All I Am Saying Is Give PCs A Chance
A response to the essay “Against PCs”
I was already using computers even before I was out of diapers. My parents bought an Apple in 1987 and it had a memory game in it that I tinkered with for my amusement. Of course, I probably didn’t understand the concept of the game and just banged away at the keyboard with my tiny fists. But my exposure to that essential piece of technology at an age where most kids are learning to use the potty served as a foreshadowing of my total dependence and love for PCs later in life.
I cannot live without my beloved, metallic blue, personal computer. Not only is it useful when it comes to writing and editing papers my professors are so fond of asking us to do, but the Internet has also made it an extension of my social life and an outlet for my creativity and emotions. A lot of people cannot understand why we teenagers can sit in front of a computer all day. These people are called “technophobes”. They would rather return to a “simpler” way of life, and they quickly distrust new gadgets and label them as time or energy-wasters without even trying them out and seeing the benefits we can derive from them.
Wendell Berry is actually more of a conservationist than a technophobe because one of the things he disliked about computers and technology in general is that they use up so much energy and do damage to the world. Perhaps his sentiments were justifiable at the time the essay was written because computer monitors in the ’80s were not as energy-efficient as they are now. In 1992 the US initiated the Energy Star program, which shuts down the computer monitor when it is not being used. This saves a lot of energy and makes Berry’s argument irrelevant today.
However, we can see from his standards for technological innovation that Berry has some of the indications of a technophobe, particularly when he said that “It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists.” He was, of course, referring to his wife who edits and types his work for him. But getting a computer doesn’t mean that his wife can no longer be his editor. She can simply learn how to operate a computer through an adult literacy class and use it instead of the typewriter. And I’m sure that once she realizes what a word processor is capable of doing, she will learn to appreciate the benefits of using a computer—namely more productive time for herself and her husband. Just as Berry’s correspondents wrote, I’m also sure that his wife has things to do besides editing and typing her husband’s work.
Another standard Berry mentioned was that “It should do work that is clearly and demonstrably better than the ones it replaces.” I don’t see the validity of this assumption because it is so obvious that Berry has never tried opening a computer in his life. PCs save so much time and manual labor as opposed to a pen and paper or a typewriter. When I was in high school, we were taught how touch type using big, clunky typewriters. I hated how I had to use correction fluid to erase my mistakes, wait for what seems like an eternity for it to dry up, before typing over the error I just blotted out. I estimated that the whole process of erasing and waiting took up one minute, and in that one minute I could have already typed an entire page if I had used a word processor.
Berry ends his reply to his correspondents with a statement about the innovativeness of his essay. “If the use of a computer is a new idea, then a newer idea is not to use one.” But technophobia is nothing new; it has been with humanity for a long time. As long as there are new discoveries and new inventions, there will always be people who will resist these changes. Even Plato claimed that, “Writing will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves.” Since PCs will be here to stay until it evolves to something more sophisticated, you might as well give them a chance. And if you don’t like what you see, you can always ask your wife to hack away at the old typewriter. Whatever floats your boat.
