As per the plan, in this post I should have discussed about telephone exchanges. Accordingly I started writing a paragraph on automatic switching system developed by Almon B. Strowger in 1889. Then I listed the merits of automatic switching system and tried to figure out demerits of Strowger system. I felt user would have lost the 'personal touch' and warmth they had in the manual exchange (in US call office). As Strowger's exchange is an automatic system people would have undergone a marked shift in their experience (user-to-manual operator to user-to-machine). Today we use advanced version of Strowger system and human-to-machine interaction (h2mi) is the norm. I wanted to dwell on the social impact of h2mi rather than discussing the evolution of exchanges. I will discuss the later in the upcoming post.
Simple question arises in our mind how the h2mi flourished without 'personal touch' and warmth. Human operators may offer a good service and at the same time they are prone to error and mood swings (happy, sad and angry). So, users should be accustomed to large variation in Quality of Service (from courteous to irresponsible reply). The h2mi offers a 'Stale' but consistent service. Over a period of time we become intolerant to unpredictability. We are subconsciously trained to enjoy 'consistency' and reap cost advantage (cost of automatic systems will come down over the years). We seldom learn to appreciate the unpredictability of divine nature.
Simple question arises in our mind how the h2mi flourished without 'personal touch' and warmth. Human operators may offer a good service and at the same time they are prone to error and mood swings (happy, sad and angry). So, users should be accustomed to large variation in Quality of Service (from courteous to irresponsible reply). The h2mi offers a 'Stale' but consistent service. Over a period of time we become intolerant to unpredictability. We are subconsciously trained to enjoy 'consistency' and reap cost advantage (cost of automatic systems will come down over the years). We seldom learn to appreciate the unpredictability of divine nature.
Importance of human-to-human interaction (h2hi)
People spend lot of money and take effort to see a football match in a stadium. Likewise people go to auditorium to listen a live concert. We all know after the advent of videography and video broadcasting one can sit at their home and watch the match or listen the concert in their TV. The cost and effort involved in watching TV is very less. Why then people visit the stadium. The answer is fans are able to connect with the environment (fellow fans and players). The "football fever" is not possible to get in the TV.
People spend lot of money and take effort to see a football match in a stadium. Likewise people go to auditorium to listen a live concert. We all know after the advent of videography and video broadcasting one can sit at their home and watch the match or listen the concert in their TV. The cost and effort involved in watching TV is very less. Why then people visit the stadium. The answer is fans are able to connect with the environment (fellow fans and players). The "football fever" is not possible to get in the TV.
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| Figure 1. People prefer human-to-machine interaction than human-to-human interaction. Image courtesy: Google images |
