Extra Credit #2: The Media Equation

Chapter 2: Politeness:

The chapter begins with an example of a mayor asking how he has done this term. Most people will resort to politeness in which they respond with a resounding yes. If they were asked the same question by a friend in closed quarters, they would not be so nice, and give their true thoughts toward the mayor. The author uses this example to show that politeness is ubiquitous and automatic in nature.

I definitely agree with this view point and find myself being polite to others often when my true feelings are contrary. In order to evaluate this phenomenon further, the author presents an experiment that was performed with computers as subjects. However, I had read "The Man Who Lied to His Laptop" before and had seen these experiments or similar variations before. Thus, most of this chapter possessed non-new information.

In essence, the researchers discovered that people are polite to computers and treat them as humans. In this experiment as well in general, computers play the role of social actors. In fact, one faucet of human interaction is when in doubt, treat it as human. It becomes evident that people don't need much of a cue to respond socially.

As a general user of technology, I see no ways in particular of how this can improve my life. However, I can easily see how it can be applied to product evaluation and social interaction. Thus, I will try to make an effort to catch myself and others when we appear to be polite, but try to look deeper for hidden thoughts and emotions.

Next, the author attempts to critique the experiment. While he does a good job, I am relatively uninterested because I am already familiar with this work. This leads up to the citation of Grice, who says that quality, quantity, relevance, and clarity are maxims for politeness.  The author then transitions into detailing the rules for etiquette which seem irrelevant to the underlying point of this chapter in my opinion.

Finally, the author touches on product testing. Based on the results of this study, he notes that researchers must use different computers when evaluating a computer product. Also, verbal testing for products needs to be refined so that the evaluator refrains from politeness. The author finally concludes the chapter by posing the questions of whether we should be less polite of media? I concur with the stance that the author takes on reducing politeness to media.

Extra Credit #1: Why We Make Mistakes

Chapter 5: We can walk and chew gum, but not much else:

The chapter begins with a story of a pilot named Captain Loft. While he was inspecting a light in the cockpit, he fell under the illusion of tunnel vision, and forgot to monitor the altitude of the plane. The plane crashed moments later due to a phenomenon called task saturation.

I have actually been familiar with the term, task saturation, before. I had read a study that illuminates the fact that people cannot multitask. The one exception is for tasks that are automatic and require little to no thinking such as walking. I have actually found myself attempting to multitask, but after being aware of task saturation, quickly stop and divest 100% of my energy to the current situation. This has greatly improved the quality of my work and that of my relationships.

Also, the chapter focuses on how distractions make a person less efficient. This becomes obvious as there is an associated overhead with switching between tasks. I know that it takes a while to deeply concentrate on a certain task and hate it when I am interrupted. However, I did learn that old people are worse at filtering out distractions which proved to be of interest.

Next, the chapter tells a story of Jones, who is a bus driver, that crashes is bus into an undersized tunnel. As the author was describing this story, I immediately pictured the famous image of this particular bus in my mind. Again, there was nothing new here.

The author spends the remainder of the chapter specifically focusing on automobile situations that involve task saturation. He includes some examples such as BMW's new thermal system that tend to overwhelm the driver. Also, Ford is developing a voice recognition system, called Sync, that will help users perform tasks without diverting their attention from the road. Also, car manufacturers are developing manager overloading systems that alert the driver when there are too many stimuli present.

In essence, I wish the author would have given more examples that pertained outside of the automobile industry. However, I did appreciate the fact that I received a quick refresher of task saturation. I will continue to keep these thoughts in my head as I attempt to be as efficient as possible when presented with multiple tasks.

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