INTRODUCTION

WEB RAGE

     What is web rage?  "Web rage" defined by The Word Spy is "extreme anger caused by World Wide Web frustrations such slow downloads, nonexistent links, and information that is difficult to find."

MY TWO CENTS:

     I selected web rage as one of my topics because I have experienced it before.  Sometimes, going from destination A to destination B on the internet isn't as easy as you think it is.  In between, you have to pass through points C (pop-up advertisement,), D (another pop-up ad,) and E (yet another pop-up ad.)  Sometimes I just give up and forget about searching for whatever it is that I am searching for.

WEB RAGE HITS THE INTERNET:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1829944.stm

     BBC News offers a number of news articles in various categories including Science/Technology, Health, and Education.  This article on web rage was found in the Science/Technology category.  Written in 2002, the author focuses on what web rage is, how people react to web rage, and how to relieve stress from web rage in the future.  The author states "more than half of all internet users admit to losing their rage with the net at least once a week, according to a Mori study."  Some of the problems people run into with the internet is the length of time it takes websites to load, help buttons are useless because they don't seem to help at all, and the amount of personal detail that is requested before being able to enter a website.  These problems drive people up the wall, making them experience web rage.  When this happens, different people react differently.  Some people leave the room when they know they are going to lose their temper.  Some people get revenge.  "One 43-year-old man ordered £1 million worth of goods from a website after a TV he ordered failed to turn up despite sending numerous e-mails."  A novel way to relieve stress from web rage is by visiting Momentsofsimplicity.co.uk on the web.  It is a site created by Abbey National that has a selection of music and images to calm internet users down.

Here are some statistics taken from the website:

     I was not surprised by the statistics given by this article on this web site.  I agree that as much as half of all internet users run into problems with the internet at least once a week.  However, I was a bit surprised that only about 26 percent of people boycott irritating sites.  I would think anyone with the right mind would leave an irritating site!

WEB RAGE - USER FRUSTRATIONS OF THE INTERNET:
http://www.webauditgroup.com/advice/frustrate.shtml

     The Web Audit Group consists of marketing communication professionals "with a variety of experience in the architecture/design, automotive, furnishings, healthcare, publishing and telecommunications industries."  This web page mainly gives advice in the area of online business corporations, such as how to promote a company's services online, how to do an e-newsletter, and how to find out if one's site is outdated.  One of their advice articles talks about web rage.  They surveyed a number of people on how often people get mad when trying to do business over a company site, what they do when they get mad, and what bothers them most about websites.  A lot of people in the surveyed answered "daily" when asked how often they get frustrated when trying to do business over a company website.  When these people get frustrated, often times they would just leave the website and try to find another one with similar interests.  What bothers people most about company websites was the font on the websites was hard to read.  They had a hard time finding the company's contact information, such as address, phone number, and sometimes when it was found, the information was out of date.

     I think this web site is useful for companies, but not for general web users because most of its advice is geared toward companies with online web sites.

ARE YOU CONTRIBUTING TO WEB RAGE?:
http://www.southwestecommerce.com/library/webrage.htm

     This web site gives tips to companies on how to reduce web rage for others.  One tip is to never leave an email unanswered.  When this happens, you are ignoring your customer which is bad customer service.  Another tip is to never had pop-up windows on your website.  It just slows the user down with unwanted information.  A third tip is to keep your web site simple so it does not take ages to load.  The user may get tired of waiting and end up leaving your site, frustrated that it was taking so long.

     This web site is made for companies, but I also think it is useful for general web page makers.  I agree with the three tips given by this web site because I believe keeping a web site simple and clean is best.

PHONE RAGE/
CELL PHONE RAGE

     What is phone rage?  Phone rage is experienced when one becomes frustrated or angered by phone interactions such as getting telemarketing calls during dinner time.

MY TWO CENTS:

     I selected phone rage/cell phone rage as another topic because I have also experienced it before.  Once I got so annoyed with prank calls, I just left my phone unhooked because the ringing was annoying my whole family.  Since then, I haven't experienced any phone rage.

PHONE RAGE: A PHENOMENON?
http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/groups/tlig/asg/courses/wkshop99/guy.ppt

     This web site offers a power presentation of what phone rage is, why phone rage occurs when face-to-face rage would not occur, and what can be done about phone rage.  Guy Fielding and Kevin Hook, authors of this web site, defines phone rage as ""interactions where anger is experienced and/or expressed, and where (verbal) aggression occurs, within and as a result of the telephone interaction itself, and is either caused by or is exacerbated by the telephone interaction itself."  Sometimes, phone rage occurs when face-to-face rage would not occur because phone rage is more mentally negative and face-to-face rage is more physically negative.  It is easier to get mad mentally, then to actually act out this anger physically.  Fielding and Hook offers several ways to prevent phone rage from happening, such as work in a organized environment, get training on how to answer calls, and learn relaxation techniques to deal with stress.

