PurpleCar

Forgive my photoshop hacking. My exclusive designer, Rick Wolff, is probably already working on a better version of what I call the “psy-port” symbol as you read this.

The “Psychology of Information Technology”: The Focal Point of PurpleCar.net

The Psychology of Information Technology is, loosely, the study of human interaction with man-made tools. “Technology” as a term encompasses all human inventions, but for PurpleCar.net, we will focus on “information technology,” indicating all computer software and hardware, social networks, mobile phones, Internet culture, data, and related subjects. A more formal definition of Psychology of Information Technology is below.

The Psy-Port Symbol

The symbol I’ve invented to represent Psychology of Information Technology is called a “psy-port.” The name and the graphic are a combination of the traditional Greek letter Psi, the logo for the field of Psychology, and a USB port symbol to represent the technology of connection and data. It will be used to represent the field of Psychology of Information Technology on this blog and where ever else anyone wants to use it. The logo is free for anyone to use in the Psych of IT sense.

Definition of Psychology of Information Technology

psy·chol·o·gy  of   in·for·ma·tion   tech·nol·o·gy     noun

1

: an applied science study of the mental, attitudinal, motivational, or behavioral characteristics of an individual or of a type, class, or group of individuals in the development, maintenance, or use of computer systems, software and networks for the processing and distribution of data

2

the study of human behavior in relation to the generation, delivery, storage, use and sharing of electronic data

Examples of Core Questions for Psychology of Information Technology

How does IT impact our decisions?

Which cultural norms are shifting as a result of pervasive IT?

How does information affect human systems?

Those are just a few questions that fall under the Psych of IT area of study.

Psychology of IT on PurpleCar.net

PurpleCar.net is a media outlet, not a research institution. I concentrate on reporting and offering opinion on the latest research, trends, and topics in the PsyIT area. Because the Psychology of Information Technology is an emerging field, there isn’t a central source or trusted circle of experts yet. As the field grows, thought leaders will begin to shine. In the meantime, I’ll write about the small changes in the culture and other relevant subjects I observe as a citizen and student of the Internet and Web.

Another place I’ve been curating articles is on my new Scoop.it page: Psychology of Information Technology. Please add your resources or suggestions for core questions, areas of study, links to relevant info, etc., in the comments. We can use this blog as a source document if anyone can scrape up anything relevant.

Thanks, all. Looking forward to chatting with you all more about the Psych of IT.

We Need Women STEM-mers

Being a woman in the Information Technology industry and now in tech writing, I’ve had to fight for opportunities and recognition every step of the way. Men with less experience, fewer skills and more basic (if any) degrees would get promoted or given better jobs over me. Any woman who has been in a tech job feels the same pain.

This country will have millions of jobs that will go unfilled in the next decade unless more women enroll in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) majors. For this to happen, we need a broad change in our thinking. If we Americans want to keep ahead of the innovation game and continue on as a leading economic force, we must each do our part to address the cultural prejudices that keep women from entering STEM careers.

Hidden in Plain View

Most people don’t give cultural prejudices a second thought; it’s difficult to notice endemic norms, and disruptions in one’s expectations are uncomfortable to endure. We must be willing to feel a bit of that discomfort until we get used to the idea that the talent stores in our female population will pick up the slack.

In this brave(ish), new(ish) world of the 21st century, disruption is a practice we should be implementing daily. Creativity and innovation are stimulated by a need left unfulfilled by the status quo, but you must practice disruption as a routine in order to be skilled at identifying those opportunities for growth.

Incorporate disruption in your daily life. Once you get used to asking questions of the status quo, then you will be primed to accept the creative solutions that seem to spontaneously generate from the asking.

How to Practice Disruption in 5 Easy Steps (great for kids too!)

Exercise your disruption muscle and train your brain to notice cultural assumptions at work in your life by implementing the following tiny changes in your daily routine:

1. Ask yourself a small “Why” question each day. e.g., Why do I drink this brand of coffee? Why do I always park here? (Answers can be quick & dirty. The point is to ask the question of something that seems totally normal and insignificant.)
2. Once you’ve spent a few days or weeks doing #1, Integrate a follow-up “What if” question. e.g., What if I switched to the expensive brand of coffee? What if I parked across the lot? (Answers can vary from the elusive “I don’t know” to ideas involving aliens).
3. Implement one of the What If ideas from #3. e.g., change coffee brands for a week or two. Park farther away from the office’s front door.
4. Ask others a “Why” question each day. e.g. Did you ever wonder why we have team meetings on Friday and not Monday mornings? Why did you buy that color corvette?
5. Move on to bigger premises. Ask a “Why” of increasingly bigger societal norms. e.g., Why don’t most men wear their hair in those long ponytails like in olden days? What ever happened to robes and kilts? (Have fun with this)

