IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2013 - 77

B24: "The iPad provides
wonderful
opportunities
for "social" internet surfing. Rather than huddling
around a monitor or passing back and forth that tiny
iPhone, the iPad is wonderful for sharing the Internet
with others - we used it the
other day to show my 80 year
old mom my daughter's prom
pictures, and it was great
for passing around, as the
screen is dazzling and it is
perfect for people to hold for
short periods."
Within this context, it was interesting to investigate the reasons for
which users embark upon integrate
the tablet within their everyday.
B27: "Somehow, passing a
tablet around and swiping
back/forth seems very simple
and surprisingly non-geek."
Even though the iPad is often
referred to as an innovative computing device, by building upon
natural or familiar interaction
modalities, it manages to be intuitive, and by breaking into the "vernacular," succeeds in addressing a
wider demographic.

Examining Meaning
Many users developed strong ties
with the tablet. While attachment
has often been accredited to the
product's ability to communicate
one's identify or group affiliation
[11], our findings unveiled another
form of attachment; in many occasions, users developed an almost
intimate relationship, which they
themselves or their peers described
through metaphors which are typically used for a significant other:
B12: "I'm not an Apploid.
You know - those people who
(...) have a Bill Gates dartboard (...). I have two desktop
PC's, a laptop, a netbook, a
Kindle, an Android phone ...

and an iPad. But it's that
iPad that my wife refers to as
my "mistress." If you haven't
spent a few minutes playing
with (or "fondling," as the
Missus calls it) an iPad, I
won't try to describe the user
experience."
users often develop strong feelings for their computing devices.
For Apple users in particular, such
feelings have been shown to relate
to brand loyalty [12]. Yet, for the
particular pool of users, this is
not the case. While many describe
themselves as Apple users, this
mainly refers to owning an iPhone,
as first-order constructions illustrate that their other devices are an
assemblage of brands, while many
explicitly state not being devotees.
Some of the authors report using
the tablet everywhere they go;
while in the office, at the beach,
while in bed, or even choosing to
retreat with it in their bedrooms,
to privately enjoy the interaction.
Such behaviors reveal a strong
attachment to the IT artifact,
significantly resembling Sternberg's theory of love, which builds
upon the triptych of intimacy -
passion - decision/commitment
[13]. The authors are committed to
the tablet and choose it over other
available and computationally
superior devices; they are passionate about it, find themselves inseparable from it and use illustrative
metaphors while describing it; one
could argue that requiring private
time with an inanimate object
may be interpreted as a feeling of
intimacy.
Meanwhile, there is a symbolic
significance, without however the
authors personalizing the tablet.
Focusing on the tablet's expressive characteristics, we see that
the authors direct their attention
to primarily its hedonic characteristics, which pertain to the sensual
thread. The most interesting terms
are "eye candy," "sexy," "cool,"
"toy," and "futuristic," as users

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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SuMMEr 2013

discuss the combination of metal
and glass, the surface's feel and
form and the attractiveness of the
overall design. One author reflects
feeling "like Tom Cruise in Minority Report" (B17) every time he
touches the screen, while another
writes that "there's definitely something about having a device (...)
as sexy as the iPad" (B18). At the
same time, such accounts seldom
relate to pragmatic characteristics,
since users suggest that the tablet is
not powerful enough:
B3: "My wife and kids
summed it up in 30 seconds. "Oh no, Dad bought
another toy". (...) Later that
week (...) I get home from
work, and there's always
a certain level of chaos at
that time.  But there was a
new theme this week.  (...)
I don't think I'll be buying
any more desktops going forward. I don't think I'll even
be buying any more laptops
going forward.  They've all
been largely obsoleted (at
least at my home) by a sleek
$499 device that doesn't
really have any right to
be called a "computer" in
the traditional sense.  (...)
The members of my family immediately gravitated
to the new shiny thing - no
prompting, no encouragement, no migration, etc.
They are drawn to it like a
moth to flame."
Drawing from the literature on
industrial design, we see that
describing an IT artifact as "sexy,"
"shiny," or "cool" is not uncommon; on the contrary, such characterizations often refer to devices,
which combine glass and metal
and whose surface is perceived as
glossy or sleek [14]. On the other
end however, assessing the tablet
primarily as a "toy," rather than as
a "device," or a "tool," suggests that
the user finds little usefulness in it:
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