I’m of an age that I remember a time pre-internet, even pre-home computers. For me as a Science Fiction fan raised on a steady diet of Star Wars, Star Trek, Asimov, Heinlein and Buck Rogers technology was an exciting thing. I imagined having a communicator like Star Trek where I could speak to anyone I wanted to easily. Now as an Adult and quite extreme Introvert that is in reality my idea of hell. My iphone (other phones are available) is frequently forgotten and very often permanently on ‘Do not Disturb‘. As we recently changed our broadband to one without the traditional phone-line my mobile is now the main house phone, I need to try and get out of these habits.
Growing up in England in the 70s/80’s as terrestrial television transitioned from 3 to 5 channels and the appearance of satellite and the cable television the idea of information and news at your fingertips was a bright future. We would all have everything we wanted beamed to our houses. The question, was this the idea of a Utopia of information or one of the dystopias? These ideas and various states in between have been described in the Science Fiction I dearly love.
I first used the internet to any great degree in 1997/98. I’d used computers a lot in my work as a printer, I went back into education and I then used the internet for research. The library had a bank of around 12 PC’s that were not online that could be used for writing up or accessing CD Roms and other material. In another part of the library were 8 more computers 6 PC’s and 2 Apple Macs. 3 of these (the PCs) were the internet machines.
Interestingly when you logged onto the PC and the internet, remember it was dial up at this point, younger readers wont know the noises and waiting that went on, the opening page of the Netscape Browser gave you a list of 5 or 6 search engines to pick from, names now a dim and distant past Lycos, Altavista, Ask Jeeves, infoseek and excite. The point in internet research was to search, to use our brain and frequently use multiple search engines to find what we wanted. In Part of my creative writing course I was to write a review of any film. I picked Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a disturbing (well my Lecturer thought so) Japanese film about a man who ends up inserting pieces of metal into his body. The research took me down avenues teaching me so much about the History of Japanese Cinema and film making. The information wasn’t served to me by some algorithm telling me what it thought I wanted. It was more like a hybrid of traditional library research where one thing leads you into another and the search is an education in itself.
At that point I found the research and the technology fun. I realised a while ago that technology is rarely fun anymore and there is a lack of control and research skill are being lost. There is an expectation that everyone has to use this technology as who wants to be some sort of technological luddite. A few weeks back I heard that NHS Scotland was using an App in relation to appointments and waiting lists. Patients could log on and find specific information about their pending treatments and request specific information or actions. When these ‘technological solutions’ are introduced there seems to be an assumption that everyone has a smart phone and is happy to use the technology. My Aunt who we sadly lost in 2023 had the most basic of mobile phones which was just used for Emergencies, she like many people of her generation had little interest in apps and new solutions.
It’s not just older people that can be disenfranchised by modern technology or systems. Many people have little interest in these things and can easily be excluded by these systems. In part two I will talk about how I have made the internet work for me and managed to reduce a lot of the undue stressors that affect me. One interesting issue I stumbled upon is to do with our recycling. Our local authority picks up recycling every fortnight, each pick up is two different materials, this means that items are picked up once a month. In order to find out what materials are being picked up that week the local authority announce this on their face book page. In my struggle to remove stressors and stop the internet shouting at me I have deactivated my Facebook account (I’ll explain why it’s not deleted in part 2). How then am I to know what recycling is being picked up? As far as I know it’s not listed elsewhere.
A long time ago (I’m thinking 5-10 years) we used to get sent a calendar telling us when and what was being picked up, but that stopped years ago. My only option has been to check what the neighbours have been putting out and start to construct my own calendar of recycling pick-ups. This may sound like a rather petty and inconsequential thing, but if communication of this is only through social media, what other more important things are only being done this way and therefore excluding people who either don’t or can’t Facebook?
I am in danger of sounding like an old man shouting at a cloud, I like tech, but when the default start of any new tech seems to be what else can we try to sell, the tech is not then working for you. It feels like the tech is controlling you rather than the other way round. You’ll read in my follow-up to this the way I’ve had to stop websites and software from shouting at me in order to better control what I do and see. It hasn’t been easy.
A Lot of this made me remember an Issac Asimov short story called ‘A Perfect Fit (1981)’. It’s in the Collection ‘The Winds of Change’ (1982), which I personally think is one of Asimov’s best collections of short stories, just due to the varied nature of them. The Story is of Ian Bradstone a man who has been sentenced after computer crimes in a way that makes it impossible for him to use them, which in reality makes him the equivalent of illiterate. Scarily there is a whole group of people already in this situation to varying degrees.
Gold said, “You underwent due process in great detail, and there was no reasonable doubt that you were guilty–”
“Even so! Look! We live in a computerized world. I can’t do a thing anywhere — I can’t get information — I can’t be fed — I can’t amuse myself — I can’t pay for anything, or check on anything, or just plain do anything — without using a computer. And I have been adjusted, as you surely know, so that I am incapable of looking at a computer without hurting my eyes, or touching one without blistering my fingers. I can’t even handle my cash card or even think of using it without nausea.”
Gold said, “Yes, I know all that. I also know you have been given ample funds for the duration of your punishment, and that the general public has been asked to sympathize and be helpful. I believe they do this.”
“I don’t want that. I don’t want their help and their pity. I don’t want to be a helpless child in a world of adults. I don’t want to be an illiterate in a world of people who can read. Help me end the punishment. It’s been almost a month of hell. I can’t go through eleven more.”
(A Perfect Fit, Isaac Asimov, 1981)
I’m sure the feelings discussed in the story are what a lot of people feel about modern technology.