Technology
would be fired if it was a person. I have never seen someone or something which
had a certain job to do, fail so often and still be relied on for every
presentation and meeting. As an AV guy working at the Missionary Training
Center, I help set up and run many power-point presentations,
Microphones, and meetings. Every week we have some problem with a power-point
freezing, some kind of microphone ringing, or a random glitch in a system which
frustrates us and the presenter. Does any of these things stop people from
using technology again? Nope. The blame falls to us, and the technology gets
the benefit of the doubt. Why rely on technology when it fails us so much? Because
it is the norm and we are compelled to follow the norm.
Interesting post. I don't think the technology is to blame as much as the people who built and programmed that technology. I think it's the engineers' responsibility to create something useful, something that works, something that offers a good experience. So to me, the real question here is -- why don't the engineers get fired? In my observation, there seems to be a pretty low level of accountability for software engineers, for example.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I disagree with the notion that people use technology simply to conform. I think for the most part, people use technology because it make their lives easier. Maybe this is a bit optimistic, but I believe that there's a lot of well-made software out there, that genuinely works and makes life easier for tons of people. Then again, I don't work in IT, so maybe I should just take your word for it. :)