CHAPTER 5
SOCIAL INTERACTION
Introduction
Imagine not having access to your smartphone or the
Internet for a week. How would you cope?
Would you get bored, start twitching, or even go stir
crazy? Would you feel isolated and be constantly
wondering what is happening in your online social
network?
Many people now cannot go for very long without
checking for messages, the latest tweets, Facebook
updates, emails, etc. – even when on vacation.
For many, checking their phone is the first thing they
do when waking up. It has become a daily routine and
an integral part of their social lives.
Being Social
A fundamental aspect of everyday life is being
social – interacting with each other. We
continuously update each other about news,
changes, and developments on a given project,
activity, person, or event.
While face-to-face conversations remain central
to many of our social interactions, the use of
social media has dramatically increased. Many of
us now routinely spend several hours a day
communicating online – texting, emailing,
tweeting, Facebooking, Skyping, using Yammer,
instant messaging,
Face-to-Face Conversations
Talking is something that is effortless and comes
naturally to most people. And yet holding a
conversation is a highly skilled collaborative
achievement, having many of the qualities of a
musical ensemble.
Remote Conversations
The telephone was invented back in the
nineteenth century by Alexander Graham Bell,
enabling two people to talk to one another at a
distance. A number of other technologies have
since been developed that support synchronous
remote conversations, including videophones.
Figure 4.1 (a) One of British Telecom's early videophones and (b) an early
mobile visualphone developed in Japan
VideoWindow that was developed
to enable people in different
locations to carry on a
conversation as they would do if
they were drinking coffee together
in the same room
Telepresence
Social media has led to new ways of
communicating and keeping in touch remotely.
Another area of research where computer tools
and services have been developed to support
people who cannot be physically present during a
meeting or social gathering is telepresence.
Co-presence, that is, supporting people in their
activities when interacting in the same physical
space.
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Telepresence room
Awareness
Awareness involves knowing who is around, what is happening, and
who is talking with whom. Two type of awareness is peripheral and
situational awareness.
A specific kind of awareness is peripheral awareness. This refers to a
person’s ability to maintain and constantly update a sense of what is
going on in the physical and social context, by keeping an eye on what
is happening in the periphery of their vision.
Another form of awareness that has been studied is situational
awareness. This refers to being aware of what is happening around
you in order to understand how information, events, and your own
actions will affect ongoing and future events.
A design principle that has been influential is social translucence.
This refers to the importance of designing communication systems to
enable participants and their activities to be visible to one another.
Sococo is an online office
platform that is bridging the gap
between remote and co-located
work. It uses the spatial metaphor
of a floor plan of an office to show
where people are situated, who is
in a meeting, and who is chatting
with whom. The Sococo map
provides a bird’s-eye view of a
team’s online office, giving
everyone at-a-glance insight into
teammates’ availability and what’s
happening organizationally. Sococo
also provides the sense of presence
and virtual “movement” that you
get in a physical office—anyone can
pop into a room, turn on their
microphone and camera, and meet
with another member of their
team face to face.
Social Engagement
Social engagement refers to participation in the activities of a social group . Often it involves
some form of social exchange where people give or receive something from others. Another
defining aspect is that it is voluntary and unpaid.
Communicating via Virtual Hugging
Another approach to increasing the sense of presence and
togetherness for people who are at a distance is the
development of wearable devices that send hugs between
them.
An early example was CuteCircuit's Hug Shirt.
CuteCircuit's Hug Shirt -
embedded in the shirt are sensors
that detect the strength of the
wearer's skin warmth and heart
rate and actuators that recreate
the sensation of a hug through
being buzzed on various parts of
the body.
Huggy Pajama (2009) was designed as
a prototype system to promote
physical interaction between a parent
and child who are apart. When the
parent wants to send a hug to their
child, they interact with a sensing
device that they hold. The child feels
the hug through wearing a customized
haptic jacket that uses air pressure
actuation: as the parent presses the
lower part of the body of the device,
the lower part of the child is squeezed
by the haptic pajama jacket.
ASSIGNMENT
How do you represent yourself online? What
image and names do you use?
What would you expect the most retweeted selfie
to be? Why do we send so many selfies?
