Technologizing Touch: Tactile Magic, Education, and Domestication in Apple iPad Advertisements

Authors

  • Jason Edward Archer

Abstract

Touch may be the most intimate but least understood forms of communication. Its primacy made it a third sense behind seeing and hearing. However, as touchscreen technologies permeate the cultural landscape, and tactility enters scholarly discussions, the importance of understanding the relationships between tactility and human-machine communication in everyday life is increasingly felt. This study provides a discourse analysis about the tactility of human-machine communication by using Apple iPad advertisements as case studies. The investigation uncovers three dominant discourses that position the iPad as providing a magical tactile experience through intuitive, everyday activities, confined within the critical space of domesticity.

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Published

2013-10-31

How to Cite

Archer, J. E. (2013). Technologizing Touch: Tactile Magic, Education, and Domestication in Apple iPad Advertisements. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 3. Retrieved from https://spir.aoir.org/ojs/index.php/spir/article/view/8993

Issue

Section

Papers A