Abstract
This paper reviews some of the research on the use and consumption of technology in the domestic space that may not be familiar to members of the usability and design community, especially those traditionally focused on design for the workplace. The paper also introduces original research findings and conclusions from a qualitative study of the adoption and use of new ICTs conducted in a number of households and workplaces in the late 1990s, a time when many new ICT products and services were becoming available, and more traditional media and communication products were becoming widespread in homes. The paper does not make recommendations about the type of products and services to be developed, nor those that may be successful, although it is quite possible to draw this type of conclusion from it. Instead it looks at some rather broader trends in the way that we engage with technologies, rejecting and adopting them, and the importance of our domestic space and social networks to the way we will engage with future technologies aimed at the home space.
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e.g. Weillenmann and Larsson (2002) investigate the sharing and social use of mobile phone, reflecting a strong general theme found in my research of a range of ICTs.
Nippert-Eng (1995) identifies three types of workplace: one with fixed boundaries, the greedy employer, and the discretionary workplace, which leaves it up to the employee to decide their own boundaries.
Many companies have recognised this and provide their employees with computers to use at home. This is not only to give them the facilities to work at home, but also to give them the opportunity to learn at home, by using the machines for personal, family and community activities. Some would say this avoids having to provide time for learning during working hours, but many would say it was a fair exchange given the costs of computer equipment. It is also a way of extending the useful life of otherwise redundant computers.
Hannah Arendt (1958) suggested that quotidian artefacts serve to stabilise human life: they provide practical and symbolic supports and continuity to our lives. Others have the same approach. Silverstone (1994) uses the concept of 'ontological security' as he argues for television as a support and reference point for our self-identity and our relationship with the rest of the world. The psychologists Csikszentmihayli and Rochberg-Halton (1981) suggest domestic objects are used in formation of our self-identity, particularly for emphasising integration or separation from the social context. Taking this further, Hickman (1988) investigates what he calls the 'Phenomenology of quotidian artefact', to show how people use technologies for self-stabilisation. He suggests five roles for technologies: Personation – technologies allow us to play at being ourselves; Authentication – they help define who we are ; Distraction – from obligations, unpleasantness; they are the Focus of Desire; and appear to be Magic – something we do not quite understand, but enchants us. An example of expressive relationships with technology is the motorcar (Lamvik 1996): we can have a very personal, intimate, existential relationship with the car itself.
Technologies are necessary – they become essential parts of everyday life, e.g. (washing machine) female. The necessity is interpreted differently by different family members, which reveals their concerns and priorities, etc.
They allow control over things, time and other people. For example, the housewife's control over domestic lives and children. There is also the example of relinquishing control to get out of responsibility for doing it. Men also express a strong controlling wish to 'control nature' or their family
They are functional. This can be interpreted in two ways. For some, generally male, there is an interest in the intrinsic functions of technologies. For others, a more female attitude, it is the utility of the technology as a tool, rather than its complete and often unusable functionality
Technologies allow sociality and privacy – ICTs facilitate social contact with the outside world. We talk to each other on the telephone and watch the world on TV. Social contact appears to be more important for women, especially the telephone. In reverse it allows people to keep the privacy of their own home or their own room, such as teenagers reinforcing home boundaries by playing their own music in their own room music. More recent research by Gournay and Mercier (Gournay and Mercier 1998) on this issue highlights the way people use the telephone in different ways, depending on their job and their life stage.
We normally have to 'retro-fit' new technologies into the physical and social spaces of the home, but history tells us that if the technology is attractive and useful enough we are willing to make radical changes, such as the installation of electric circuits or gas pipes.
Mick and Fournier conducted a series of in-depth studies of the paradoxes of using and owning ICTs (Mick and Fournier 1998) and found a range of coping strategies.
This is discussed in Bauer (1995), who compares it with resistance to nuclear power and weapons, to computerisation in the 1970s, and genetic technologies today.
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Stewart, J. The social consumption of information and communication technologies (ICTs): insights from research on the appropriation and consumption of new ICTs in the domestic environment. Cogn Tech Work 5, 4–14 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-002-0111-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-002-0111-x