Love Hate Relationship
You see them everywhere. Sitting at their desks, staring at the monitor, murmuring incomprehensible words to themselves. I am talking about computer users. Walk around the office and ask your coworker “what are you doing?”. The answer will frequently be “Writing a document, sending an email or gulp! Installing software”. But what are you really doing, what are you trying to achieve, communicating with a customer?, planning for the future?, learning something new? or solving a problem?”. It seems that computer use has become a purpose on its own.
Busy, busy, busy, I am checking my email, but what have I accomplished?
How many times have you heard somebody swear while using his or her computer? “Damn this software!” a person might say in exasperation. As a software developer involved in software deployment; I had to experience the disappointment associated with showing the user, software that took many late nights to construct, only to be faced with yawns or worst, frustration. What started as a cool idea or a cutting edge technological breakthrough turns to a nightmare when installed on a customer’s computer. People don’t care about technology; they simply want tools that help them get their job done. For about 12 years I have been developing various business applications. Sometimes in a quiet moment when I close my eyes, I can hear a frustrated person swearing at me.
Recently, I watched my friends, a couple in their 60’s, buy a new computer. These are very intelligent people with many degrees and professional accomplishments between the two of them. I watched in horror as they tried to navigate through the maze of technical mambo jumbo and figure out what goes where. This is a couple who wants to write emails, edit documents and browse the internet a bit. Sounds fairly simple. I got many late night phone calls that started like this:
“I don’t know where my email went.”
“A dialog keeps coming up that says are you sure you want to download a plugin, should I click on yes or no?”
“I saved my document and now I can’t find it.”
“The anti virus is removing my attachments, but I need to read those.”
I went over to their place explained technical jargon and told them which dialogs to simply ignore and which ones they should take seriously. In the back of my mind I kept thinking, “My god! this must be overwhelming”. The worst part was the look of confusion in their faces. There was a sense of defeat, like this is too complex and we can’t figure it out. I felt a bit of guilt for having participated in developing this jungle of software mess. This monster that makes intelligent people feel stupid. After about two months of dedicated effort on my friends’ part, they are cruising on their computer taking full advantage of its many features, but after what turmoil.
The problem with computers today is that there is too much technology involved in its usage. To perform the simplest tasks on a computer you need to understand terms like HTML, HTTP, PDF, format, upload, server, database and many others. Imagine if Steven Spielberg had to know the internal workings of a Camera before he was able to make a movie. Imagine if he had to sit around while a technician was fixing the camera, or even worse, if Mr. Spielberg had to open up the Camera and fix the electrical parts himself. We wouldn’t have masterpieces like E.T. or The Color Purple. You don’t need to be an electrician to use a camera; you simply click on a button and start shooting. Getting too involved in the technical details bogs down the creative process. What masterpieces are we missing out on, in the digital world?
I think we software developers should dedicate ourselves to freeing people from software, so that they can focus on their work. We need to build a set of technologies that adapts software to people, rather than expecting people to adapt to software. We should create the camera effect for software. Software that does what its supposed to do while blending into the background without making too many in your face demands.
One day you will walk into somebody's office and see a person, rather than a big monitor.
Ok, I have a confession to make. I hate technology. I suffer from technology phobia. How I ended up being a computer programmer is a mystery to me. The computer geek that hates technology. I am a luddite in disguise. But, then everything in my life is psychotic so why not my career.
I still remember the first computer I got when I was 13 years old. It was apple
IIe. I could use assembly to program it or a software designed to teach kids to program called logo. I was hooked. What started as a hobby ended as a career.
I remember my first job straight out of university. I thought I was in heaven. I got a desk, a computer, manuals, I could play on the computer all day long and the best part was that I got paid for it. WOW! that is so cool. To do the thing that I would have loved to do for free and get money for it. Plus, now I was writing software that other people were using. That is 10 times cooler than those university projects where you wrote some software to be marked by a professor and thrown away. The joy of creating a complex virtual world and then creating it from scratch. Programming to me is like playing with lego blocks. You imagine something in your head and then see it come to life and finally you get the satisfaction of seeing other people use it.
People ask me how I can sit in front of a computer for hours. “Isn’t that boring?”, they ask. If only they could see the vivid, multi colored world in my head while I am doing that. They would realize that my job is only as boring as my imagination is.
