You Can't Hang With Us

Did you ever try to get into a conversation but wasn’t let in by others? If yes, we are sorry for you and it must have sucked, you have been socially excluded. It’s something the majority of us experienced one way or another when we weren’t let into a discussion, conversation or weren't invited to a party. We humans exclude others, sometimes for more severe reasons, by making them the “other” and not a part of “us”.

But is this just a human behavior? Do animals exclude other animals, or better yet, do robots exclude other robots? Can humans feel excluded by robots, and would we feel a similar pain as to when our peers exclude us?

You Can’t Hang With Us invites you to try to join a conversation two bots are having. You can say something and comment on what these robots have said by pressing a button. But these bots actually don’t want to talk to you. Why? We don’t know. Maybe because you are the other, the non-robot one. The more persistent you are in joining the conversation, the more annoyed these bots get. The more time you give them to respond, the more patient they will be with you. Ultimately, they will get annoyed with you because they simply don’t want to include you. Despite your best efforts to be included, you realize you don’t belong. You are alienated.

You can try to hang with us, but ultimately we won’t let you. Nevertheless, you should try to hang with us, so you will know next time how it would feel to be excluded from a conversation.