Social media addict, willing to stand in line for hours to acquire the latest iPhone model that has gone on the market, geek of the cackling and lover of everything related to smart devices.more than one is familiar with this profile; a true technophile who has endorsed the boom that this sector has experienced over the past few years.
However, it is not the only type of user that was born with the famous development of this sector, but it has also been done by another who points to the opposite side: the technophobic .We are referring to those who have a more complicated relationship with this discipline and who even have come to fear it .But how to identify them? What are the reasons for their fear? Today we address these and other issues.
What is technobophy
It is considered technophobia to rejection of progress in the technology sector , fear of progress and its supposed consequences, which can lead to ecological, social, ethical and health problems (precisely its arguments to be placed in against).A kind of fear capable of causing distress to the sufferer, and even anxiety and other symptoms of this type of pathologies in certain situations.
The supposed complexity of a device, the lack of skills to use them and the like can trigger these sensations, although there are several degrees.In fact, the psychologist and researcher at California State University Larry Rosen distinguishes up to three: the uncomfortable user, the cognitive technophobe and the anxious technopic .The classification depends on the presence or absence of irrational fear and goes from less to more.
In addition, this phobia is directly related to technological illiteracy (people who, for example, are unable to handle something as simple as an ATM with Windows XP) and who can condition their daily life.In some societies and cultures it occurs to a greater extent; This is the case of the Amish in the United States.
And although the result of that fear will depend on the situation, age, context, social class and others of each subject, the truth is that it can reach cause isolation and communication problems , and even of socialization in the youngest.Not to mention other more daily problems, such as the slowdown in carrying out certain administrative procedures, etc.or the lack of understanding between parents and children.
What sense does it have
Unfortunately, there are some situations that have been able to motivate this fear of technology.The speed with which the sector has evolved, the birth of new social networks, the celebrated implementation that has caused many of them have failed to adapt in time for change, and bad experiences related to this lack of skill are just some of the possible reasons.
Also, ignorance, linked to the alarming news spread through general media outlets about hacks, privacy violations and the like, can be decisive.And, although informs about this type of incursions and problems, in the majority of cases there is a lack of time to explain that it is possible to protect themselves from them and how.The same happens with new technological diseases such as nomophobia, addiction to social networks, syndrome of ghost vibration and a long etcetera that is already familiar to us.
The cinema (although it has not done it, much less, with bad intention) can also be found behind this dread and beliefs.A fear that classics like Blade Runner and Terminator were able to take advantage and that they continue to squeeze films and series such as Ex Machina , Black Mirror and Passengers , among many others.Of course, we should not take them as anything other than what they are: science fiction.
However, what he sees in them is an evidence of human weakness against robotics (tireless, increasingly intelligent and capable of overcoming us ), a kind of consequence of "playing God".
Nor can we stop talking about the recently deceased Zygmunt Bauman .He is a sociologist and an eminence in his field who starred in one of Bran's programs, after his tremendously pessimistic interventions on technological progress , anyone might think that this makes no sense and that it is not worth moving forward.
The loss of social skills and Twitter as responsible for a new loneliness were part of his speech, full of paradoxes, on the other hand, as we will see in our arguments section to dismantle a technophobe.
How it manifests
Identifying the technophobe is very simple.Usually these are people who have not had early contact with the technology , and who do not need them too much to interact with their environment or carry out their work In addition to feeling rejection for everything related to the sector, they justify their animadversion with fallacies and beliefs as indicated above, and are supported by the possible addictions that, according to them, have caused the most young.
However, his speech has more to do with ignorance, since, for starters, it is not social networks or smartphones that generate these psychological problems, but the use-inappropriate and abusive-that is made of Something that, as Ana Cebrian, psychologist points out, has to do with the dysfunctions and attachments of the individual , and not with the external elements that are used to "survive" .The specialist, in fact, compares it with alcoholism, in which the one that does not occur to us to think that drinking is responsible, but the subject who gets drunk.
Other features of this kind of users are more evident: the lack of interest in technological developments, the absence of devices in their lives, the inability to memorize or retain any issues related to discipline, thoughts like "not for me", absence of mobile phone, etc.
Arguments to "disassemble" a technophobe: information, password
At this point, it is clear the importance of offering the person who suffers the necessary tools and information to face their fears.Forcing the person to interact with the new technologies, on the other hand, is a bad idea, precisely what some public administrations have done in certain procedures.
Digital literacy, so, should be raised in a fun and useful way.In older people, for example, associate their use with leisure works very well.The use of games and one's own Internet browsing will be enough for them to be aware of the world of possibilities that opens up in front of them.And once the interest has been aroused and the difficulty that the devices enter, we will be on the right track.
On the other hand and among the arguments that we can use to "dismantle" their beliefs, we find data such as social networks that are capable of reinforcing the emotional bonds derived from a physical relationship and of maintaining others that we would have lost with time ; that the network is a great place to continue learning-online courses have increased 96% over the past few years-and that even there we can find love-25% of Americans find a partner through specific Tinder-type communities-.
Also, The Internet has facilitated the access to information , even that which we dare not ask about.In fact, it is precisely what 17% of young people do.Another study points out that those older than They spend a good part of their time sailing, they have less tendency to suffer depression and are mentally more active than the rest.From an informative point of view, in addition, they are much more varied data than those presented on television and other conventional media.p>
Regarding social networks, they have become the great allies of the demonstrations citizen engagement in general, giving voice to those who did not have it and favoring participation in different causes.that even the UN defends the permanent and free use of the Internet under the defense that it is a "human rights facilitator".
Other considerations
Notwithstanding the above, the truth is that if there is any technology that can cause us fear , always from a relative point of view, of course, that we have already addressed in other articles of This house, a place where we find everything from specific apps to cause terror and specialized video games, to androids that want to end humanity like Sofia.Listening to the latter is spooky.
The software capable of determining when we will die based on the analysis of the data we have dumped on social networks, the artificial intelligences that read the lips, the spy toys and the use of brain stimulation to alter memories are other "products" present in the market that can cause this feeling.
Images | iStock: SIphotography, AndreyPopov, bowie15, peterotoole and OcusFocus
Comments
Post a Comment