Hardware hopes : examining emotional connections to computers through creative story telling

Hardware Hopes is a qualitative research project initiated to explore the personal and emotional side of our relationships with computing devices, by inviting people to tell the stories of the devices they own (e.g. laptops, desktop computers, smartphones, tablets), and asking them to consider how they feel about them. Through analysis of the collected stories I am investigating the ways in which emotion is present, or absent, in our relationships to computing hardware.

Recent work in HCI and design establishes the case for designing longer lifespans into computing devices, to address the problem of increasing waste produced by the fast consumption cycles associated with electronic products. These researchers advocate finding new ways of relating to, and caring for, our devices. The research documented in this paper attempts to understand the emotional and material factors that affect the longevity of people’s personal relationships with computing devices. Computer obsolescence and replacement is often reported and marketed as a necessary byproduct of technological progress, but the reality of deciding whether a personal computing device should be kept or disposed of is personal and idiosyncratic, and messier than it may at first seem. Understanding the factors that influence whether a device is kept can tell us about the lifespan and obsolescence of computing devices.