Some interesting statistics taken from this web page:

---44% of surveyed sample felt the greatest cause of anger/frustration in daily life was being kept on hold when telephoning.
---61% of surveyed sample felt that phone rage has grown over the last five years.
---5% of surveyed sample felt that phone rage has declined.
---65% of surveyed sample felt that differences in communication channels are most likely to be expressed over the phone than in writing or face to face.

     I found this web site very informational and I enjoyed reading the statistics on phone rage.  The web site was in power point presentation form so that was annoying because I had to keep on clicking to get to the next slide.

CELL PHONE RAGE:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/04/tech/main621193.shtml

     CBS News, similar to BBC news, offers news articles on various world topics such as politics, science and technology, and health.  The article on cell phone rage talks about the frustrations of cell phone company policies.  Several examples on why people were frustrated were given:

---"Claire Smith, 21, of San Diego, set up automatic payments for her Cingular Wireless bill. Cingular charged her credit card, then sent paper bills. When she didn't pay the duplicate bill, they cut off her service, saying she was delinquent. "They tried to double bill me," she said."

---Neil Coleman, 34, of Jersey City, N.J., asked for a national plan when he signed up with AT&T Wireless. He worked inside his local calling area for months, then was sent to Dallas. His next mobile bill was $600, most of it roaming charges.

     I haven't had any problems with my cell phone company yet, but apparently, there are a lot of other people have problems with their cell phone companies.  I was a bit shocked to find out these things even happen because I didn't know it could happen.

TRACKING THE NEW RAGE IN COMMUNICATIONS
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/09/1026185043219.html

     Like many other news web sites, TheAge.com offers news articles in many different topics in world technologies.  This article talks about a new system introduced by a Canadian company, Mitel.  "The Mitel system uses a "mood detector" claimed to assess a caller's behaviour. If shouting, or rapid bashing of buttons or tension in a voice is discovered, the upset caller is immediately transferred to an agent trained to handle rage, the patent application says."  The agents that the customers are being transferred to are always the opposite sex of the customer and are well trained to talk to the customer in an appropriate manner.

     I think the Mitel system is sort of ridiculous.  I mean, how can you tell if the other person on the phone is male or female?  I know you can generally tell by the pitch of voice, but there are always cases of men having a high-pitched voice and women having a low-pitched voice.  This article didn't go into the Mitel system in full detail, but I personally don't think it would work.

WORK RAGE

     What is work rage?  "Work rage defined by The Word Spy is extreme workplace anger exhibited by an employee who has been mistreated or fired."

MY TWO CENTS:

     I picked work rage as another topic because I thought it sounded interesting and I wanted to learn more about it.  So far, I have not experienced any work rage and I'm very glad I haven't.

VIOLENCE AT WORK
http://www.whs.qld.gov.au/guide/gde02v1.pdf

     This web site is part of the Division of Workplace Health & Safety of the Queensland Government.  It explains what types of violence are evident at work, how to manage this violence, and the aftermath of violence at work.  This table of contents gives you a good summary of what this web site is about:

     I found this web site very useful because it had a lot of information on violence at work and what to do about it if it ever happens.  The web page was very organized and the table of contents told me exactly where specific information about work violence could be found.

VIOLENCE AT WORK: FINDINGS FROM 2002/2003 BRITISH CRIME SURVEY
http://www.hse.gov.uk/violence/bcsviolence0203.pdf

     This web site explains the extent of violence at work, the nature of violence at work, and consequences of violence at work.  This web site includes information on the levels of violence at work, trends in violence at work, who is at risk of violence at work, offender characteristics, offender-victim relationships, the impact on worry on health and training.

Some interesting Tables from this web site:

     I also found this web page very interesting.  I found the tables very interesting because it gives me an estimate of who is at risk of violence at work. 

PET RAGE

What is pet rage?  Pet rage is anger experienced toward pets.

MY TWO CENTS:

     I have never experienced pet rage, but I have an interest in it so I selected it as my last topic.  I find it grossly sick that some people experience pet rage and abuse their pets.  It makes me think they have psychological problems, and they probably do, and wonder what happened to make them turn like that.

PET ABUSE
http://pet-abuse.com/

     Pet Abuse offers information on animal cruelty and how to prevent such abuse.  There are two types of animal cruelty, passive and active.  Passive cruelty is generally neglect of an animal. For example,  forgetting to feed and animal is passive cruelty.  Active cruelty is an intent of causing harm to an animal.  For example, hitting an animal with a baseball bat is active cruelty.  To prevent such cruelty from happening, one needs to be aware of the animal's needs and be careful not to harm the animal.

     I thought this website was interesting.  I was surprised to find out the creator of this website was someone who had their cat taken and abused.  That was what drove that person to create a organization against pet-abusers.

HAWAIIAN HUMANE SOCIETY
http://www.hawaiianhumane.org/

     "The Hawaiian Humane Society is dedicated to promoting the human-animal bond and the humane treatment of all animals."  This web site offers information on pet care & advice, education programs, and what to do with injured or lost animals. 

     This website has a lot of information on the treatment of animals.  I think it is very useful because this organization is in Hawaii so you can actually contact them if you ever need to.

CONCLUSION