimplifies humans, also think/reason, thinking is not cold/lifeless

Computers push children to define humans in opposition to machines, but?

Creates a too simple, "dichotomized" view of human nature

What does Turkle discuss about the internet and how it creates virtual spaces?

People can experiment with identity, relationships, and selfhood

Examples of these virtual communities?

What is the rise of virtual communities newly seen as?

New social worlds, not just rools

Online, people can create avatars, be anonymous, choose their identity, so what happens to identity?

Becomes something you can experiment with

In Second Life, "you can be whoever you want", interact freely without real-world constraints, what does this mean?

Gives a sense of freedom and control over identity

What is this "Therapeutic function" that Turkle argues?

Virtual spaces can help people explore themselves safely

Examples of the therapeutic function

try new identities, explore relationships, work through fears

Some people feel their online self is more "real" than their real-life self, what does this challenge?

What a real identity is, a fixed/flexible identity, life online as less real

What does Boellstorff build onto Turkle's argument about virtual worlds?

They are not "fake" but real social spaces that reshape identity, relationships, what it means to be human

Online spaces are not taken seriously as real social worlds, T or F?

False

What is "cybersociality" and why is it meaningful?

The difference between real/virtual life, but the gap is not a problem, creates meaning

What is "virtual selfhood"?

People actively creates themselves online

Identity becomes something you build intentionally

through avatars, choices, and interaction

What does he mean by the quote "It is in being virtual that we are human"?

Human are always imagining and creating with identity, virtual just makes this more visible

Relationships change in virtual spaces, how?

People connect through text only, information private

What does the relationship change in virtual worlds result in?

Faster intimacy and "spiritual" connections

Broadly, why do virtual worlds matter so much socially?

Help marginalized people or with niche identities

Virtual worlds provide access to community that may not exist offline, T or F?

True

What is the study of online worlds called?

Digital ethnography

Who studied second life like an anthropologist and treated it like a real culture?

Boellstorff

Virtual worlds don't hide your real self but they can actually help?

Reveal and transform it, have freedom to define your own role

When Boellstorff says virtual worlds let people access a "true" or inner self, what does it mean?

Real life is shaped by constraints, but online they are removed

What is the paradox between online and real life? And even though avatars are "fake"?

They can reveal something more real about you, what you choose to be=who you feel you truly are

What does it mean when boundary becomes "permeable", what happens to the line between real and virtual self?

Becomes blurry, online life can influence real identity and how you see yourself

Why are virtual spaces especially important for gender, sexuality, and identity exploration?

Allows safe experimentation to convert into real-life change

The takeaway from virtual life if people may feel more confident, authentic, and closer to their "true self"?

Virtual life doesn't replace reality, it reshapes it

What is the shift in Turkle's argument?

She becomes critical of digital technologies

Why does Turkle become critical of technologies?

She argues they create shallow connection, psychological dependency, weakened relationships

Turkle's tone shifts from hopeful about freedom and empowering to what?

Concern about the effects of constant connectivity

How do "networked technologies" like phones, social media, and constant messaging, reshape life?

Affect identity, relationships, and development

More connection is better connection, T or F?

False

What does "growing up tethered" where young people are always connected/reachable mean?

Less independence, less separation

Turkle argues that constant connectivity disrupts psychic development, and specifically harms

solitude, privacy and self-reflection

What does she suggest by "alone together"?

People are physically together but emotionally disconnected

"Too connected but not connected enough"?

People are always online but lacking deep relationships

Why does Turkle say that identity becomes a performance for young people?

Too much curating and managing, instead of developing a stable inner self

What's the final concern makes about Turkle?

Reduced autonomy, dependency on validation

What does Turkle mean by the "Goldilocks Effect"?

People are too far, nor too close

What's the final concern argued by Turkle about technology?

Reduced autonomy, dependency on validation, narcissistic forms of relating

In psychoanalytic terms, what does Turkle mean by narcissism?

Fragile self that needs constant support, cannot handle real, complex relationships

What are people like if they're a narcissist according to Turkle?

Simplify and control relationships and only take what they need emotionally

The narcissistic avoids vulnerability and complexity, and prefers

safe, controlled interactions and "made-to-measure representations" of others

Technologies always have specific "affordances" and "constraints"

courage certain uses and actions and discourage others

What do technologies often reflect in the ways they are designed?

The intentions and priorities of their makers, economic systems

Turkle argues that gambling addiction is not just about addicted or weak individuals

It is designed and produced through interaction with machines

Gambling machines are intentionally designed to make people addicted because?

The system is built to keep you played, engaged, spending money

What is this "relational understanding"? and of addiction?

Addiction happens in the relationship between human and technology

What happens in "The Zone" that she discusses about?

Gamblers are in state of continuous play detached from the environment (calm, dissociation, trance-like)

What's "affective self-management"?

People use gambling machines to escape stress, emotions, finance

She says it's "co-produced" and who does she argue is more at fault or responsible?

Created by both the human and machine, she argues the gambling industry is more responsible

How are machines engineered to optimize?

Speed you up, keep you longer, and make you spend more

How is the machine designed in a "player-centric design"?

Match the player's psychology in the tiny details like sounds, ergonomics, design

What are technologies of financial flow?

Systems that make it easier and faster to keep spending money

What are TITO Systems?

Ticket in, ticket out systems

Examples of technologies of financial flow?

Cashless systems, TITO, ATMs inside casinos, embedded machine systems

Technologies such as ATMs in the machines and ticket-in and out systems transform, what does it say about money?

Real money into play money

Why is "The Zone" harmful for gamblers or people that Turkle discusses about?

People disengage from emotions, stress, constraints of the real world