This journal is in response to the first article I read: A conversation with Brenda Laurel on Human Computer Interaction
In reading the above article, I found quite a few interesting points. The first was the computers and the Internet should be ‘child’s playground’, i.e., it should be something that a user can make connection with and can use it as a medium for expression and learning. This is possible only if it is utilized appropriately.
I really liked the connection made between drama and simulation. In fact, Aristotle’s Poetics was referred to as well. Wikipedia informs me that “Aristotle's Poetics (c. 335 BCE[1]) is the earliest-surviving work of dramatic theory and the first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory.” In traditional school of thought, theatre used to be considered a form of bringing public thought together, a forum to bring forth ideas that people need to discuss and to stir conversation among the general public. Today, as the article suggests, the Internet can perform the same function.
At the same time, the article spoke of human reality being the basis for the design of the digital environment. I am in total agreement with Laurel’s statement, “The computer should be tasked with supporting and conforming to the person's needs and constraints, and not the other way around”. For some reason, it brought to mind the violence and aggression that is evident on the Internet these days. All online and video games seem to have an aggressive (and in some cases, another inappropriate) edge to them. I wonder if that is the reflection of human life these days? Or is it the other way around? Is this type of simulation and the young generation’s active engagement in it, causing a harmless world to become aggressive?
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