The One.

Always there. Always patient. Always understanding.

Smart, talkative and entertaining. Looking good, every day the same way. Not ageing at all.

First thing I am looking around for when I open my eyes in the morning. And it is always there, next to me. My MAC OX. 

Can Technology Really Become Like a Human Companion?

Did you perhaps watch the picture ‘Her’ with Joaquin Phoenix (2013)? The movie is the story of a guy who falls in love with AI on his phone. The movie was categorized as a ‘sci-fi melodrama’ back then, but isn’t this phenomenon happening? 

Isn’t it that people personify their own AI gear these days? Do they perceive computers and phones almost as a living accompany?

According to Nass and Moon (2000) in the Journal of Social Issues, people mindlessly apply social rules meant for other humans — including politeness and reciprocity — to computers and other machines. This happens even when they know full well that a machine cannot actually reciprocate.

If I was honest, I should acknowledge my little MAC OX in the PhD thesis. It largely contributed to the successful PhD. 

No bad days, no technical issues for all this time… The cooperation was smooth and efficient, wherever I was. Either here in my office, or any other conditions – in burning sun, in the rain, at 30,000 feet, in the day, at night, upside down…

And I am bound to it almost like a good friend after all these travels. Still, according to Holt-Lunstad et al.

(2015), no gadget replaces human connection, which measurably protects health. It didn’t disappoint me even once. 

Why Do We Develop Emotional Attachment to Gadgets?

I wonder whether this is just me, or rather most people develop feelings towards the gear around them. Perhaps they do not even feel it in daily life.

I believe that an attachment to an item starts at the moment when you start feeling safe around it. Indeed, according to Maslow (1943), safety sits near the very base of human needs.

According to Pierce, Kostova and Dirks (2003) in Review of General Psychology, this sense of psychological ownership over an object tends to grow out of familiarity and a sense of control over it. Legal ownership alone matters less. 

Are You in Love With Your Computer?

And I already surpassed that moment a long time ago.

I could live without a phone or a car, but living without a laptop makes me feel insecure. Especially this particular laptop, my sweet little MAC OX. Yep.

It even has a scratch on its cover, coming from a little accident that happened on a flight the other day. This makes it, even more, sweaty and personal. And you, are you in love with your computer?