There are numerous articles that tell me the original tech luddites were skilled machine operators.
"In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, what they objected to were the specific ways that tech was being used to undermine their status, upend their communities and destroy their livelihoods. So they took sledgehammers to the mechanized looms used to exploit them."
I had thought of Luddites as in the same classification as Flat Earthers. But that's not the case. Luddites were protestors with a noble cause.
I can claim confusion because there is a common question being asked today: "Is it OK to be a Luddite?" There's a Wired article in which the title is "Everyone is a Luddite Now". Or what about the new version - "Neo-Luddites". All of these articles talk about the "good" use of technology as in the original protests vs the bad use.
The very specific area I had been wondering about those people who still haven't learned email or various simple word processing, spreadsheet and slide show computer programs. I was on a call last evening in which we were dealing with technology issues that arise each meeting for a garden club. There seems to be issues every meeting. They point to so many people who don't know how to use their computers and their software.
Is it something more serious than disinterest or laziness - something that could be named Technophobia. Other kinder expressions are technologically changed, or technologically inexperienced. After 25 years of email availability, can that be the case that a person is still inexperienced. Can you imagine someone happily boasting that they don't drive a car and know nothing about cars? An 80 year old in the pharmacy boasted that she didn't use email or online systems to the pharmacist.
This topic of technophobes makes me wonder if this problem will increase and not decrease over time? Is it just the difference between 20th and 21st century technology and the age of people now? I ask that question because I meet people 10 to 20 years younger than me who are technically inept or disinterested, This is something I wouldn't have predicted - I guess there are sociological studies out there now looking into this.
White on white orchid from last week's Orchid Show at RBG.
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