Skip to main content

Love, Ritual and Videochat

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

Technologies such as Skype and iChat have become increasingly commonplace in the home, and being used more and more often by families to communicate at a distance, despite the absences of support for such interaction that are common in an office setting. In this chapter I look at the topics of videochat and intimacy in HCI and CSCW, and propose an approach to taking such interactions seriously. I introduce the use of the Five Love Languages (5LL) system as a simple and approachable theoretical model for making sense of how people talk about communicating love through video chat in their extended family.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    In particular, Chapman, a pastor in a Baptist church, brings with him a set of values, particularly around homosexuality, that I do not endorse.

References

  • Ames, M., Go, J., Kaye, J. and Spasojevic, M (2010). Making love in the network closet: The benefits and work of home videochat. In Proceedings of CHI 2010, Atlanta, GA, USA: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ames, M., Go, J. Kaye, J. and Spasojevic, M. (2011). Understanding technology choices and values through social class. In Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on Computer supported cooperative work - CSCW ’11, 55. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ballagas, R., Kaye, J. Ames, M. Go, J. and Raffle, H. (2009). Family communication. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children - IDC ’09, 321. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press. doi:10.1145/1551788.1551874.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ballagas, R., Raffle, H. Go, J. Revelle, G., Kaye, J., Ames, M., Horii, H. Koichi, M and Spasojevic, M (2010). Story Time for the 21st Century. IEEE Pervasive Computing 9, no. 3 (July): 28-36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell Labs. (1968). The Picture of the Future. Special Issue on the Picturephone. Bell Laboratories Record 47(5), May/June.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bly, S., Harrison, S. and Irwin, S. (1993). Media spaces: bringing people together in a video, audio, and computing environment. CACM 36, no. 1: 28-46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brander, B. (2004) Love that works: the art and science of giving. Templeton Foundation Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, B., Ishii, H., and Dahley, A. (1998). Tangible interfaces for remote collaboration and communication. In Proceedings of the 1998 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work - CSCW ’98, 169-178. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press, November 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchenau, M. and Suri, J. (2000). Experience prototyping. In Proceedings of the 3rd conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques (DIS ’00), Boyarski & Kellogg (Eds.). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 424-433.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, G., (2010). The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts. Northfield Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, C., Forlizzi, J., and Jennings, P. (2006). ComSlipper. CHI ’06 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chung, Hyemin, and Chj Lee. 2006. Lover’s cups: drinking interfaces as new communication channels. CHI ’06 extended abstracts: 375-380.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dodge, Chris. 1997. The bed: a medium for intimate communication. In Extended Abstracts of CHI ’97. ACM, New York, NY, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, Mary. 2003. Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dourish, Paul, and S Bly. 1992. Portholes: supporting awareness in a distributed work group. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, 541–547. Monterey, California, United States: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fish, R.S., R.E. Kraut, and B.L. Chalfonte. 1990. The VideoWindow system in informal communication. In Proceedings of the 1990 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work, 1–11. Los Angeles, California, United States: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaver, W, Thomas Moran, Allan MacLean, Lennart Lövstrand, Paul Dourish, Kathleen Carter, and William Buxton. 1992. Realizing a video environment: EuroPARC’s RAVE system. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, 27–35. Monterey, California, United States: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, Martin R., Frank Vetere, Marcus Bunyan, and Steve Howard. 2005. SynchroMate: a phatic technology for mediating intimacy. In Proceedings of the 2005 conference on Designing for User eXperience. New York: AIGA: American Institute of Graphic Arts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregg, J.L. 2001. Tearing down walls for the homebound elderly. In CHI ’01 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, 469–470. Seattle, Washington: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchinson, Hilary, Wendy Mackay, and Bo Westerlund. 2003. Technology probes: inspiring design for and with families. Proc. CHI 2003. Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaye, J “J.” 2004. Making Scents. Interactions 11, no. 1 (January 1): 48-61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaye, J. “J.” 2006. I just clicked to say I love you: rich evaluations of minimal communication. In CHI06 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, 363–368. Montréal, Québec, Canada: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaye, J. “J.,” and Liz Goulding. 2004. Intimate objects. In Proc. Designing Interactive Systems 2004, 341-344. Cambridge, MA, USA: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaye, J. “J.,” Mariah K. Levitt, Jeffrey Nevins, Jessica Golden, and Vanessa Schmidt. 2005. Communicating intimacy one bit at a time. In CHI 05 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, 1529-1532. Portland, OR, USA: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lottridge, D., Masson, N. and Mackay, W. (2009). Sharing empty moments. In Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI ’09, 2329. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D. (1998). A Theory of Shopping. Cornell University Press, March.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moss, B., and Schwebel, A. (1993). Defining Intimacy in Romantic Relationships. Family Relations 42, no. 1 (October 19).

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien, S., and Mueller, F. (2006). Holding hands over a distance. In Proceedings of the 20th conference of the computer-human interaction special interest group (CHISIG) of Australia on Computer-human interaction: design: activities, artefacts and environments - OZCHI ’06, 293. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Hara, K., Black, A., and Lipson, M. (2006). Everyday practices with mobile video telephony. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, 871–880. Montréal, Québec, Canada: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raffle, H., Revelle, G., Mori, K. Ballagas, R. Buza, K. Horii, H. Kaye, J. (2011). Hello, Is Grandma There? StoryVisit: Family Video Chat and Connected E-Books. In Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI ’11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1195-1204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayes Raffle, Glenda Revelle, Koichi Mori, Rafael Ballagas, Kyle Buza, Hiroshi Horii, Joseph Kaye, Kristin Cook, Natalie Freed, Janet Go, and Mirjana Spasojevic. 2011. Hello, is grandma there? let’s read! StoryVisit: family video chat and connected e-books. In Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI ’11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1195-1204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raffle, H., Spasojevic, M., Ballagas, R., Revelle, G. Horii, H., Follmer, S., Go, J., Reardon, E. , Mori, K. and Kaye, J. (2010). Family story play. In Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI ’10, 1583. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strong, R., and Gaver, B. (1996). Feather, scent and shaker: supporting simple intimacy. In Proceedings of CSCW ’96, 96:29–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thieme, A., Wallace, J., Thomas, J. Chen, K. Krämer, N. and Olivier, P. (2011). Lovers’ box: Designing for reflection within romantic relationships. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 69, no. 5 (May): 283-297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsetserukou, D. (2010). HaptiHug: a novel haptic display for communication of hug over a distance. In Proceedings of the 2010 international conference on Haptics: generating and perceiving tangible sensations, Part I, 340–347. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsujita, H., Siio, I. and Tsukada, K. (2007). SyncDecor: appliances for sharing mutual awareness between lovers separated by distance. In CHI ’07 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, 2699–2704. San Jose, CA, USA: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherry, T. (2011). Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, R., Quek, F., Teh, J., Cheok, A. and Lai, S. (2010). Design and evaluation of a wearable remote social touch device. In International Conference on Multimodal Interfaces and the Workshop on Machine Learning for Multimodal Interaction on - ICMI-MLMI ’10, 1. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yarosh, S. (2008). Supporting long-distance parent-child interaction in divorced families. In CHI ’08 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, 3795–3800. Florence, Italy: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer London

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Kaye, J.“. (2011). Love, Ritual and Videochat. In: Harper, R. (eds) The Connected Home: The Future of Domestic Life. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-476-0_10

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-476-0_10

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-85729-475-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-85729-476-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics