dag@fluke.UUCP (David Gunderson) (08/18/83)
A while back, I did a little research for a paper on the reactions of first time users to computers. There has been very little basic research done on the topic. Sure, I found many articles in general press proporting to address the topic, but they were never backed up by empirical research. I found only 2 or 3 real experiments that generated emperical data on the behaviors first time users of computers exibited. Come on now you people in the social sciences. You are always looking for good research topics. Why are you missing one of the most sweeping applications of technology to the general population since the automobile, namely the computerization of America. The research that was available (not very good stuff) seemed to indicate that novice users tended to behave toward a computer as they would toward a possibly hostile stranger. They tended to assume that the computer had much the same personality as a human "other being" would have. In this context, it is not so odd that some people fear contact with with such a hostile being (there are many introverted, shy people in the world). These people may be showing the same fears and behavior as you and I would when faced with a group of leather clad types on a dark, empty subway station. David Gunderson decvax!microsof!fluke!dag
laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton) (08/21/83)
if you think that novice users get the shivers at using 'the hostile computer', wait until you see people who are being forced to use a computer. If you hate the computer like poison, and assume that it hates you as well.... I know no way to teach someone who honestly does not want to learn. Does anybody out there? laura creighton utzoo!utcsstat!laura