Digital Divide: Fear of technology
Points Of Interest: Modern Society, Security, Effort Involved, Maintenance, Other Issues, Solutions
The 21st century has not only brought technology further it has also brought on the possibility of the fear of technology. Basically people who are “technophobe's” which means they are frightened of technology. People’s reasons for being fearful of technology may vary from perhaps not willing to spend money in the technology industry to maybe having other morality issues.
Many may argue that in today’s modern society there is not time nor space not have issues over technology. As technology increases, developers are aiming to keep the technophobe's to a minimum. There are now producing goods and services that are more user-friendly than ever. The aim of this is that almost anyone should be able to be involved with technology as it is “so simple” to use. Many may also say that people’s fears arose when technology was far more tedious and very much something of the future. However today as I mentioned above is catering a wider variety of people in the aim that more and more people will embrace the technology era.
But still the questions of relating to peoples fear of technology is why not give it a go? Many people having numerous reasons for possible having some sort of fear with technology. One fear that many users are having these days is the fear of e-crime. People may have worries with e-crime worrying about someone possibly obtaining there confidential information such as credit cards. There are people who decide to perhaps have various pieces of software to help minimize the risk of e-crime but others may simply decided to stop using the technology and continue using “old fashioned” methods. E-crime is also preventing people joining to technology era as well as people drifting out of it. Numerous media reports are arguable enough to steer people off technology rather than past experience.
As well as the security issues with technology the whole “bracing in technology” experience may simply be just too much for people to handle. For someone who knows nothing or very little about technology the idea of perhaps getting a computer set-up or using a mobile phone is very much a daunting experience that they don’t want to undertake. Another issue that links in with this is the cost of technology. The cost may more effect business wishing to go into technology. If say for one person a piece of equipment cost them £100, for a business of say 25 people is would be £2500. They may argue that technology is simple not worth that sort of money and that they can happily cope without it. For singular/home users the cost is still and issue. People on low income may in fact be more than happy to use technology but the set-up and running costs of technology is just not feasible. However if for someone that doesn't’t know about technology and wants to find out more they may wish to undertake lessons on how to use technology such as computers.
The maintenance of technology can also cause high costs. People say that many piece of technology are not built to last and that the costs of maintenance/repairs is so high that they need to but the piece of equipment again. A good example of perhaps “extend costs” is a printer. For instance, say it cost £50 for a colour printer, the initial cost of the unit is relatively low but the majority of printer manufactures make there money in consumables on ink cartridges. If it cost £15 per cartridge and the printer uses up a lot of ink, of a long period of time the costs would build up.
Even for people that may be able to afford to keep up with technology they simple just don’t won to “give into” technology by handing over the money with it. These types of issues tend to arise with the “older generation” also known as the “3rd generation”. The may also just have no issue for technology in the life. They grew up without technology so why do they need it now? There are also religious and cult groups which do not “believe” in technology or in fact anything futuristic. One example would be Amish people who wish not to embrace what the future is offering (computer, cars, phones).
The UK government are very keen to get everyone involved in some form of technology be it using a computer or simple operating a cash register. To help ease some of the public fears of technology, the government are offering a wide array of training courses for free to help make people's introduction to technology as easy as possible. As well as the government trying to help people, technology developers and manufactures are trying to help as well. Many aspects of technology are constantly trying to lower prices such as televisions to make sure that less people fear the technology costs. The pieces of technology are also being developed as the "easiest yet" so it is almost "idiot proof" (practically anyone can use it). As well as this, the developers are setting up more and more support for the products with far more trained staff on the receiving end. For instance, a person could ring up the telephone help support and the member of staff could explain to them how to solve the problem in such a way that anyone could understand them.
As I mentioned previously, companies are now trying to target people with a fear of technology in an era which seems determined to get rid of people without a fear of technology. The real question that remains is just how much longer will people be fearful of technology?