Butler Lies: Media, Deception and Availability Management in Everyday Life - Jeremy Birnholtz, Cornell University / University of Toronto

Talk by Jeremy Birnholtz, Cornell University / University of Toronto

Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 15:30

DMP 110

Title
Butler Lies: Media, Deception and Availability Management in Everyday Life

Abstract
New communication media such as email, instant messaging (IM) and SMS
text messaging mean that we can interact more frequently with more
people than ever before. While this has clear benefits, many people
also report feeling overloaded and regularly take active steps to
manage their availability for interaction with others, such as
delaying response to messages, limiting attention to all incoming
communications or exiting conversations prematurely. Without
explanation, however, these tactics may lead to perceptions of
rudeness or disinterest in a relationship. In this talk I will present
results from a series of studies exploring how people use instant
messaging, SMS text messaging and Blackberry Messenger to manage their
availability. I will show that people use media strategically --
sometimes deceptively -- to explain and coordinate their behavior;
drawing on technical features of media, the social norms of media
usage, and the willingness of others to accept deception in some
cases.


Bio
Jeremy Birnholtz is an assistant professor in the Departments of
Communication and Information Science at Cornell University, as well
as the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto.
His research aims to improve the usefulness and usability of
communication and collaboration tools, via a focus on understanding
and exploiting mechanisms of human attention. Jeremy’s work has been
published in the ACM CHI, CSCW and Group Proceedings, as well as in
Organization Science, HCI, JASIST, JCMC, and Computers in Human
Behavior. His current research is supported by the National Science
Foundation, Google and the US Department of Agriculture.