I was wondering how much of this kind of tech is already in the customer support systems that allow one member of staff to multitask six or more customer chat sessions at once.
This project is a few years old, and got me started on a series of experimental social add ons that acknowledge the emotional impact of software. (FWIW The creator intended it to start discussion, not actually improve emails.) Anyway, after lots of dumb ideas two of those became actual releases, which is to say, just dumb enough to work. They’re free.
Floodgate covers up content on Twitter based on rules you set. Hover to reveal.
Social Network Sleep redirects attention hungry services to kitten videos when I’m supposed to be sleeping.
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That’s really sad…using a computer to replace ‘emotional labour’. And as others have said, if emailing friends is a ‘labour’ than needs somehow ‘sexing up’ with cuddly dialogue then they don’t need you as a friend.
Can this thing help me with hitting the right tone in online debates?
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And seriously who takes grammatical advice from
"Sentence fragment consider revising."?
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In all seriousness, I kinda understand the point of this. I don’t think of myself as unfriendly, but I’m just not much of an emotional communicator. I would be interested in this, if it weren’t seemingly always set on Horny Saudi Arabian Teenager, and if automated sentiment analysis didn’t have such glaring problems.
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There’s a fine line between dry metalevel humor and egregious failure to copy-edit, isn’t there?
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Not me.
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Well, it has the presence of Mad Max (new one) lines while not being as glib as smiley-adding or…wait, it changed work to lol rather than ‘I usually’ to ‘I now’…response should go through the James Spader, Prosecutor filter.
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Analog Enter keys; SLAM that enter key to send. Harder!
If you stick a needle in the right side of the key, it pulls a Kellyanne Conway sham in the process of answering.
If you twist the Enter key, you get the usual BBS ‘Gunning-Fog Index’ and other reading level and humor indicators, but with -sliders- and a ++ + cite - – skill tree to draw from.
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WE ALREADY HAVE THAT TECHNOLOGY!11!!!11!
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Unlike a lot of other commenters I’m not going to claim that emotional labour doesn’t exist - maintaining relationships is a lot of work, regardless of whether you enjoy it or not - but if you’re already taking the time to write to somebody then a plugin that adds non-specific questions and calls them generic pet names is not going to save you a lot of effort.
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Anyone who disbelieves in emotional labor clearly hasn’t played enough Stardew Valley. The agriculture I can handle; the interpersonal demands stressed me out enough that I’ve had to take a break.
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You should check out “The Long Dark”. Sweet, sweet solitude. Well, unless you count bears, wolves and deer.
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I think that I’ve been spoiled by the (more or less industry wide, with occasional exceptions) shift toward RPGs that, regardless of how gorgeous their real day-night cycles and simulated NPC activity patterns are; are essentially timeless(outside of combat, where action points are always precious in turn-based games; and some comparatively demanding reflex requirements are definitely an option in real time ones).
On occasion, time will ‘pass’ if you specifically trigger certain things(eg. in Mass Effect 2 some missions are time-critical; but this just means that undertaking other missions before the time critical mission will count as ignoring it; you can hang out and take care of your fish tank or whatnot for as much real-world time as you like); but for the most part quests just sort of hang around until you decide to complete them; and, while developing a relationship with an NPC may involve considerably greater effort than just giving them random produce; they rarely seem to mind you just heading out for a few months to go on some side quests; or maintaining a completely nutty schedule and occasionally returning home covered in blood without explanation.
In terms of number of play-hours required, I suspect that something like maxing all Fallout 4 companion affinity is substantially more involved; but the world virtually stops moving except where you happen to be at any given moment; while the Stardew NPCs are as relentless as the seasons, relationship status degrades if you don’t make the rounds frequently enough; lining up gifts to birthdays can be a juggling act, and so on.
Now, what I have absolutely no good explanation for is why such a rudimentary simulation of interpersonal interaction is more stressful than the(often unabashedly complex and fiddly) resource management in strategy games.
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A little too close to the real thing, Flossy. Stop it, you’re worrying me.
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Agreed. Good stuff.
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Like, omg! 
How will I ever know when a sociopath is emailing me now?
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