Technophobe, by Ned
Shaw*
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Dec. 25, 2000 & Jan. 1, 2001 Technophobia! |
Technophobe, by Ned
Shaw*
Tidbit Archive
| A woman I know, who is quite comfortable operating a high-tech,
computerized sewing machine, refuses to use the automatic teller machine
at her bank and finds her VCR a perpetual challenge. A well-known
and highly-accomplished physics professor, compelled to use e-mail by the
habits of colleagues, hates to touch a keyboard. He has his wife
print out messages, writes out his answers in long-hand, and relies on
her to input and send them.
Everyone has a least one acquaintance who has a kind of inverse Midas touch when it comes to machines. Computers crash, copiers jam, fax machines malfunction, washing machines stop in mid-cycle, even toasters fail to toast when he or she comes near. They are the people whose phone calls the technology services staffs in their organizations learn to dread. Technophobia--fear of technology--is rampant in modern society. It seems to afflict older people more than younger ones, women more than men. It takes various forms. Some, such as Luddism, the rural idealism of a Wendell Berry, or the technological criticism of a Langdon Winner, are not really phobias at all but political or philosophical perspectives on technology's (mostly negative) impacts on society. Other forms are more personal and reflect a person's difficulties in coping with complex machines or, more generally, with constant change and the pace of modern life. Some observers argue, correctly in my own view, that it is wrong to blame people for their inability to cope with machines. Machines should be designed and built so that they serve people and, if they do not, then the fault lies with the engineer or designer, not the user. Donald Norman has a great deal to say on that subject. Norman, in contrast to many of the other writers listed below, would cure technophobia not by changing people but changing technology. It's a philosophically satisfying approach, and one that is more likely to work. |
Links:"Technostress" web site. Dr. Larry Rosen, professor of psychology at California State University at Dominguez Hills and Dr. Michelle Weil, president of Human-Ware, LLC, are authors of Technostress: Coping With Technology @Work @Home @Play. Their site contains many of their studies, commentaries, media articles, and a wealth of other material promoting the book as well as their consulting and speaking services.
Helping Older People Use Automatic Teller Machines. Report on a 1997 study by researchers from Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia.
Business writer Michael Finley's "Techno-Personality Test." Also see his article on the worst technologies of the last 1000 years.
"Are You a Technophobe?" Another test, this one from the Technology Education Department at Princeton High School in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Technophobia in films of the 1970s, from Cybercinema, an interactive site devoted to the history of computers and artificial intelligence in film sponsored by the Department of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Nancy Bourke, "How Technophobia Has Been Reflected in Films," (A 1998 report from Loyola College in Maryland.)
Selected newspaper and other media articles on technophobia:
Larry Johnson, "Technophobia: Batteries Not Included" -- how to overcome your fear by talking to your computer.TechnoPhobia Limited -- a somewhat misleadingly named web development firm in Sheffield, England.David Hayes, "Technophobia? Fear Not!" -- the answer is to embrace the future (a series of articles from the Kansas City Star)
Joe McGarvey, "Technophobia is Alive and Well and Living in the Information Age," Inter@ctive Week (March 11, 1996). Commentary on the chess match between Gary Kasparov and IBM's Big Blue.
Stephen Kessler, "Technology and Its Discontents." January 8-14, 1998 cover story from Metro, Silicon Valley's weekly newspaper. Not everyone wants a part of the wired world.
Katherine Fulton, "The Anxious Journey of a Technophobe," Columbia Journalism Review (November/December 1993). ". . . it suddenly came to me that it was time to stop being so stupid about machines."
Lauren Willoughby's "Technophobe" series of columns from the Louisville Courier-Journal (1997-99).
David Wright, "Technophobia," The Boston Phoenix (June 23, 1995). "A small band of hopefuls battles the giant of progress."
"Ask Dr. Dopolis" on the X-10 Zone. Dear Abby for the technologically challenged.
Christine Arkwright Clemon, "Confessions of a Former Technophobe," Instructor. This second grade teacher in Omaha, Nebraska, once feared technology. Now she wouldn't teach without it.
Aliza Sherman, "Is Your Mother a Technophobe?" Tech tips from the Cybergrrl web site on how to get your mom up to speed and on the 'Net.
"Technophobia" on mp3.com. (A not-so-misleadingly-named artist for those with whose tastes run to electronic music with a heavy beat . . . ).
* Thanks to Ned Shaw for permission to use his artwork. Visit his studio or see more of his work on jazz guitarist Steve Kahn's site.
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