Never use guns or computers
This blog starts with a funny but familiar scene.
I am watching Paul shout, scream and swear at the computer. This is a scene I’ve seen before, done by many people, in many different countries. People like to yell at the computer and shout at it when it doesn’t do what we want it to. But we never thank the computer for working perfectly. There is the obvious reason for not thanking a computer; it might talk back and then we know we’ve gone crazy. But why then do we think it would help yelling at a computer or pleading with it when it doesn’t work?
Let me just quote Paul’s advice to a little child just now - “Never use guns or computers.”
He was frustrated. He didn’t mean it. He will use a computer again, but why do we think that yelling at a computer is fine when nobody ever thanks a computer? I think the point is that we don’t think. Something’s gone wrong and we need someone to blame.
It was like on the sleeper bus going to The Himalayas; the bus stopped, the driver disappeared, so the passengers stood in a circle yelling at each other, as the real person to blame wasn’t about. It’s the same with computers, as nobody in the room is to blame, its easier to get angry with the computer, to hit it on the side, and threaten to throw it out the window, just because something’s gone wrong with it. The computer will never answer back at you and so it’s an easier argument to win. You also know that people in the room are on your side, as they’ve all yelled the same script as well.
“Stupid computer!” “Piece of junk!” “I’m going to throw this out the window!” “Error 562! What the hell does that mean!” “I hate this!” “Hate computers!” “AH!” “You’ve got more 5 seconds to work!” “Please work!” “OH! Come on! Work!” “Let me just try this once more!” “Right, we click that, then that, to file, and…come on please…NO!” “Don’t you dare!” “Fuck!” “Bloody thing!” “The file’s gone! NO! I’ve spent the last hour on that!” “I don’t care if the bloody proximity settings are off!” “Just print will you!” “It’s frozen!” “Oh shit!” etc.
You get the idea. You’ve heard it all before. You’ve probably said some of it yourself. The only reason to snap at someone in the room is if the guy sitting next to you foolishly tells you to calm down, trying to inject some reason into the situation. He may, if he’s lucky, get as far as the comment that yelling really doesn’t solve anything in the situation, before you bite his head off.
It’s true that the computer is going to be broken no matter what you say to it. You can’t scare the virus away. You can’t chase the error message to another place. You can’t make the power cut give you those unsaved pages back. But at that point you don’t care. You just need to yell at it, to get all the frustration building up inside of you, out in the open
That is possibly the reason. Yelling does help. It makes us feel better.
So a very big thanks you to this computer for being so helpful. It brought up the word processing document when I clicked on the icon. It put the correct letters on the page as I typed them. It even checked my page for errors when I asked but checked with me before changing anything. Thank you very much to the computer.
And thanks to Paul for putting the idea in my head.
David Lyon
PS You might like to know that I experienced trouble getting this onto the Internet. The connection didn’t work on this computer. I then tried to send this to another computer where the Internet was working but it failed to find a connection between the 2 computers. Stupid computers! AH!!!!!!!!
I am watching Paul shout, scream and swear at the computer. This is a scene I’ve seen before, done by many people, in many different countries. People like to yell at the computer and shout at it when it doesn’t do what we want it to. But we never thank the computer for working perfectly. There is the obvious reason for not thanking a computer; it might talk back and then we know we’ve gone crazy. But why then do we think it would help yelling at a computer or pleading with it when it doesn’t work?
Let me just quote Paul’s advice to a little child just now - “Never use guns or computers.”
He was frustrated. He didn’t mean it. He will use a computer again, but why do we think that yelling at a computer is fine when nobody ever thanks a computer? I think the point is that we don’t think. Something’s gone wrong and we need someone to blame.
It was like on the sleeper bus going to The Himalayas; the bus stopped, the driver disappeared, so the passengers stood in a circle yelling at each other, as the real person to blame wasn’t about. It’s the same with computers, as nobody in the room is to blame, its easier to get angry with the computer, to hit it on the side, and threaten to throw it out the window, just because something’s gone wrong with it. The computer will never answer back at you and so it’s an easier argument to win. You also know that people in the room are on your side, as they’ve all yelled the same script as well.
“Stupid computer!” “Piece of junk!” “I’m going to throw this out the window!” “Error 562! What the hell does that mean!” “I hate this!” “Hate computers!” “AH!” “You’ve got more 5 seconds to work!” “Please work!” “OH! Come on! Work!” “Let me just try this once more!” “Right, we click that, then that, to file, and…come on please…NO!” “Don’t you dare!” “Fuck!” “Bloody thing!” “The file’s gone! NO! I’ve spent the last hour on that!” “I don’t care if the bloody proximity settings are off!” “Just print will you!” “It’s frozen!” “Oh shit!” etc.
You get the idea. You’ve heard it all before. You’ve probably said some of it yourself. The only reason to snap at someone in the room is if the guy sitting next to you foolishly tells you to calm down, trying to inject some reason into the situation. He may, if he’s lucky, get as far as the comment that yelling really doesn’t solve anything in the situation, before you bite his head off.
It’s true that the computer is going to be broken no matter what you say to it. You can’t scare the virus away. You can’t chase the error message to another place. You can’t make the power cut give you those unsaved pages back. But at that point you don’t care. You just need to yell at it, to get all the frustration building up inside of you, out in the open
That is possibly the reason. Yelling does help. It makes us feel better.
So a very big thanks you to this computer for being so helpful. It brought up the word processing document when I clicked on the icon. It put the correct letters on the page as I typed them. It even checked my page for errors when I asked but checked with me before changing anything. Thank you very much to the computer.
And thanks to Paul for putting the idea in my head.
David Lyon
PS You might like to know that I experienced trouble getting this onto the Internet. The connection didn’t work on this computer. I then tried to send this to another computer where the Internet was working but it failed to find a connection between the 2 computers. Stupid computers! AH!!!!!!!!
posted by Volunteer at 3:24 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home