Technophobia

Technophobia (tek-nə-fō-bē-ə) is the fear or dislike of advanced technology or complex devices, especially computers.cite web
url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/technophobia
accessdate=2008-07-29
title=Definitions online for "Technophobia" via Dictionary.com
quote=I(1) tech·no·pho·bi·a (těk'nə-fō'bē-ə) n. Fear of or aversion to technology, especially computers and high technology. -Related forms: tech'no·phobe' n., tech'no·pho'bic (-fō'bĭk) adj."— (American Heritage Dictionary)I(2) "tech·no·pho·bi·a /ˌtɛknəˈfoʊbiə/ - Show Spelled Pronunciation [tek-nuh-foh-bee-uh] –noun abnormal fear of or anxiety about the effects of advanced technology. [Origin: 1960–65; techno- + -phobia] —Related forms: tech·no·phobe, noun —(Dictionary.com unabridged (v1.1) based on the Random House unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.) ] The term is generally used in the sense of an irrational fear, but others contend fears are justified. It is the opposite of technophilia. First receiving widespread notice during the Industrial Revolution, technophobia has been observed to affect various demographics throughout the world. This has caused some groups to take stances against some modern technological developments in order to preserve their ideologies. In some of these cases, the new technologies conflict with established beliefs, such as personal values in simplicity and modest lifestyles. A number of examples of technophobic ideas can be found in multiple forms of art, ranging from literary works such as "Frankenstein" to classic films like "Metropolis". Many of these works portray the darker side of technology as seen by the technophobic. As technologies become increasingly complex and difficult to understand, people are more likely to harbor anxieties relating to their use of modern technologies.

Prevalence

A study published in the journal "plainlinks|http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/759/description#description |Computers in human behavior" was conducted between 1992 and 1994 surveying first-year college students across various countriescite web
url=http://www.csudh.edu/psych/Intlstudy.htm
title=A Study of Technological Sophistication and Technophobia in University Students From 23 Countries (excerpted)
accessdate=2008-07-29
author=Michelle M. Weil, Larry D. Rosen
publisher= (Author's web page excerpting journal article, plainlinks|http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/759/description#description|Computers in human behavior, Volume 11, No. 1, pp. 95-133, 1995; full reprint available by email request lrosen at csudh.edu)
quote=Over a two-year period, from 1992 - 1994, data were collected from 3,392 first year university students in 38 universities from 23 countries on their level of technological sophistication and level of technophobia. Technological sophistication was measured by the use of consumer technology (video-cassette recorder, microwave ovens, automated banking, computer/video games), university computing (classroom computer use, word processing experience, programming experience and use of library computers) and computer ownership. Technophobia was assessed by [http://www.csudh.edu/psych/meas.htm instruments] measuring computer anxiety, computer cognitions and computer attitudes.] . The overall percentage of the 3,392 students who responded with high-level technophobic fears was 29%Cite Sm|Weil and Rosen, Ibid., "Table 2. Percentage of Students in each country who possessed high levels of technophobia"
q="Several points are worth noting from Table 2. First, a group of countries including Indonesia, Poland, India, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Mexico and Thailand show large percentages (over 50%) of technophobic students. In contrast, there are five countries which show under 30% technophobes (USA, Yugoslavia - Croatia, Singapore, Israel and Hungary). The remaining countries were in between these two groupings."
data=In each country, three demographic characteristics were correlated with the two technophobia scores (CARS and CTS). Age was only significantly correlated for four countries. Gender was correlated with technophobia for 12 countries with 8 showing males as less technophobic and 4 showing the reverse. When correlated with computer/technology experience, 19 of the 23 countries showed that more experience was related to less technophobia. I"Table 2. Percentage of Students in each country who possessed high levels of technophobia (Country, %%)": USA, 29%; Yugoslavia-Croatia, 26%; Thailand, 51%; Spain, 34%; Singapore, 18%; Saudi Arabia, 62%; Poland, 89%; Northern Ireland, 41%; Mexico, 53%; Kenya, 62%; Japan, 58%; Italy, 38%; Israel, 12%; Indonesia, 100%; India, 82%; Hungary, 23%; Greece, 48%; Germany, 33%; Egypt, 48%; Czechoslovakia, 30%; Belgium, 30%; Australia, 31%; Argentina, 40% ] . In comparison, Japan had 58% high-level technophobes, India had 82%, and Mexico had 53%.

