Many people make the mistake of thinking that technology is there to save you time. Wrong. It is there to give people new ways for filling their time. Take personal computers. Learning how to use all the feature of a new PC uses up all the time that having a computer saves. And what about all the hours you spend staring at incomprehensible instructions manual for your new telephone, TV, digital door bell? More choices doesn’t mean better.
Of course it’s wonderful to have a CD player, a mobile, a home computer, or an electric toaster, for that matter, but do you really want to play computer games on the 5cm screen of your mobile phone? Do you need your computer to answer the phone? Or your TV to make toast? It does things you don’t need.
Digital TV is a perfect example. When it arrived, we were promised a better quality picture and more choice. But at eleven o’clock at night as you flick through the 97 channels you can now get, it’s not the quality of the picture that you wrong about.
More the fact that not one single program is worth watching. It is out of date before you brought it.
After several frustrating weeks of finding all the right software for your new PC, then phoning ‘help desks’ when it doesn’t work, you will proudly show off your new machine to friends only to hear ‘oh, are you still using that one? I’m thinking of buying the new PYX5000, myself’
Later, when you try to buy some minor spare part, you find it is no longer manufactured, and then it would be much cheaper to replace the whole computer with the new PYX7500. No one takes responsibility when things go wrong. This is easy, because very few people really