re: machines

• Hi there lurkers! by John Suler, 7/26/97
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    • references on flaming by John Suler, 11/12/97
      
      

I think people do have all sorts of emotional (transference) reactions to machines. I bet you can imagine what Freud would say about the symbolic significance of a car to an adolescent male. Computers are especially powerful targets of such emotional/transference reactions because they are highly modifiable (can be programmed to reflect your own personality), seem to "think" and "behave" like people, and with the advent of the internet have become intimately intertwined with the consciousness and personalities of other humans.

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