A published report in 2000 stated that roughly 85 to 90 percent of new employees at an organization may be uncomfortable with new technology, and are technophobic to some degree. [http://www.learningcircuits.org/2000/mar2000/mar2000_elearn.html] , E-Learning 1.0.]

History

Technophobia began to gain national and international attention as a movement with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. With the development of new machines able to do the work of skilled craftsmen using unskilled, underpaid women and children, those who worked a trade began to fear for their livelihoods. In 1675, a group of weavers destroyed machines that replaced their jobs. By 1727, the destruction had become so prevalent Parliament made the demolition of machines a capital offense. This action, however, did not stop the tide of violence. The Luddites, a group of anti-technology workers, united under the name “Ludd” in March 1811, removing key components from knitting frames, raiding houses for supplies, and petitioning for trade rights while threatening greater violence. Poor harvests and food riots lent aid to their cause by creating a restless and agitated population for them to draw supporters from. [http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/kevin.binfield/luddites/LudditeHistory.htm] , History of Luddites.]

The 19th Century was also the beginning of modern science, with the work of Louis Pasteur, Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, Michael Faraday, Nikola Tesla, Henri Becquerel, and Marie Curie, and inventors such as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. The world of the Nineteenth Century was changing rapidly, too rapidly for many, who feared the changes taking place and longed for a simpler time. The Romantic movement exemplified these feelings. Romantics tended to believe in imagination over reason, the “organic” over the mechanical, and a longing for a simpler time. Poets like William Wordsworth and William Blake believed that the technological changes that were taking place as a part of the industrial revolution were polluting their cherished view of nature as being perfect and pure. [http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html] , Romanticism.]

After World War II, a fear of technology continued to grow, catalyzed by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With nuclear proliferation and the Cold War, people began to wonder what would become of the world now that humanity had the power to destroy it. This led to the Non–Proliferation treaty of 1968. [http://www.state.gov/www/global/arms/treaties/npt1.html] , TREATY ON THE NON-PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS.] The parties to the treaty, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union agreed to safeguard, disarm, and to not threaten non-nuclear nations with nuclear force. In the post-WWII era, environmentalism also took off as a movement. The first international air pollution conference was held in 1955, and in the 1960s, investigations into the lead content of gasoline sparked outrage among environmentalists. In the 1980s, the depletion of the ozone layer and the threat of global warming began to be taken more seriously. [http://www.runet.edu/~wkovarik/envhist/] ,Environmentalism Timeline.]

Technophobic groups

Several societal groups may be considered technophobic, most recognizable are the Amish and the Luddites. Many technophobic groups revolt against modern technology because of their beliefs that these technologies are threatening to their ways of life and livelihoods. [http://www.regent.edu/acad/schcom/rojc/mdic/luddites.html] , The Luddites.] The Luddites were a social movement of British artisans in the 19th century who organized in opposition to technological advances in the textile industry. These advances would have replaced many skilled textile artisans with comparatively unskilled machinists. The Amish considered technophobic because of their aversion to many modern technologies. Amish focus on maintaining their social order that emphasizes community, simplicity, and religion. [http://www.shawcreekgeneralstore.com/amish_article1.htm] , The Amish.] Their leadership weighs heavily the social impact new technologies can have on traditions of social independence from external political and economic power structures.

There are several similarities between the Amish and Old Order Mennonites. The Mennonites share in their focus on community, simplicity, and religion, only to different degrees. The Old Order Mennonites are a separated fraction from the Lancaster Conference. These Old Order Mennonites have religious sanctions against many “modern technologies”, yet allow for some items, such as farm equipment and some simple vehicles. [Lee, Daniel: "Old Order Mennonites", Burnham Inc Publishers, 2000.]

