Computer-mediated Empathy
This is a position paper that addresses the problem of reduced expressivity in digital communication for users and designers, but it is incremental as it builds on existing concepts without introducing new empirical results.
The paper tackles the challenge of maintaining empathetic communication in computer-mediated interactions by proposing a framework to break down empathy into elements and examining how technology can support or hinder each component.
While novel social networks and emerging technologies help us transcend the spatial and temporal constraints inherent to in-person communication, the trade-off is a loss of natural expressivity. While empathetic interaction is already challenging in in-person communication, computer-mediated communication makes such empathetically rich communication even more difficult. Are technology and intelligent systems opportunities or threats to more empathic interpersonal communication? Realizing empathy is suggested not only as a way to communicate with others but also to design products for users and facilitate creativity. In this position paper, I suggest a framework to breakdown empathy, introduce each element, and show how computing, technologies, and algorithms can support (or hinder) certain elements of the empathy framework.