Technophobic or Technothankyou?
After reading Mike's blogg, I looked at a few of the sites he mentioned and found that some of them were trying to sell books etc on how to cope with technostress, here is a quote from one of them:
"If you've ever tried to juggle a steering wheel and a cell phone, or accidentally recorded an infomercial rather than the nightly news on your VCR -- then you already know what TechnoStress feels like."
(Weil, M.M. & Rosen, L.D. (1998). TechnoStress: Coping With Technology @WORK @HOME @PLAY John Wiley & Sons.) http://www.kdinc.com/stress.htm
I just think that this is part of everyday life for all of us now, it can hardly be called technostress. There must be some really sad individuals out there if they need a book to help them to cope with stresses like these, let's hope they never chip their nail varnish - a crisis like that and they'd need therapy!
Also, lots of the articles were about how to overcome technophobia, which was a bit ironic when the people with technophobia wouldn't be sitting in front of a computer reading them anyway. It seemed a bit like they were missing the point, I think that if people are genuilnely against modern technology, they will just stay away from it for as long as humanly possible - of course in the world where computers are invading everyday lives more and more with things like 'chip and pin' etc, they won't be able to hide for very long. It's quite weird to think that we've spent years fighting for freedom, trying to break away from governments, bosses and individuals who try to control us, but when it comes to computers we obediently follow the instructions on the screen without even flinching!
God I really do sound like a technophobe, I'm not really, honest. I can see the many advantages owning a computer can bring. I do think it's wonderful to be able to communicate with the whole world at once, and find out about anything we want to know in an instant. It's brill to be able to type an essay and re-write it without having to actually start at the beginning all over again. It's an incredible way to experiment with ideas, art and words, we can do things we have never been able to do before. On the one hand we have total freedom of expression, but this seems to seduce us into a sense of false independence, we get the chance to speak out, but who is going to listen anyway? We are actually being controlled more than we perhaps realise by becoming more and more dependant on our machines to a point when we can't live without them. To put it in really simple terms does anyone know how to toast a piece of bread anymore? What happens when their toaster breaks down? Or what happens it you're careering towards the river in your car that has electric windows? You're basically buggered without the handle that would let you wind the window down yourself. So what I'm trying to say is that I like computers, and any new technology, but I still want the option of having a 'handle'!
It's the way I feel that we're being pulled along with the tide which makes me dig my heels in and want to swim against the flow. The changes seem to be happening without anyone having much choice. A couple of years from now, I don't want to HAVE to pay on line because the banks have closed their doors to human faces and plugged into computers, or to HAVE to pick up my emails every day because that's the only way we communicate anymore. The surge of the masses wash away the options of individuals.
"If you've ever tried to juggle a steering wheel and a cell phone, or accidentally recorded an infomercial rather than the nightly news on your VCR -- then you already know what TechnoStress feels like."
(Weil, M.M. & Rosen, L.D. (1998). TechnoStress: Coping With Technology @WORK @HOME @PLAY John Wiley & Sons.) http://www.kdinc.com/stress.htm
I just think that this is part of everyday life for all of us now, it can hardly be called technostress. There must be some really sad individuals out there if they need a book to help them to cope with stresses like these, let's hope they never chip their nail varnish - a crisis like that and they'd need therapy!
Also, lots of the articles were about how to overcome technophobia, which was a bit ironic when the people with technophobia wouldn't be sitting in front of a computer reading them anyway. It seemed a bit like they were missing the point, I think that if people are genuilnely against modern technology, they will just stay away from it for as long as humanly possible - of course in the world where computers are invading everyday lives more and more with things like 'chip and pin' etc, they won't be able to hide for very long. It's quite weird to think that we've spent years fighting for freedom, trying to break away from governments, bosses and individuals who try to control us, but when it comes to computers we obediently follow the instructions on the screen without even flinching!
God I really do sound like a technophobe, I'm not really, honest. I can see the many advantages owning a computer can bring. I do think it's wonderful to be able to communicate with the whole world at once, and find out about anything we want to know in an instant. It's brill to be able to type an essay and re-write it without having to actually start at the beginning all over again. It's an incredible way to experiment with ideas, art and words, we can do things we have never been able to do before. On the one hand we have total freedom of expression, but this seems to seduce us into a sense of false independence, we get the chance to speak out, but who is going to listen anyway? We are actually being controlled more than we perhaps realise by becoming more and more dependant on our machines to a point when we can't live without them. To put it in really simple terms does anyone know how to toast a piece of bread anymore? What happens when their toaster breaks down? Or what happens it you're careering towards the river in your car that has electric windows? You're basically buggered without the handle that would let you wind the window down yourself. So what I'm trying to say is that I like computers, and any new technology, but I still want the option of having a 'handle'!
It's the way I feel that we're being pulled along with the tide which makes me dig my heels in and want to swim against the flow. The changes seem to be happening without anyone having much choice. A couple of years from now, I don't want to HAVE to pay on line because the banks have closed their doors to human faces and plugged into computers, or to HAVE to pick up my emails every day because that's the only way we communicate anymore. The surge of the masses wash away the options of individuals.
posted by claypit dogs @ 10:15 AM
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