Perceived delay arises from mismatched interaction speeds, not actual slowness

Evidence

However, slowdown does not only emerge as an immediate side effect of processes of acceleration. It is also, to a far greater extent, a sideeffect of (acceleration-induced) desynchronization phenomena, e.g., in the form of waiting times. … For instance, the unbearable impatience that sets in when the Internet search engine becomes torturously slow in delivering results seems to represent an interesting example of this. Even here one is dealing in the end with a synchronization problem. The computer “simulates” a dialogue and answers questions, but with continual delays that lie well beyond the frame of the conversationally tolerable three-second window of attention. Thus the feeling emerges that one is being “held up” by the computer, although it is precisely the computer that achieves immense time savings in comparison to previous methods of obtaining information. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 277

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the reader’s silence/soundscape work on the three-second conversational window and perceived waiting — an objective fast tool can feel subjectively like it is holding you up because it crosses the human-turn-taking frame. — connects to: Faster transport and communication do not inherently cause more frequent use or time scarcity — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 234; Group delay affects perceived quality only when it varies with frequency — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1274; Perceived speed depends on the observer’s own chosen scale of measurement (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Group delay affects perceived quality only when it varies with frequency #qualifies (0.78) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1274
• Perceived speed depends on the observer’s own chosen scale of measurement #complicates (0.75)
• Naive signal-difference models misjudge perceived quality under variable delay #corroborates (0.75)