Praise and Fear

I think it’s time for me to praise technological advancements as I’ve seemed to be focusing more on the negative effects occurring in society(s) lately. Why the optimism? I realized that I’ve been able to expand my mind in convenient ways, in the comfort of my own home, through the use of a laptop versus a library search or consultation with experts within areas of interest. In addition, I am able to keep in contact with people that antiquated technologies such as the telephone make expensive (in this case my hotel phone), more time consuming, less appealing, as well as less convenient. Right now I’m located in Pittsburgh for a company training for the next three months and because of wireless technological capabilities I am able to communicate here to anyone interested in listening (or should I say reading) over the web as well as fulfill course assignments while I am away from home.

I mentioned the use of technology to a member of the Barber National Institute yesterday and she reacted with an attitude of resistance toward adopting electronic scheduling that would ultimately save her a great deal of time and energy devoted to such job responsibilities. My reaction was one of disappointment until I realized that I too find myself feeling the same way at times just about different things. Why? Mainly out of fear of the unknown as well as the seemingly complex nature toward implementing new ways of conducting personal and professional endeavors. I decided to find out just how many others actually felt this way by searching under “fear of technology” on Google. What I found is that there is, thanks to the wonderful World Wide Web, a site available to help people with all kinds of fears and believe it or not there are many people out there with technology phobias. http://www.changethatsrightnow.com/problem_detail.asp?SDID=880:1879
My first thought was ‘how silly!’ however, this is the ultimate beauty of being electronically connected to information about any topic. How those with fear of technology locate such helpful resources is a bit perplexing (help from family or friends I suppose) and I must admit I was a little overwhelmed when I saw that there were over 57 million hits from my query. In my opinion, resistance to change and the long process of change often has more to do with the reasons people are simply not interested in embracing technology.