How we cope with digital technology

by Turner, Phil

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Title Statements

Full title :How we cope with digital technology / Phil Turner.

Summary

Digital technology has become a defining characteristic of modern life. Almost everyone uses it, we all rely on it, and many of us own a multitude of devices. What is more, we all expect to be able to use these technologies "straight out the box." This lecture discusses how we are able to do this without apparent problems. We are able to use digital technology because we have learned to cope with it. "To cope" is used in philosophy to mean "absorbed engagement," that is, we use our smart phones and tablet computers with little or no conscious effort. In human-computer interaction this kind of use is more often described as intuitive. While this, of course, is testament to improved design, our interest in this lecture is in the human side of these interactions. We cope with technology because we are familiar with it. We define familiarity as the readiness to engage with technology which arises from being repeatedly exposed to it--often from birth. This exposure involves the frequent use of it and seeing people all around us using it every day. Digital technology has become as common a feature of our everyday lives as the motor car, TV, credit card, cutlery, or a dozen other things which we also use without conscious deliberation. We will argue that we cope with digital technology in the same way as we do these other technologies by means of this everyday familiarity. But this is only half of the story. We also regularly support or scaffold our use of technology. These scaffolding activities are described as "epistemic actions" which we adopt to make it easier for us to accomplish our goals. With digital technology these epistemic actions include appropriating it to more closer meet our needs. In summary, coping is a situated, embodied, and distributed description of how we use digital technology.

Edition Statements

Publication Date:©2013.

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):Morgan & Claypool
Place of Publication:San Rafael, Calif
Language:eng
Publication Date:©2013.

The Physical Object

Description:xvii, 91 pages : : illustrated ; : 24 cm.

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:9781627051019, 1627051015
oclc:ocn863640950
LC Classification:QA76.9.H85

1. Introduction -- 1.1 Digital natives -- 1.2 Unruly, complex technology -- 1.3 Monday, Monday -- 1.4 The habitual nature of everyday life -- 1.5 Coping, comportment, and cognition -- 1.6 Actions to support coping -- 1.7 This lecture.

2. Familiarity -- 2.1 Key points -- 2.2 Defining familiarity -- 2.3 Readiness to cope -- 2.3.1 Making use of the tacit -- 2.3.2 A structure for prior knowledge -- 2.3.3 Collages and vicarious learning -- 2.4 Our involvement with digital technology -- 2.5 Not being familiar -- 2.5.1 Reconfiguring one's world -- 2.5.2 Computers are part of 'modern life' -- 2.5.3 Participating in the modern world -- 2.5.4 The meeting of two worlds -- 2.5.5 In summary -- 2.6 Familiarity within HCI -- 2.6.1 Making sense of tasks -- 2.6.2 Shared meaning -- 2.6.3 Learning to be familiar -- 2.7 In summary.

3. Coping -- 3.1 Key points -- 3.2 Introduction -- 3.3 Practical coping -- 3.4 Immediate coping -- 3.5 Smooth coping -- 3.6 Embodied coping -- 3.7 Is coping simply intuitive behaviour? -- 3.7.1 Two modes of cognition -- 3.7.2 Intuition and perception -- 3.8 An initial sketch of coping -- 3.9 In summary.

4. Epistemic scaffolding -- 4.1 Key points -- 4.2 When coping alone…

Subjects

Adaptability (Psychology) Adaptation (Psychologie) Adjustment (Psychology) Ajustement (Psychologie) COMPUTERS -- Computer Literacy COMPUTERS -- Computer Science COMPUTERS -- Data Processing COMPUTERS -- Hardware COMPUTERS -- Information Technology COMPUTERS -- Machine Theory Computers -- Psychological aspects COMPUTERS -- Reference Human-computer interaction Ordinateurs -- Aspect psychologique