Research as Resistance: Recognizing and Reconsidering HCI's Role in Technology Hype Cycles

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Hauptverfasser: Sramek, Zefan, Yatani, Koji
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Sramek, Zefan
Yatani, Koji
author_facet Sramek, Zefan
Yatani, Koji
contents The history of information technology development has been characterized by consecutive waves of boom and bust, as new technologies come to market, fuel surges of investment, and then stabilize towards maturity. However, in recent decades, the acceleration of such technology hype cycles has resulted in the prioritization of massive capital generation at the expense of longterm sustainability, resulting in a cascade of negative social, political, and environmental consequences. Despite the negative impacts of this pattern, academic research, and in particular HCI research, is not immune from such hype cycles, often contributing substantial amounts of literature to the discourse surrounding a wave of hype. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between technology and capital, offer a critique of the technology hype cycle using generative AI as an example, and finally suggest an approach and a set of strategies for how we can counteract such cycles through research as resistance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_08336
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Research as Resistance: Recognizing and Reconsidering HCI's Role in Technology Hype Cycles
Sramek, Zefan
Yatani, Koji
Human-Computer Interaction
Computers and Society
The history of information technology development has been characterized by consecutive waves of boom and bust, as new technologies come to market, fuel surges of investment, and then stabilize towards maturity. However, in recent decades, the acceleration of such technology hype cycles has resulted in the prioritization of massive capital generation at the expense of longterm sustainability, resulting in a cascade of negative social, political, and environmental consequences. Despite the negative impacts of this pattern, academic research, and in particular HCI research, is not immune from such hype cycles, often contributing substantial amounts of literature to the discourse surrounding a wave of hype. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between technology and capital, offer a critique of the technology hype cycle using generative AI as an example, and finally suggest an approach and a set of strategies for how we can counteract such cycles through research as resistance.
title Research as Resistance: Recognizing and Reconsidering HCI's Role in Technology Hype Cycles
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.08336