25 Imaginary Interface – Sara Vogt

The artist Bethany Monea’s (n.d.) digital art installation Screen Reading: A Gallery of (Re)imagined Interfaces examines the function and rhetoric of digital interfaces. Digital interfaces are used every day by billions of computer users for work, for education, and for browsing the internet in search of information and to communicate and accomplish tasks. Interfaces act like invisible windows giving computer users access to the data and information needed to accomplish their goals. However, interfaces have been purposely and thoughtfully designed and wield much power over the computer user in an almost imperceptible way. Screen Reading presents a gallery of common digital interfaces reimagined to help the viewer question the rhetoric of these interfaces and their impact on the user.

The imaginary interface titled “Feeling Okay”  from Screen Reading is crafted from a duplication of the landing page of the classified ads website, craigslist. Craigslist, a private corporation, operates the free-to-use website which, in addition to classifieds, also includes community information and forums. It currently operates in 500 cities in 50 countries (Britannica). Craigslist’s landing page for each city is unique on the internet for its austerity (craigslist). There are no images. Blue is the only color used, separate from white, black and a shade of gray. There is no introduction or narrative description of purpose. The landing page is simply a screen-filling list of linked categories and sub-categories of person-to-person advertisements constructed to maximize the number of options. Because of the lack of images and story, an observer might say there is no persuasive rhetoric to the website. The landing page does not explicitly tell the viewer anything about craigslist. The lack of descriptive elements reduces the users’ recognition that craigslist the company is presenting the information. What the user sees reflected at them is the millions of other users who have posted content waiting for a reply.

Nearly every bit of text on the craigslist landing page is a clickable link. This interface style gives the user a virtually unending stream of content to access. The number and variety of categories encourage the user to explore without limits. Bogost (2008) suggests that procedural rhetoric is the practice of making rhetorical arguments “not through the construction of words or images, but through the authorship of rules of behavior” (p. 125). The procedural rhetoric of the craigslist website encourages users to click every link, to investigate each category, reminiscent of a diner visiting a help-yourself buffet restaurant. There is no user fee. The user is consuming information into a brain with unlimited capacity, and the responsibility is on the user to set limitations on their use of the website.

When moving the mouse across the imaginary craigslist interface “Feeling okay,” the user is presented with pop-up boxes of questions asking the viewer to stop and question, “How am I doing”? The pop-up questions vary and include, “Are you hungry?” “Are you tired?” “How’s your posture?” and “What is your body doing right now?” These types of rhetorical questions cause the user to consider how their current interactions with the craigslist interface is affecting their body, and if the interactions are causing the user to forget about the important physical needs of eating, drinking, moving, resting and sleeping.

The “Feeling Okay” interface questions the procedures of using the craigslist website interface as created by the programmers. If procedural rhetoric “is the practice of effective persuasion and expression using processes” (Bogost, p. 125), craigslist’s interface procedures have been created to encourage the user to explore without virtually any limits at the potential expense of the user’s health. However, craigslist’s interface rhetoric is not unique. Facebook and Instagram require no fees and provide a never-ending supply of content. The digital interfaces for many gaming and video-streaming services, such as YouTube or Netflix, queue up and start playing the next suggested video or episode in a series as soon as the last video is finished, without the user’s input. This procedure forces the viewer to act if they want to stop the content. In some ways, this procedure is more dangerous than the craigslist interface, which at least requires the user to click on a link to access more information. Society’s use of the phrases “binge watching” and “Netflix and chill” have become popular to describe the act of watching content on Netflix or other applications as an immersive activity lacking defined boundaries regarding choice of series or time spent. “Binge watching” is said tongue in cheek, but the implication is there that streaming content without limits is not healthy.

 In some ways, the procedural rhetoric of many digital interfaces resembles a restaurant buffet where diners can choose to help themselves to what food they want, how much they want to eat, and how long they want to eat. However, at a restaurant buffet, the diner is confronted by several external and internal limitations on how much food he or she can consume at one visit to the buffet. The diner must pay a fee to eat. The diner’s food intake is limited by the size of the plate and how much the diner can carry with two hands. The diner is limited by how much time he or she can spend and what hours the restaurant is open. Finally, the diner is limited by how much food his or her stomach can hold. On the other hand, other than a user losing electric power to their computer or running out of battery power on one’s cell phone, the craigslist digital interface user is confronted with procedural rhetoric the puts the whole responsibility on the user to exercise limitations in using the website. This style of digital interface elevates the importance of the availability of information over the personal physical needs of the user.

There are tools a digital interface user can use to prevent damaging health effects of unlimited screen time encouraged by digital interfaces. One tool is being thoughtful about usage. When a user makes a conscious choice about how he or she is going to spend their time, it is more likely that the user will consider setting boundaries. Also, a user may set up physical reminders, such as an alarm or a notification on their device, to alert when time is up. In conjunction, though, users need to educate themselves about the nature of the procedural rhetoric in place and remind themselves about the unlimited capacity of the human brain. Just as a restaurant buffet’s business model is to capitalize on a diner’s desire to maximize the number of food choices and the quantity of food while minimizing the expenditure, digital interfaces are designed to engage the user’s brain and command attention for as long as possible with as little effort and expense as necessary. Digital interfaces which are both free to use and which provide endless streams of content are proving to be the most difficult type from which humans can disengage. Users who keep these tools in mind will do better protecting their time and health.

With the increasing popularity and availability of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, it is more important than ever for users to consider the procedural rhetoric of digital interfaces which merge the user’s mind and body with computer technology. At present, AI is primarily used for gaming entertainment. This means that youths are probably acting as the “guinea pigs” for experimentation on how AI digital interfaces affect the user’s mind and body. When users, or parents of users, understand the procedural rhetoric used to create digital interfaces, they are in a better position to make choices using AI technology in a way that protects their mental and physical health.

References

Bogost, I. (2008). “The Rhetoric of Video Games.” The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning. Edited by Katie Salen. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. doi:0.1162/dmal.9780262693646.117

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2022, January 27). Craigslist. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Craigslist

Craigslist. (n.d.). St. Louis, MO. https://stlouis.craigslist.org/

Monea, B. (n.d.). Screen reading: A gallery of (re)imagined interfaces. Retrieved September 11, 2022, from https://kairos.technorhetoric.net/24.2/disputatio/monea/index.html