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People thoughts.
Mar. 26th, 2010 08:17 amThis is something I've come to the realization of over the past week. Much like TV, books and the radio, if someone sees something on the computer they believe it to be true even if reality shows that it's not. My big example of this is from a conversation I have a lot while manning the front desk.
Patron: *comes up to me" The computer says that this book is available, but I can't find it.
Me: All right, let me double check. *goes back to check, because sometimes second eyes can find it when the first try doesn't* I'm sorry that book doesn't seem to be on the shelves.
Patron: But the computer says it is.
Me:*checks the main catalog* Yes, it does. However, I don't know why it's not there.
Patron: It should be there. The computer says it is. *looks at me like it's my fault that it's not there.* Where is it?
Me: I don't know. I'm sorry.
Patron:*flounces*
The fact that the computer says that the book is there, trumps the reality that hey the book isn't there. No, I don't know why the computer says it's there. It's a mistake, clearly. Yet they can't seem to get this into their heads. They have this belief that since the computer says it is so, reality must bend to its whim, instead of the computer being wrong.
I don't mind it so much when they say, "hey the computer says the book is available, but I can't find it" because there are a lot of books and if you're not used to looking for them it's easy to miss. But when they get insistent that since the computer says so, then it must be so and push on that point that it starts to get to me. Computers are only as good as the people who input the data into them. Sometimes, those people make mistakes.
They're not sentient scheming machines out to make people's lives miserable.
That's the programmer's job.
Patron: *comes up to me" The computer says that this book is available, but I can't find it.
Me: All right, let me double check. *goes back to check, because sometimes second eyes can find it when the first try doesn't* I'm sorry that book doesn't seem to be on the shelves.
Patron: But the computer says it is.
Me:*checks the main catalog* Yes, it does. However, I don't know why it's not there.
Patron: It should be there. The computer says it is. *looks at me like it's my fault that it's not there.* Where is it?
Me: I don't know. I'm sorry.
Patron:*flounces*
The fact that the computer says that the book is there, trumps the reality that hey the book isn't there. No, I don't know why the computer says it's there. It's a mistake, clearly. Yet they can't seem to get this into their heads. They have this belief that since the computer says it is so, reality must bend to its whim, instead of the computer being wrong.
I don't mind it so much when they say, "hey the computer says the book is available, but I can't find it" because there are a lot of books and if you're not used to looking for them it's easy to miss. But when they get insistent that since the computer says so, then it must be so and push on that point that it starts to get to me. Computers are only as good as the people who input the data into them. Sometimes, those people make mistakes.
They're not sentient scheming machines out to make people's lives miserable.
That's the programmer's job.