Technophobia in arts

An early example of technophobia in fiction and popular culture is Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein". It has been a staple of science fiction ever since, exemplified by movies like Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", which offer an example of how technophobia can occur, and Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times", in which people are reduced to nothing but cogs in the machinery, a product of new industrial techniques like the assembly line. This persisted through the 1950s, with the fears of nuclear weapons and radiation leading to giant insects of monster movies, as well as cautionary tales like "The Day the Earth Stood Still", and into the 1960s, with the likes of The Hulk. It was joined by fears of superintelligent machines, and rebellion against them, which was a recurring theme of Star Trek, from the original series to to in the 1990s.

Also in the 1960s, the film "Omega Man" (loosely based on the Richard Matheson novel "I am Legend") showed a world scarred by biological warfare and only a handful of humans and a cult of mutants remain alive. Charlton Heston's character is a scientist who is being targeted by the mutants who wish to destroy all science and machinery due to their technophobic beliefs. Technophobia is also thematic in Walter M. Miller's novel "A Canticle for Leibowitz", where nuclear war produces an attempt to stamp out science itself as held to be responsible.

In the 1970s, and "Demon Seed" also offered samples of domination by computers. Also in the 1970s, Rich Buckler created Deathlok, a cyborg revivified by a madman as a slave killing machine, a dark twist on Frankenstein.

Technophobia achieved commercial success in the 1980s with rogue androids in "The Terminator" (inspired by Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers) [In fact, there was a lawsuit over the issue.] as well as Ash and Bishop in the Alien film series, which also show technophobia of the future: "hi-tech racism and android apartheid". "Bladerunner" shows us how human replicas were able to live on Earth, portraying technology gone wrong in "replicas" unhappy with their man-made limitations which demand they be "modified". "Star Trek: Voyager" introduced another twist, when "surplus" EMHs, such sophisticated expert systems as to be almost indistinguishable from human, being , while similar systems were turned into sentient prey.

More recently there have been movies like "I, Robot", The Matrix Trilogy, and the Terminator sequels. Shows such as "Doctor Who"- most specifically in the episode "Robots of Death"- have also tackled the issue of technophobia, with a character in "Robots of Death" displaying a great fear of robots due to their lack of body language, described by the Fourth Doctor as giving them the appearance of 'dead men walking'. Series consultant Kit Pedler also used this fear as a basis for the inspiration of classic "Doctor Who" monsters the Cybermen, with the creatures being inspired by his own fear of artificial limbs becoming so common that it would become impossible to know when someone had stopped being a man and become simply a machine. "Virtuosity" speaks of a virtual serial killer who manages to escape to the real world. He goes on a rampage before he is inevitably stopped. This is a true technophobic movie in that its main plot is about technology gone wrong. It introduces a killer who blatantly destroys people.Technophobia: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology.]

Godfrey Reggio's Qatsi trilogy also deals heavily with issues of technophobia. The idea of keeping the "thinkers" and "workers" separate shows us that even the people who embraced technology feared the potential of it in some way.

ee also

* Chemophobia
* Dystopia
* Darwin Among the Machines, "Erewhon and Samuel Butler (novelist)
* Minimalism in Philosophy
* Phobia
* Technophilia
*

References

*"Genetically Engineered Crops." The Center for Food Safety. 20 July 2008 .
*"Green Our Vaccines Rally." Talk About Curing Autism. 20 July 2008 .
* Brosnan, M. (1998) Technophobia: The psychological impact of information technology. Routledge.
* Dan Dinello "Technophobia: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology"
*Binfield, Kevin. "Luddites and Luddism." Johns Hopkins University. 20 July 2008 .
*Brians, Paul. "Romanticism." 11 Mar. 1998. Washington State University. 20 July 2008 .
*"Environmental History Timeline." 20 July 2008 .

*"TREATY ON THE NON-PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS." State Dept. United States Government. 20 July 2008 .

External links