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People of all levels and skills, from novices to programmers, are the users and operators of the system, as you would be if you acquired that laptop. Indeed, the whole point of the system, of course, is to benefit people. However, when experts speak of the "unintended effects of technology," what they are usually referring to are the unexpected things people do with it. People can be a very complicating factor in any system, for three reasons: faulty assessment of information needs, human emotions affect performance, and human perceptions may be too slow. In summary, although people are supposed beneficiaries fo a computer-and-comunications system, they are also probably the most complicating factor. |
