Man Versus Machine: Resisting Automation in Identity-Based Consumer Behaviour

From Digital Culture & Society

Article title: Man Versus Machine: Resisting Automation in Identity-Based Consumer Behaviour

DOI: 10.1177/0022243718818423

Contents 1 Context 2 Overview 3 Strength and Weaknesses 4 Conclusion

[edit] Context

Automation will profoundly influence the lives of many, for better or worse. This revolutionary technology fulfills a corporate desire for efficiency, at the expense of human workers. Machines will supplant those working in factory and manufacturing jobs. Experts prophesized mass unemployment as a byproduct of automation’s growing pervasion.

[edit] Overview

Dialogue about automation has primarily focused on production processes, with little attention paid to automation’s implications on consumer behaviour. The article supplements literature on commercial technology’s effect on identity-based consumer behaviour.

The article undercuts a notion maintained by naïve marketing practitioners tasked with the promotion of automated products; all consumers value the time and energy one saves by requesting an automated machine’s fulfillment of a task typically done by humans.

The authors Leung, Paolucci, & Putoni (2018) highlight consumers who consider themselves purists in an area of their liking, and their objection to automated products that render human engagement in an activity they deeply enjoy unnecessary.

[edit] Strength and Weaknesses

The authors spotlight a sparsely addressed byproduct of the ripple effect caused commercial automated products; resistance from consumers unwilling to forgo the pleasure they experience while undertaking activities that are now fully automatable.

To assure readers had clear understanding of the article’s thesis, the authors make multiple references to activities that can be undertaken without human intervention as a result of advancements in automation - baking, fishing, driving and biking.

The insights presented in the article are logical and sound. Pinpointing weaknesses would be nitpicking.

[edit] Conclusion

The prospect of consumers turned off by the convenience enable by automated devices is something that should be explored more frequently. The qualitative research featured in this study could be of interest to social scientists, economists, and marketing practitioners.

--Eo13jq 20:26, 13 March 2019 (UTC)