And then the internet came along. There was so much anticipation so much potential. This was the technology that would transform human kind. Most of it has been a huge disappointment to me. I read somewhere that 70% of all internet use is related to pornography. We have a medium that allows people in India to communicate with people in Portugal in real time. We have a medium that allows people to express themselves and exchange ideas, yet most people choose to use it for fake sex. I can’t believe that people are giving up on experiencing the real thing. The human race is doomed. I can’t believe the people that spend hours and hours surfing the net, most of what is on the net is garbage, what is there to surf about? What a colossal waste of time. Now we have cyber friends, emoticons for fake emotions, we send emails instead of having a straight discussion with a person. I have helped to create a monster.
Get rid of the cell phone. Don’t send an email. Go have a chat with somebody, not in a chat room, but rather by meeting them face to face. Look them in the eyes as you speak, notice how they smile. No software will give you that.
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Bits of the above post became a 3 minute segment that aired on CBC Radio 1
There is a way between voice and presence where information flows.
In disciplined silence it opens.
With wandering talk it closes. .... Rumi
4:40 PMI often find that people that communicate via usenet or mailinglists or forums end up with IRL (In Real Live) meetings. I have quite a few contacts that I now see and meet in real life regularly but that I got to know via the internet.
Recently I read that people that use internet a lot are more sociable than people who don't, since the latter tend to be couch potatoes hanging in front of a TV (not all, mind you, wouldn't want to insult anybody).
Internet is about communicating, sharing idea's, finding alike minds. I love it!
5:46 PM
Well, yes, it's all a bit daunting: installing a firewall and getting all those warnings before it settles down, the virus scans and the live updates, the applets and the cookies... But Oh, the joy of being able to visit the tapestry in Bayeux, when you no longer can walk out the door without great difficulty! Installing, uninstalling, registering the product, none of this seems to work the first time around, you have to keep trying and suddenly, bingo! it works. Still, you don't know what you did wrong in the first place, or what you have now done right. I still think it's worth it.
The sad fact of modern life is that most of it is electronic: the phone, the email, the AIM. Even snail mail is almost gone out of fashion. I used to be a prolific letter-writer when I was young, people loved getting my letters, but they never answered. Pretty soon I felt like someone who talks to themselves as they walk down the street, of whom the passers by say: "She has money in the bank..." Nowadays, you can't go anywhere without hearing people on their cell phones, sometimes talking about their most private affairs, most of the time just saying something like: "I'm on the bus, I'm five minutes away from your place, see ya!"
I worked almost a quarter of a century in the same law firm, I used to meet hundreds and hundreds of new people every year on the job, with whom I entertained ongoing, daily relationships that spread over many years. I was never aware that I had made no friends until I left, and the mere fact of not being "one of them" any more, of having left that environment, isolated me totally, it was as if I had died or gone to live on a desert island. I have today only one real friend from that entire experience, plus one acquaintance, whom I loosely refer to as a friend, and one contact, whom I also loosely refer to as a friend. That leaves hundreds and hundreds of almost strangers about whom I know a lot of personal details.
I think that actually the idea of relationships is pretty much an illusion. They should just be considered moments of joy shared. I don't think that makes them any less significant because they don't have an extension in time, or any real continuity. We are changed by these interactions, even the most ephemeral ones. It's like the salt in the soup, once it has been put in, it can't be taken out.
I have never looked you in the eye or enjoyed your smile, but reading your blog I feel that you are a part of my life and I am grateful to have "met you". So, don't feel too bad about being a "geek", you and your friends are the ones that have turned a bunch of little old codgers into Internauts! Who can visit the stars, listen to crocodiles hiss at their mates, or share the musings of other human beings on the other side of the earth.
With my deep appreciation and gratitude!
5:41 AM
You have helped to create a powerful tool of communication. Communication is always frought with monsters, no matter what the medium is.
Perhaps the web is a kind of primeval soup, lifeforms have yet to hatch out of it. As people look for ways to make the tools easier to use, to make use more personable, it may be that software and hardware will blend with our lives in ways that create even more ethical monsters. It seems the simpler the technology becomes for people to use, the more complex the ethical questions grow.
5:55 PM
ihath performing at a flamenco show!!!!
hehehe... now i'll have to re-install ihath's mental image....
9:00 PM
Hello Ihath,
I noticed you'll perform Sunday at the flamenco festival. Are you going to wear the dress you told us about in an earlier post?
I hope you have a good time.
8:43 AM
Hello Fayrouz,
I had a dress made. It is white with red and black flower print. I will try to post a picture later on. Thank you for your well wishs. To be frank I an very nerveous. It is scarry getting on a stage.
7:43 PM
Was the night fun? I hope you took some photos.
10:00 AM
Hello Fayrouz,
I think the evening went well. At least we didn't mess up. It was both fun and nerve wrecking at the same time. What an experience.
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