Workplace Calisthenics: Technology predictions not always true

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Technology may not be everything it's cracked up to be.|ret||ret||tab|

In 1938, there was a prediction by The New York Times|bold_on| that the typewriter would replace the pencil. Do you still have pencils on your desk?|ret||ret||tab|

In 1975, Business Week trumpeted the beginning of the "paperless office" was just around the corner. Well, our use of paper has grown 33 percent in the past six years. |ret||ret||tab|

In 1980, Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock and The Third Wave, obviously read the wrong tea leaves when he evangelistically stated that by 2000 approximately 75 percent of all work could be done at home in our "electronic cottages."|ret||ret||tab|

I'm still going to the office and other than a VCR, wireless telephone and electric garage door opener, my home is no one's electronic cottage.|ret||ret||tab|

When the age of microelectronics zipped its way into our lives, the microchips screamed, "efficiency," "just-in-time," "convenience," and "speed." You know what? The chips have delivered. Our workplaces literally hum with the quiet assurance that some mainframe, somewhere, is covering our collective butt and promising a future.|ret||ret||tab|

Information is the new blood pulsing through the claustrophobic catacombs of our modular office spaces. Work does not get much better than to hit F7 and watch a computer munch, digest and spit out a spreadsheet of our most intimate numbers. Yes, the numbers are the stuff of life.|ret||ret||tab|

I am convinced the numbers are not the essence of life. You probably are saying right now, "Let's see if you don't give a rip about the numbers, when your checkbook reads, zero.'" |ret||ret||tab|

Good point, but wrong reasoning.|ret||ret||tab|

Here is the bottom line: The end of all information is to enrich the life of humanity. Therefore, the logic of information must be the logic of humanity.|ret||ret||tab|

Using that assumption, here are my three concerns about our present obsession with terabytes and megaflops.|ret||ret||tab|

First, our passion for technology is quickly creating an underclass in the world. These are the people who do not have the personal motivation or competence to master basic microelectronics. Yes, the motivation can be adjusted, but the competence is another issue.|ret||ret||tab|

There are reasons for my concern. Today, there are approximately 90 million Americans so poorly educated that they cannot even write a brief letter explaining an error on a credit card bill or figure out a departure schedule for a city bus.|ret||ret||tab|

If I place a high-end computer in front of you but you do not have the mental or spatial ability to navigate through its innards, this gray box will be of no use to you or me. I am scared spitless because machines are becoming the new proletariats ... and the working class is becoming the permanently unemployed. And, if you think these folks just want to flip the burgers and change the sheets of the nerds, you are whistling in the technological dark.|ret||ret||tab|

Second, technology creates false hope. We plan our calendars, airline tickets and marketing around these machines. Excuse me, have you ever had a computer crash, inexplicably catch a virus or flash you a "this is an illegal command" box? I always think I'm going to be arrested in the next five minutes when this pops up. My computer is awesome, but it is not perfect.|ret||ret||tab|

Finally, I am concerned that technology, instead of creating this egalitarian workplace where everyone bathes in the same ocean of data, is actually creating a constellation of independent fiefdoms intent on protecting borders.|ret||ret||tab|

Do you know people who no longer talk eyeball-to-eyeball, because they find e-mail much more convenient? Do you know coworkers whose bowels turn to ice water when the mere mention of information technology (IT) invades a staff meeting?|ret||ret||tab|

Before you drool over the thought of wrapping your fingers around the next designer Palm Pilot or start breathing heavily when you open the centerfold for the next generation Macintosh, pinch yourself and get a life ... because technology should be about life.|ret||ret||tab|

(Dr. Cal LeMon solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. His company, The Executive Edge, can be contacted via the Business Journal at sbj@sbj.net.)[[In-content Ad]]