Is the trend of the revenge effect accelerating as we approach the end of the twentieth century. Is it getting worse?

    I'm not sure if the consequences are worse for us now. I am not saying that technology is making things worse or that the results are getting more serious. But I think that though they may be minor, they are getting to be more frequent. Just because more products are being introduced in different combinations and in different ways, so there are more ways they can behave more unexpectedly. http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/13.05.html

    Am I right in thinking it is not the machinery or the technology that is at fault it is the way we use it?My example would be the paperless office which hasn't happened. Is that because we refuse to let go of paper or because we refuse to learn how to work on screen.

    "It's because we haven't been realistic enough about the present and foreseeable limits of display technology Even an excellent display only has the resolution of even a 300 dpi laser print. And far less than the 600 and 1200 dpi lasers that are becoming the standard. It's a race between the improvement and quality of displays and the improvement of the capability of laser printed paper. The paper has been gaining on displays which have not really improved that significantly in the last ten years, as you know. http://www.adobe.com

    But technology can make life better AND easier. Where is the revenge effect in my TV remote?

    "Oh, I can see the revenge effect in that, very easily! Just look at the design of programming in the commercially intensive atmosphere of the United States. The most important thing for advertisers is to keep people watching. The entire programme has to be designed to prevent them zapping channels. Consequently there is too much emphasis on the short, the soundbite - everything is too superficial, too snappy. Your remote control may well have some of the blame for it. Because it is so easy to shift, the networks feel they have no choice but to programme this way. http://www.mtv.com.

    So a revenge effect doesn't necessarily happen to a person it can happen to all sorts of things.

    That's right. The effect is very much more diffuse. For example, the person who installs an alarm in their house connected to the police may not experience any revenge effects from it apart from the need to reprogramme it occasionally when it is goes off without reason. But, for the police something like 97% of these alarms are false so the whole community may be less secure because the police are tied up on these false trips.

    Car alarms too. They have become almost useless in large parts of the United States. People are much more likely to think someone has set off their own car alarm rather than the car is being broken into by a car thief. So to that extent they have defeated the whole purpose of car alarms.

    And they take revenge quite literally by smashing up the car?

    Yes, it's called lynching!