ABC Radio’s In Conversation has just broadcast a discussion on our relationship with technology with Prof Mike Michael, a psychologist and sociologist who researches how we interact with new devices and scientific developments.
Michael discusses how psychologists and anthropologists are increasingly being employed to understand how technology is used by people in day-to-day life, which can sometimes be quite different from the way the manufacturers originally intended.
…if one thinks of the microwave; when that was initially marketed it was as a brown or black, it was basically aimed at men and it failed dismally. And then it was converted to a white good and aimed at women, and that obviously mapped on to all sorts of gender divisions of labour within the kitchen and so on, and it’s a success. …
Another example is the telephone. The telephone initially was thought to be a business tool for men and it had some success, but it was when women took it over as a social tool for maintaining social contacts with friends and family that it really took off.
Michael argues that as well as the practical uses of technology, these items can also take on social uses, can be used to create or weaken immediate social environments, or to broadcast messages about a person’s identity to others.
The programme covers technologies as diverse as the mobile phone to gene therapy and xenotransplantation.
Link to audio and transcript of In Conversation.
Mind Hacks 