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As I read “Fidget Spinners: How buffer icons have shaped our sense of time”, I at first disagreed with Farman’s claim that buffering icons create an intimacy with someone through technology (or even the technology itself) and represents the hope of satisfaction. I thought about my reactions to the buffer icons of my Mac, Instagram, and Youtube; usually they were ones of frustration because I was being forced to wait to look at something, watch something, save something, etc.
As I finished the article, however, I could see that some of what Farman was saying about intimacy was true. I decided that, for me personally, there are two different instances of how I feel about waiting on technology.
I think (and I feel this may be true for others) that the instances that I get frustrated with waiting for technology is when I know the content that is “behind” the buffering icon. For example, I get really frustrated when I am trying to download something into a folder online, and the buffering icon is preventing it from occurring quickly. Or when I am trying to watch my favorite movie on Netflix and the buffering icon is taking so long that it is preventing me from doing that.
A different instance where I am waiting on technology in which I actually feel excited with anticipation and intimacy as Farman suggests is when I am waiting for a text message and I see the typing bubble that pops up in iMessage when someone is typing me a message back. This specific buffering icon creates excitement because its duration, how fast it pops up, etc. are indicators of what the message might say, and it is exciting to wait for it, especially when it is in an intimate conversation with a friend or a love interest (Haha).
This is not a clear, distinctive line however. There are certain platforms of technology in which I am waiting, and sometimes I feel excitement, and sometimes I just get frustrated at how long I am waiting to see or watch something that I am really interested in. This blur is really interesting because I think it can represent other instances unrelated to technology in which we are waiting and will have different reactions in different moments. One good example of this blur would be waiting for an Instagram picture to load. While sometimes it is exciting to anticipate what the picture might be while it loads, it is also sometimes frustrating when you have to wait a really long time for something you want to see.
All GIFs in this post were retrieved from giphy.com
Posted from Digital Studies 101 Blog by Lindsay