Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412200028
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE HELM LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
- motto, Chicago's 1933 International Exposition on Progress|
Bruce Webster hates new technology. The electronic gadgets at the Irvine, Calif., psychologist's home are forever flashing triple zeros. He refuses to use a cellular phone because it would end his favorite pastime of listening to rock 'n' roll while driving to work.
But Webster is feeling pressure to change. He now uses a pager so his patients can reach him instantly. And to put himself in touch with the times, he is considering the unthinkable: computerizing his practice.
Call it the technology trap.
As America rushes headlong into the computer age, more people are finding themselves responding to the allure of a powerful new master. Encouraged by aggressive advertising and eager to keep up with the cyberspace Joneses, millions are racing out to buy personal computers, often with the idea that they will help their job prospects or bolster their children's education.
For some, computers can do just that. But, at least for now, technology's calls may be a siren song that can lure the unprepared into unwise investments of time and money and lots of unnecessary angst.
The uproar over a comparatively minor flaw discovered in Intel's most advanced computer chip, the Pentium, shows how little most people know about the complexity and quality problems of PCs - and how little manufacturers know about the needs and desires of nontechnical consumers.
Many such users find that PCs demand long hours of tedious self-instruction for few tangible rewards. For them, their machines can become little more than costly toys. More than half of the 10 best-selling software packages are games.
And computers simply aren't the special entree to the future that many people expect. ``You don't need to know computers for the age of computers,'' said Greg E. Blonder, who is starting a laboratory at AT&T to study the interaction of people and technology. ``You have to be adaptable; you have to learn how to learn.''
The flood of computer advertisements this holiday season - the first ever in which as many consumers are buying computers as corporations - portrays the computer as the miracle machine. ``Did you ever have to get up in the middle of the night and go to the bank?'' Microsoft asks in one ad that shows a computer glowing in the dark.
And Intel is running a TV commercial that shows a family riding its computer through various adventures as if it were a modern magic carpet.
``They are making parents feel guilty for not having a computer for their children,'' said Robert Corpuz, PC analyst at Dataquest Inc., a San Jose, Calif., research firm. ``It's a strong emotional tug.''
``If they [children] don't learn how to use computers by the fourth grade, they will be lost in the technology,'' said Ed Anoskey, a Boeing manager, as he charged a $1,666 Packard Bell multimedia computer for his 10-year-old granddaughter at a Seattle store. ``There is so much to absorb.''
People concerned about their employment prospects also may be attracted by the promise of the PC. Some say a new national divide is developing between technological haves and have-nots, and one had best be on the right side of it to be assured of prosperity and job security.
But if we step off the technology treadmill for a moment and reconsider, the real benefits may not be so obvious.
There is no question that many businesses and professionals gain important advantages from computers. And temporary-help agencies say applicants who know their way around a keyboard are more employable, just as workers skilled in using Wang word processors were in great demand a decade ago.
But has the PC become a basic appliance ranking in importance with the telephone?
Well, no ... or, at least, not yet.
Instead, by appearing to offer more then it can deliver, experts say, the computer has contributed to a growing sense of fear and anxiety over new technology. It is still light-years away from the phone when it comes to ease of use.
The Pentium flaw, which can cause errors in certain kinds of esoteric calculations, and a multitude of less-publicized problems show that PCs are far from the technological maturity of most common electronics products. Almost half of those surveyed recently by PC Magazine had had problems with their machines. People who buy PCs without any technical know-how or any specific sense of what to use the machines for often find themselves thumbing through mind-numbing manuals and spending hours on the phone trying to get through to a help line.
In a survey of about 400 users, market researcher Coleman Association of Teaneck, N.J., found that most had sworn at their computers, close to half sometimes felt like throwing something at the screen and 7 percent had hit their machine with an object.
``I have a lot of friends who have computers and they don't know what to do with them,'' said Jack Rosenberg, 76, of Los Angeles. He helped John Von Neuman, the inventor of the modern computer, design his first machine and is a skeptic about the computer's home applications. ``Their grandkids come in and play video games. At most, they write an occasional letter,'' he said. ``They are buying machines that cost $1,500 to $2,000 because they think they will eventually need one. They buy it to keep up with their neighbors.''
Leading the consumer stampede are parents who think their children need expensive multimedia computers to excel in school. And schools themselves often feel compelled to have rooms lined with computer screens to show parents that they are up on the latest technology. But numerous studies have produced little concrete evidence that children who learn on computers do better than those who stick to books.
Of course, with kids, there's another variable. Anoskey, the Boeing engineer, said he is buying a computer to help his granddaughter with her homework. But when asked what she will use the machine for, Megan Anoskey quickly responded: ``Games.''
Indeed, the whole notion of computer literacy as a fundamental skill like reading or math may be inaccurate. Successive generations of students have sought to become ``computer literate'' with a few college courses in programming. Only a tiny minority ever used those skills. Most saw the programs they learned quickly become obsolete as new generations of computers used new kinds of software.
Even in highly computerized workplace environments today, analytic skills generally are valued more than mechanical knowledge of computers.
``You have to know what computers can give you,'' said Dennis Strigel, chief executive officer at Bell Atlantic Mobile, a cellular phone company based in New Jersey. But Strigel noted that even in customer support jobs at the company, the key requirement is a college degree and the versatility to handle problems from billing to technical support.
Until computers make the transition to being a simple appliance with applications that are obviously helpful and easy to use, there is liable to be a lot of hand-wringing.
``I don't want to do it, I don't have time for it,'' said Webster, the psychiatrist. But he is resigned to his high-tech fate. ``I'm going to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Computer Age.''
by CNB