Tools as They Affect Interpersonal Communication

an approach to environmental design

Abstract

There are two kinds of effect which tools have, the one being 'sociopetal' and the other 'sociofugal'.The former refers to the effect of tools that pull people together thus encouraging face to face interpersonal communication, while the latter is the effect that puts them apart, independent or isolated. It is hypothesized that today, in general, sociofugal effect dominates over sociopetal one due to widespread use of high-tech gears such as mobile phone. In this situation, there seem to be something to do on the part of designers.