Thing 7: Blog About Technology

I wonder sometimes if we have allowed ourselves to put the cart before the horse with our use of technology.

I just got back from a week largely spent without a computer or cell phone service. The last part of the week I was hanging with the Amish in Holmes County. Aside from a few initial pangs of feeling disconnected though, I would have to say that the experience of actually being disconnected was a positive one. As it turns out, the Amish aren't generally opposed to technology for its own sake. But they do take the adoption of new technologies seriously -- they think about the ramifications before they jump in. If a new device or method threatens to cause division within the family, they decide not to use it.

There are plenty of reasons to question whether electricity use is divisive. But my one-week tech-fast has really got me thinking about our "conveniences" and how they impact our relationships with other people. I spent several days actually spending uninterrupted time with family and friends, and another several days of uninterrupted time with my wife and strangers. I found that, without the expectation or temptation of phone calls or emails to respond to, without a television or the internet to distract me, without even a radio blaring at me, I was better able to focus on what I was doing and who I was with. My relationship to the world around me was more wonderous and less mediated.

The trip provided personal evidence for some ideas I have been running across in my reading lately. In a recent Atlantic Monthly article, Nicholas Carr looked at the relationship between how we think and the technologies we use. Wendell Berry writes prolifically about many things, one of which is why he refuses to buy a computer to write. In The Toyota Way, which describes the principles of Toyota's uniquely successful management practices, Jeffrey Liker explains how and why Toyota adopts new technologies in a deliberate process that might seem backward to many. In fact, it keeps the company focused on innovation and customer satisfaction (and ultimately the bottom line) in a way that other automakers have been unable to replicate.

I understand that libraries need to keep current with customer expectations for service. The computer makes gathering and sorting information more thorough and accurate. Many of the web 2.0 services are great for allowing us to make contact with people, information, and ideas that we otherwise wouldn't have access to. And increasingly these technologies are the way people want to communicate with each other. Not being fluent in the digital world would only serve to guarantee our obsolescence.

But I am concerned about our approach to technology. I think it is important to be able and willing to ask whether a particular technology actually helps us provide better service, or if it is a toy that distracts us from actually being a better library. What if the Amish are right more than we want to admit? What if discarding or refusing some of the available technologies would actually allow us to develop stronger relationships with our customers?