I bought my first computer from a sex therapist. It was back in the old days when most people my age did not have personal computers. I thought one of these machines might help me write more efficiently, but I knew nothing about computers. To hide my ignorance and intimidation, I found a computer-savvy teenager in our church who went with me to the computer store. Once inside, we met an array of machines and a vivacious salesperson who asked for my name and profession and then announced that she only sold computers part time. In my other job I work as a sex therapist, she announced.

This is just a different kind of wiring.I hasten to add that I learned nothing more about her therapeutic skills, but we learned that she was a good salesperson. We left the store with a $6,000 computer that created megabytes of stress before I mastered the art of making it work effectively to help me write my books. I complained to my wife about that machine for months, but when the manuscript was done I was hooked. Today, I hardly remember how to use anything as slow as a pen and paper.

In his recent book, Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation, Don Tapscott notes that there now are 88 million people in Canada and the United States between the ages of 2 and 22.1 This is the first generation to be raised on digital technology. They, and many of their older Generation X siblings (or youthful parents), are or will be as comfortable with computers, the Internet, VCRs, video games, virtual communities, digital work spaces, cyberspace, information overload, and cascading technologies as I am with devices like radios or telephones. For those of us less comfortable with emerging technology, however,

there is a danger of being separated from our own kids, grandkids, clients, and students by a digital divide that can leave us feeling helpless and on the sidelines of a techno-tsunami that is swirling around us with ever-increasing force and velocity.

*Who’s Afraid?*

Techno stress, cyber phobia, computer anxiety, and techno phobics are among the terms coined in recent years to describe any kind of mild to severe discomfort with one or more forms of technology. Naturally I logged on to the Internet to get the latest information about these concepts and, to my surprise, discovered not dozens but hundreds of online articles and websites. At some time almost all of these refer to Michelle Weil and Larry Rosen whose research and book on techno stress have established them as undisputed leaders in the field.2 They divide the population into three categories. About 1015% are eager adopters who love technology, find it fun and challenging, and are the first to buy new technological gadgets. They expect to have difficulties with technology at times, but problem solving is fulfilling and satisfying. A second category of 5060% of the population are hesitant prove it people who feel uncomfortable, awkward, self-conscious, and intimidated like I did when I bought that first computer. These people need to be convinced and coached into using new technologies, but they are willing to try. When something goes wrong, they may panic temporarily and blame themselves, but more often they call somebody to fix the problem and they move on often to become enthusiastic users. The remaining 3040% are resisters. They use toasters and microwaves, of course, but they want nothing to do with new technologies like computers, FAX machines, or cell phones.

These people feel scared, uncomfortable, stupid, overwhelmed, too embarrassed to ask for help, afraid of breaking any machine or gadget they might touch. Not surprisingly, the resisters have higher stress than the other groups, lower productivity, and less efficiency. They are the most pressured by technology although some techno stress is found in all three groups. With the speed of technological change, it is common to find anxiety about technology throughout society in schools (where teachers sometimes feel intimidated by their students computer expertise), government, the military, business, homes, and counselor offices. Many people feel technologically illiterate, afraid to go exploring on the world wide web, intimidated by technical manuals that are written by people who apparently don’t speak English. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the jargon of RAM and ROM, bytes and bites, gigabyte drives and Pentium chips. But despite these fears, about 5070 million Americans now use the Internet, a number that has tripled in the last three years and is about to triple in the next three. According to the U.S.

Commerce Department, an estimated 2.7 trillion e-mail messages will be sent this year. Increasingly, physicians and counselors are discovering that their patients surf the web to get information about their illnesses, often becoming more knowledge able than their caregivers. In their clients and among their colleagues, counselors face the contrast between people who embrace new technologies enthusiastically, sometimes uncritically, and those who retreat in fear and intimidation.

*What Do We Know for Sure?*

The professional literature on techno stress is growing, especially studies of computer anxiety. 3 As you might expect, there is evidence that increasing experience with computers and other technology reduces anxiety but not always. The type of experience is more important than

the amount. People with negative experiences are more inclined to be cyber phobic, for example, than people whose experiences have been

positive.4 Attitudes toward technology are also important. People who see computers as useful and easy to use are less anxious. (We might

ask, however, whether good attitudes reduce anxiety, or lack of anxiety leads to good attitudes). Playfulness is another dimension that has been studied. People who are spontaneous, inventive, curious, and imaginative are less intimated by technology and more inclined to play computer games than people who are more restrictive.5 Age and socioeconomic level

also make a difference. While kids tend to be less stressed by technology than adults, techno stress does appear in children, especially if their schools lack modern technology or they come from poor families that cant afford computers, cell phones or VCRs.6 One other finding concerns teachers. Good instructors reduce and prevent technophobia. If a teacher or computer instructor is self-confident, patient, and enthusiastic about technology, his or her students become the same.

*Reducing the Byte of Techno stress*

Cameron Townsend was a missionary, the founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators. He lived long before the age of computers, at the time when airplanes were making their initial appearances. Townsend introduced these new flying machines to his mission because he saw their potential for advancing the work of Bible translation. For Townsend, the new technology of his day had to be evaluated for its appropriateness to the work to which he felt called by God. Take help from internet counseling.

Technology was not feared. It was seen as a friend and a helper, but it was never allowed to replace relationships, to reduce human connectedness, or to get in the way of worship and service. Christian counselors need a similar mentality. As the accompanying sidebar shows, there are practical ways by which you or your clients can overcome technological stress. Technology can be used in many positive ways, including our work as people helpers. But for all the technological change and high-tech possibilities, we need to remember that needs of people are always the same. They need high touch contact with fellow human beings and with a loving God who cares, even in a techno stressed culture. Take help from telephone counselor.

Source by crish killer