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with Richard Aedy
on Saturday 14 February 2004 Technoism Summary: If you ever buy technology you can't use, abandon it because it's too complicated and then upgrade to something even newer, you have a problem. It's called "technoism" and it involves the suppression of skepticism and blind compliance to modern technology. Transcript: Richard Aedy: Remember the old joke about asking the children to program the video because it’s too complicated for adults? Well videos have become easier but nearly everything else has become more complex which leaves a lot of us completely clueless when it comes to modern technology. You’d think we wouldn’t buy it wouldn’t you? But we do. We’re victims of what Beverly Davis from Purdue University in Indiana calls ‘technoism’ – a suppressed scepticism and blind compliance when it comes to technology. Beverly Davis: Well we see it in so many different areas of our life. Let’s take somebody in the workplace – they start a new position in an organisation. They give them the cell phone, the beeper, the Blackberry, the laptop, the two-way pager and this person now has this image of importance. But what really this does is it puts them on call 24/7 in the workplace and we wouldn’t dare question that as we are on call on all of our free time, weekends. Recently they did a survey of American demographics, 69% of people surveyed stay in touch with the office even when they’re on holiday. So we blindly comply because it’s something that we feel we need to do if we want to stay on the fast track at work and we suppress any scepticism because we would be labelled old-fashioned and behind the times. And that’s just one example. I have an example of my own that really started a lot of this. I, as an educator, felt that I was behind the times, I was actually $3000 worth of technoism victim here because I felt that my classroom was behind the times and there was something wrong with me because I would actually like my class to be discussion-based and active and I thought I needed a projector so I could display computer graphics and PowerPoint. And the budget didn’t allow it so I went out and purchased this projector and as the semester progressed I felt that the students became more passive and they became more mesmerised. And of course I was proud of all my computer, you know the graphics I had, and you know I just felt really in a loop and really on top of things here. But then about two months down the road I realised that the more and more they became mesmerised and passive the more I relied on it and it had become a completely different classroom environment than I really desired. Richard Aedy: Actually you’re saying this thing mesmerised your students, this projector. I’ve got a three year old, I’d love something that would mesmerise him, make him passive. So you were a victim, this is what started you off on this research? Beverly Davis: Absolutely, I would see this you know again in the workplace. I recently opened up a course catalogue from another institution and they had a course Public Speaking Online and I thought to myself ‘this is technoism because we’ve cross the line here you know, there’s that pressure to put everything on line and we’ve gone so far to cross a line and put courses like public speaking online.’ Richard Aedy: Well at least it seems to me that although you were victim when you bought this projector you did use it. Now I reckon it would be worse if you felt you had to buy something but then you didn’t use it, or you only used a little bit of it because you didn’t understand it. Beverly Davis: Well yes, I bought an early digital camera, never really learnt how to use it, the pictures were terrible and I didn’t like the quality and as time went on the printers got better and the cameras got better but that camera is still sitting in a box in my closet. And what did I do? I’m a victim of technoism – I went out and bought more. Of course the marketers are dancing with glee because we keep buying, and buying, and buying these products. Richard Aedy: I have to admit about ten years ago in 1994 I bought a Palmtop computer made by a company called Psion, a British company. I’ve still got this thing, it’s very out of date, but I only use I think maybe 5% of its capacity. You can write programs on this thing and I use as a contact book and what else, oh yeah it’s got a diary on it. It’s got a load of things on it and I use two things. Beverly Davis: Yes exactly, they’re complicated. I mean when you think about it we are surrounded by gizmo confusion. I mean you have so many features there’s no way you can ever understand all the features on some of these products and we never really use it to its fullest extent. And that’s one of the questions on this assessment that I put out. Richard Aedy: Yeah, I’ve seen this actually, this is what, it asks people about their last five technology purchases – is that the one? Beverly Davis: Yes, it’s really just a fun assessment and yes this can be a serious problem in some cases but it’s just a fun way to look at this. It may say ‘do you use technology just so everyone else can see you and you display a sense of image of importance?’ Richard Aedy: Oh this is the classic ‘I’m on the train and I’m going to use my mobile phone to tell you I’m on the train’, or ‘I’m running one minute late’… Beverly Davis: Exactly, that’s the best time to see this. I travel often and I’m at the airport and listening to these people. I was just listening to a lady the other day, probably at least four phone calls and she talked very loudly and just pacing around so everybody could see her telling everyone ‘oh how tired she was, and how busy she was, and how she travelled and travelled and travelled.’ And I just wanted – after the fourth call – wanted to say ‘well maybe if you’d stop calling people and telling them how tired you are you might get a little rest.’ She had this image of importance you know, pacing around the airport and that’s where you see a lot of these victims of technoism. Richard Aedy: I think what you should have done Beverly, make an intervention! Beverly Davis: (Laughs) I don’t know what that would be yet, that’s the next area of research. Richard Aedy: Alright, well how we communicate seems to me must be another whole area. I mean ringing people when you know they’re not there because you want to get the voicemail or their answer phone. Beverly Davis: Oh absolutely and that’s also another thing we looked at because let’s face it, we all do that, we call a voice mail and we just pray ‘let me get the voicemail – I don’t have time to talk to this person right now.’ But we just rely on all this and you know email really gives us this false sense of connection because we’re still not connecting with people in person. Richard Aedy: This does sound all very hollow. I’m interested whether you have any idea of what motivates us to behave in this way? Beverly Davis: Let’s look at one thing, the marketers. The typical marketing cycle in the past has always been that you had the early adopters and the later adopters and later adopters were mostly the mainstream. Wait until it’s been proven, till the quality has improved, the price has gone down. But we’re motivated to keep up, we feel like technology has made our lives so complex and time is moving so fast and we’re always warned that we’re going to fall behind if we don’t keep up with this. And we just have this fear of falling behind, so now even the marketing cycle has been disrupted. People that usually waited are jumping on board and are in line with the early adopters and they keep buying and buying, and purchasing and purchasing all the techno-toys I guess. Because we have this illusion of control if you will. We feel like the more we buy the more we’re going to have control over our lives and really when you think about it technology hasn’t delivered the original intention of ease of life it promises. Richard Aedy: It’s actually the other way round isn’t it? Beverly Davis: It is. Richard Aedy: The more you buy, the more you feel that you’re not in control. So you buy more in order to try and get up – make more time – and actually you’re getting less and less and less? Beverly Davis: That’s right, every time we buy a technological tool we’re seeking simplicity but what’s it’s doing is we’re purchasing complexity. And we keep purchasing more complexity and in an attempt to gain control of our chaotic life and we never reach that level of simplicity. Richard Aedy: Well what can people do, how do we end this madness? Beverly Davis: Well in every case we assess, whether it be at the individual level, the organisational level, the institutional level. Individually people just need to lessen their dependence. And as far as organisationally you know, organisations do this as well. We see organisations purchasing all the latest and the greatest equipment and they found that it wasn’t fitting in with their system and the employees didn’t know how to operate the machinery and it just sat there idle. So organisationally you know you have to evaluate the systemic impacts of the technology and evaluate the motive behind why you’re doing this. Is it just to keep up? I mean is it going to meet our needs in this organisation? Richard Aedy: It can’t all be just technoism, I’m thinking I guess of the success of the mobile phone. It’s been the most spectacularly successful piece of consumer technology. There’s a lot of utility in it, we get a lot out of it. Beverly Davis: When we look at assessment it’s about evaluating the positives and the negatives of technology, I mean who could live without these things now? I certainly couldn’t. Richard Aedy: Look I’m here to tell you I present a program about technology on radio and I do not have a mobile phone… Beverly Davis: No! Richard Aedy: …but I keep thinking how much more convenient it would be if I had one. I don’t know if I’m starting down a slippery slope here Beverly. Beverly Davis: (Laughing) Well I’m really surprised about that, I’d like to know how many of you there are out there because I don’t think there’s too many that don’t have at least the cell phone, maybe not the picture phone… Richard Aedy: Nearly everyone I know has a mobile, but I don’t have one. It’s true. Beverly Davis is at the School of Technology at Purdue University in Indiana. Guests:
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