The cellphone, one the greatest communication tools made today and also one of the greatest “clutch” known to man. Over the last two days, I have noticed two things about my mockberry (moto q cellphone); people tend to call or text at the most inconvenient times. This could be solved by putting my phone on vibrate or silent, but I often forget to. Secondly, my phone unknowingly becomes an uncomfortable distraction because I have no idea of figuring out what the subject of the call without picking up.
There exists a social-technical gap between myself and my phone. This is because “people have very nuanced behavior concerning how and with whom they wish to share information. People are concerned about whether to release this piece of information to that person at this time”(Acerman 182). There are times when I want to vague and unavailable and other times when I need to be available. People may be able to guess what my reaction to a particular subject and in turn will be vague about until they know I can’t leave and “lay it on me.” It is true when Acerman states that we have “complex understandings of people’s views of themselves, the current situation, and the effects of disclosure”; otherwise, I wouldn’t get caught in these moments that seem content on distracting me at the worst possible times. Unfortunately, my phone doesn’t really know how to rely priority to me, it just knows how to ring.
Unfortunately, my phone’s definition of how interaction should be played out is “rigid and brittle”; it doesn’t support my social view very well. To be more flexible, I need my mockberry to anticipate when I cannot talk to people. So it must be able to set itself to vibrate or silent when I am in class, unless it is an emergency or a class where I believe I can accept texts. It has to somehow mimic some of the complexity of my mind when I decide how to interact with another person. Another feature that would be a great asset to me is if my phone could tell me beforehand what the subject of a call is (or at least give me some sort of category). That way I know to avoid the call/person until I have more time on my hands.
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I completely agree with what you said. The term "mockberry" was very clever. You did a really good job relating your post to Acerman. There are definitely many different ways in which phones have social technical gaps. Phones are definitely rigid and brittle. Therefore, it has hard for them to "know" when you are available or unavailable, unless you manually set it. I said a similar thing in my post saying that it would be nice for my phone to automatically know when I am in class and not available. Good post!!
ReplyDeleteIn addition to your phone being able to discern whether or not you want to receive a call or text from someone, I think it's very interesting that you also want your phone to be able to discern the level of ambiguity to present to someone who is texting or calling. This mirrors the social aspect of relationships very well, as you said, since emotions and wishes are complex and nuanced. good post
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