Alienation and Computer User Attitudes

The social psychological phenomenon of alienation has been used to explain feelings of separation and estrangement with our increasingly technological society since it was first proposed by Marx. The present study represents an application of the theory of alienation to the attitudes of computer users in an attempt to explain their feelings, especially negative feelings, which have heretofore been vaguely referred tO aS "frustration," "dissatisfaction," etc. The result is a systematic decomposition of these attitudes into various components of alienation which are consistent with the already well-established theory of alienation. Several hypotheses are tested, including examination of the effect of education on computer alienation. INTRODUCTION clarity, lack of ethics, lack of intrinsic satisfaction, and social rejection. These "components" The psychological, sociological, and organizaof alienation, which will be more precisely tional factors associated with humans using defined later, can be applied to numerous fields computers are of great importance in the design of study. and use of management information systems. These factors affect the success and the essential Alienation has been treated both formally viability of information systems in organiza(Schraml, 1981; Shepard, 1971; Sheridan, 1980) tions. Because of this, a significant amount of and obliquely (Artandi, 1982; Cartwright, 1980; effort has been expended studying the various Morrison, 1983) by several authors as a means effects of computing in organizations, a survey of explaining users' feelings of frustration with of which appears in Attewell and Rule (1984). computers. Schraml (1981) describes users' perOne of the earliest theories in this area is attributed to Marx ( 1977) and pertains to the feeling technology over which they have no conceptions of computers as representing vast, unpotential feelings of alienation workers feel in trol. She also found a resentment stemming the face of automation. Marx and his followers from the lack of human interaction when dealproposed that the history of mankind is fraught ing with machines. Sheridan (1980) mentions with both increasing development and increasing feelings of separation from the self and the that computers are perceived as making human surrounding social structure. our society to think that hard work is no longer operators remote from their task and causing the path to success. These authors are actually Alienation is used in everyday parlance as a describing feelings of alienation, however no term meaning "to cause resentment" or "to systematic attempt has been made by MIS estrange." In academic research, the term has researchers to integrate these descriptions of been used to describe a variety of situations frustration with computers to alienation theory which include feelings of lack.of power, lack of as it appears in social psychology.