Should I ask you to turn off the dark mode in your head?
We interact with computer programs and websites more than with the people around us. The Internet teaches us the patterns of behavior that we transfer to communication with relatives and colleagues. We, without hesitation, communicate with people just as with interfaces and expect an equal response. And it’s not so much about the speed of response and the amount of information transmitted, but more of the feeling that your interlocutor also has some settings — he might process the data you have said to him, remember what is needed (cookie consent popup) and to immediately forget what is unnecessary (clear cookies). We perceive the opposite as a communication failure or a constructive flaw.
Some say that if an IT specialist is made the Minister of Health, then the main goal of medicine will be to correct those human qualities, that cannot be predicted. Those palaces of the mind, where ideas are born, bright emotional outbursts or, on the contrary, dissatisfaction with surrounding circumstances — all of it from the point of view of information technology — the absolute theory of probability. This is difficult to work with and very difficult to control.
Being home tonight, talking to your children or parents, you will definitely show some usual patterns of working with web interfaces. It would seem that the so-called user-friendly experience of interacting with programs means the transfer of real human behavior online. The transformation of this idea is interesting, the way this behavior has changed and is now transferred back to real life. And the most amazing change manifests itself in the attitude towards ourselves. It has become important for a person to renew himself (“to think different”), adapt to the new speed of information perception (the rush around the invites to the Clubhouse), save his strength up to the state of hibernation (active introduction of meditation into the life of a Western person devoid of reflection).
Further observations give even more interesting pictures: from the simple desire to make coffee at the push of a button to the exclusion of kinesthetics from communication. Hugging and touching are becoming odd gestures, and now it is extremely unhygienic. We do not turn on the smart assistant by pressing a button, but we say “Hey Siri!”. As we go through the temperature control at Tesco, we bend in a Japanese bow, welcoming the invisible infrared ray (sign in!). Smart glasses will let us know the name of the interlocutor and his favorite Netflix series even before greeting.
These are interesting observations that allow us to better understand the development vector of our communication habits. We create technologies that drastically change us.
Suddenly we recognize how important it is not to forget that it is our individuality that makes us human…
