People who fear computers do not represent a new

People who fear computers do not represent a new phenomenon. Rather, they are part of a long tradition of people who have resisted change, feared the new, developed phobias about things they do not understand, and generally would have retarded progress and new developments had they been able to do so. Clearly, though, they were unable to accomplish this, and thus these technophobes, or people who fear technology, are finally harming only themselves and preventing only themselves from gaining the benefits that others will achieve by embracing these changes. People who fear the computer are substituting the computer for their real fears--fear of loss, fear of change, fear of crime, fear of intrusion. They need to learn that it is not the computer that is the problem but how it is used or how they themselves are failing to learn to use it.

Technophobia is the best term to use because many of these people fear not just computers but many different new technologies found in the home and office today, for computers in some form are embedded in products such as microwave ovens, televisions, coffeepots, fax machines, telephones, and so on. Larry Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University in Dominguez Hills, says that people can be found who are uncomfortable with all of these products, so many that it is estimated that up to 25 percent of the population can be classified as true technophobes:

They avoid technology at all costs. If you force them to use s

education, income, occupation, and other characteristics constant (Rosen and Weil 83). In addition to fears prevalent among people who do not or cannot use computers, there are fears generated by competition from the computer. If workers who use computers now earn 10 to 15 percent more than workers who do not, it may be that in the near future, workers who use computers will be the only persons employed at all. Technology in this century has often created fear in the workforce, fear of being replaced. An article in the British magazine The Economist makes it clear that a change is coming in business administration with a new kind of automation. The first round of automation automated routine tasks in the sixties and seventies, leading in many cases to reductions in company workforces. The coming round will automate decision-making itself, which could give workers more time for creative work--if they use computers. This automation comes under the heading of "expert systems," a term for the technology that is taking on a corporate role and that promises to change both the ways in which companies compete and the ways in which people work with machines. Expert systems imitate the way people think. The designers pick the brai

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