I’m really going to be doing a show and tell here today, so I guess I’ll state my position up-front, just to get it out of the way. I’m going to talk about technology that engages people, and that people engage.
The kind of engagement I don’t care about are:
- Attention grabbing—flashing lights, dirty pictures and so on
- Flow states—like when you’re occupied to the exclusion of all else
What I do care about is the feeling of being emotionally engaged with some technology like a mobile phone or a website or something more esoteric, as opposed to feeling like you’re button-pushing in a call centre.
Programming my video feels like I’m working as a database operator in some hideous factory of the future. Not that I have a video anymore. Now when I miss TV online, I ask my friends for it and they give me a copy on my computer. We download it.
My experience of missed-TV has become a social one. Even if someone doesn’t have the programme I’m after, we have an excuse to talk. It’s engaging because it taps into something which is already engaging: being social and hanging out with my friends.