PITFALLS

• Beware of the knee-jerk “I don’t know” reaction. “I don’t know” will always be the 1st response your brain pumps out. e.g., Why do I use this coffee mug? I don’t know! It’s OK. After a few weeks of asking Whys, your brain should get better at looking past that required primary flight response.
• Practice Disruption in the morning or whenever you rise from sleeping. Our patience (and therefore feelings of safety and control) wear out by day’s end.
• Others will resist. Keep pushing forward. Here’s a paragraph from Brené Brown’s book Daring Greatly:

“When I talk about cynicism, I don’t mean healthy skepticism and questioning. I’m talking about the reflexive cynicism that leads to mindless responses like ‘That’s so stupid.’ or ‘What a loser idea.’ Cool is one of the most rampant forms of cynicism. Whatever. Totally Lame. So uncool. Who gives a shit? Among some folks it’s almost as if enthusiasm and engagement have become a sign of gullibility. Being too excited or invested makes you lame. A word we’ve banned in our house along with loser and stupid.”

Keep On Rollin’

Once a person becomes accustomed to disruption, the typical fight/flight response to it doesn’t overtake the brain. Learning and innovating are easier if we don’t feel “put on the spot”, “taken aback” or in any way uncomfortable. Get used to the Why, and you’ll see significant improvements in the “How” solutions you generate for any problem, including the sexism that holds this country back.

Photo Credit: Josh Parrish on Flickr

Several years ago my online friends and podcasting buddies were going on and on about Google Reader. They were all over it like geeks on an upgrade.

I was creeped out by the idea of Google knowing what I read even more than they already knew. I didn’t use it. I did have some RSS feeds, but very few. Relying instead on Twitter and other social sharing sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, FB, etc., I found my news and my friends’ blog updates more “organically.”

Last year I realized I could be feeding RSS into Greader (our short nick for Google Reader) and dump that into FlipBoard on my iPhone. No more boring lines! I could read an article of substance while I waited, and I could keep up with friends.

But after a while, the shine dulled. I hardly even opened Flipboard let alone go through the 5+ navigation steps needed to view my feeds in it. I let blogs I should have been following go. I didn’t find a replacement and I didn’t form new habits.

Digg’s reader will have to take up the slack. I need to make sure I don’t miss my friends’ blog posts, and I can use Scoop.It or RebelMouse to browse others’ cool stuff. StumbleUpon was a lot of fun back in the day, too. Reddit is just a fun time-waster, as I have yet to find information there worthy of sharing with my particular niche.

Do you syndicate really simply? Which app will you be using to do that?

-PC

Privacy is dead. Long live true online ID.

Blame the trolls.

No trolls in squeaky clean America!

When I say trolls, I don’t mean just the trolls that work under the auspices of the NSA. I mean Internet trolls: anonymous commenters that toss all decorum to cause chaos, despair and hurt, all for the sake of nothing more than the empty lulz. As a few billion more people come online, some of them participating in an honor culture (as opposed to cultures of law), the anonymous option will go away. Honor culture types will want to know who just insulted them, and cultures of law people will want to sue the trolls for libel. Parents all over the world will want to know who bullied their babies. Senators will want to seem like ball-busting heroes. Google and Facebook will want to sell more ad space to actual customers. No Anonymity will seem like the wholesome, honorable and safe choice, like banning sales of cigarettes to minors or imposing curfews in violence-prone city districts.

Tides are turning. The day of the anonymous online ID is coming to a close. It follows that the day of the anonymous in-real-life citizen will also come to an end. We will be under legal obligation to carry “papers” with us at all times. We will be obligated to tell our names to the police. We will have to register our presence everywhere we visit. We will need identification above and beyond our signature to be able to vote.

Because the folklore logic will go like this: If you need a valid ID to make a comment on a blog, you need a valid ID to vote. If you can’t click “Like” on Facebook without two-step, real-ID verification, you can’t expect to shop anonymously. And if you can’t even watch a youtube video without Google knowing about it, then of course you can’t read a newspaper article without agreeing to be tracked everywhere you go, online and in real life.

Everything will make sense. The overwhelming majority of people will welcome the End of the Troll. The sell will be “safety” and more importantly, “convenience.” The lexicon and sales copy will vilify the lurker and celebrate the squeaky clean renaissance citizen. The revolutionary will be doxed. The concerned good samaritan will be (unwillingly) sainted. All to throw the baby trolls out with the bathwater. And we will celebrate. The pundits will praise how real ID will mean more civil participation. Accepted terms and definitions of words will homogenize across cultures so we can all understand each other. No misconstruing. No vitriol. No hate. A no-bravery-necessary new world. And how peaceful it is, we’ll all say, as we look up from our phones for just enough time to pat each other on the back.

Photo credit: Boston Public Library

_______________

Another PurpleCar post on anonymity you may like