We are surrounded by technology, there is virtually nothing you cannot now do online…
Well that is unless you can’t get online.
Many people are still identifying barriers to their using technology – some valid, some myths, some nonsense – but why shouldn’t everyone be given the confidence and skills to make IT work for them.
Cost, Safety/Security and Age can all be defended. Point blank refusal to learn (in the case of my step-father) is harder to challenge but the most worrying of all has to be – ‘I don’t need it’. There are too many things to list in life that we ‘don’t need’, that we have ‘managed without for years’ or that we can ‘find another way around it’.
We don’t need television or aeroplanes, we managed for years without electricity and inside toilets and I’m sure we can find alternative ways to keep in touch with Aunty Jill who lives in New Zealand and brother John who is in the army – carrier pigeons used to work didn’t they?
Do not disguise your fear, lack of understanding or unwillingness to change by claiming technology is unnecessary. It can, will and, in many areas, already has changed lives. It offers a world of new opportunities for gaining knowledge, for sharing cultures, for accessing products and services and for taking care of yourself, your family, your home or even your pets.
This lovely story, click here, is one of many out there that shows that, whatever it is that tips you over the edge into embracing technology, you will not regret it.