October 28th, 2024
What is a computer?
How can we understand a device with so many uses? If it is ALL these things (and more), then how can we make sense of it? You learned the answer to these questions on the page about Abstraction: we need to think of the computer in more abstract terms than just its collection of applications. We must think carefully about the common element in all these uses of the computer. When we do that, we get this answer:
The computer is an interactivity machine. Interactivity is the common element in every application of the computer. Let’s try a thought experiment. Suppose that I could zap your computer with an “interactivity disrupter ray gun”.
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What would be the effect of removing all the interactivity from a computer? Well, a word processor without interactivity is no better than a typewriter:
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A spreadsheet without interactivity would be no better than arithmetic with pencil and paper:
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The Internet without interactivity would be no better than a pile of books and magazines:
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And games without interactivity????
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No, a computer without interactivity would be useful only as a doorstop:
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OK, so what IS interactivity? I am sorry to report that there’s a lot of nonsense floating around about interactivity. For example, here’s a definition I found in a book (Interactivity by Design by Ray Kristof & Amy Satran):
“By definition, the things people do on computers have always been interactive.”
Here’s another definition, this one from Pause and Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative by Mark S. Meadows
“Interactivity is a continuing increase in participation. It’s a bidirectional communication conduit. It’s a response to a response. It’s ‘full duplex’. Interaction is a relationship. It’s good sex. It’s bad conversation. It’s indeterminate behavior and it’s redundant result.”
Lots of marketing people have pounded on “interactivity” as meaning something like “hot” or maybe “cool”:
Let’s put aside the BS and make some basic points:
Interactive ≠ Digital
Putting something onto a computer does not make it interactive. A picture on a computer is no more interactive than a picture in a magazine. A song on a computer is no more interactive than a song on an old record. A movie on a computer is no more interactive than a movie on film.
Some people harbor the fervent illusion that, if a book or movie is emotionally so powerful that it evokes a big enough reaction from the audience, then it transcends reaction and becomes interactive. That’s wrong.
Interactivity is not reactivity with the volume turned all the way up.
A more illuminating way to think of interactivity is to think in terms of the most common form of interaction that we experience: a conversation.
…except that, in this case, the conversation is between a person and a computer:
So let’s analyze an interaction using conversation as a model.
Step 1: The computer “speaks” to the user, primarily through its graphical display. And the user “listens” to what the computer is saying by watching the computer screen.
Step 2: the user thinks about what the computer has said and cogitates a reaction to it. If this is a work-type application, such as a word processor or spreadsheet, the user decides if the document is correct and complete; if not, the user decides what changes need to be made. If this is a game, the user decides what they must do next in order to win. If this is a web browser, the user will assess the content and decide where to go next.
Step 3: the user “speaks” their decision back to the computer, using the keyboard, mouse, or a screen touch to express their desire.
Step 4: Now the tables are turned: it is now the computer’s turn to listen to what the user has spoken. The computer accepts the input and interprets its meaning.
Step 5: Now it’s the computer’s turn to think over what the user has said. The computer must use its algorithms to devise a response that is interesting, useful, or just plain fun.
Step 6: Lastly, the computer expresses its thought by changing the display to reflect its conclusions, or perhaps uses some sound.
So there you have it. This analysis provides an illuminating and useful definition of interactivity:
The moral of this story: Interactivity is a cyclic process in which the human and the computer alternately listen, think, and speak.