View source for Technophobia

{{short description|Fear or discomfort with advanced technology}}
[[File:MacBook With Technophobia Page.jpg|thumb|240x240px|Computers, among many other technologies, are feared by technophobes.]]
'''Technophobia''' (from [[Greek language|Greek]] τέχνη ''technē'', "art, skill, craft"<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dte%2Fxnh τέχνη], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> and φόβος ''phobos'', "fear"<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dfo%2Fbos φόβος], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref>), also known as '''technofear''', is the fear or dislike of, or discomfort with, advanced [[technology]] or complex devices, especially [[personal computers]], [[smartphones]], and [[tablet computers]].<ref name="dic defs">{{cite web
|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/technophobia
|access-date=2008-07-29|title=Definition of "Technophobia"
|publisher = Dictionary.reference.com
|quote=<br />{{nbsp|3}}(1) tech·no·pho·bi·a (těk'nə-fō'bē-ə) n. '''Fear of or aversion to technology, especially computers and high technology.''' -Related forms: tech'no·phobe' n., tech'no·pho'bic (-fō'bĭk) adj."— (American Heritage Dictionary)<br /> {{nbsp|3}}(2) "tech·no·pho·bi·a {{IPAc-en|ˌ|t|ɛ|k|n|ə|ˈ|f|oʊ|b|i|ə}} - Show Spelled Pronunciation [tek-nuh-foh-bee-uh] –noun '''abnormal fear of or anxiety about the effects of advanced technology.''' [Origin: 1960–65; techno- + -phobia] —Related forms: tech·no·phobe, noun – (Dictionary.com unabridged (v1.1) based on the Random House unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.)}}</ref> Although there are numerous interpretations of technophobia, they become more complex as technology continues to evolve. The term is generally used in the sense of an irrational fear, but others contend fears are justified. It is the opposite of [[technophilia]].

Larry Rosen, a [[research psychologist]], computer educator, and professor at [[California State University, Dominguez Hills]], suggests that there are three dominant subcategories of technophobes – the "uncomfortable users", the "cognitive computerphobes", and "anxious computerphobes".<ref name="Technophobia Journal">Gilbert, David, Liz Lee-Kelley, and Maya Barton. "Technophobia, gender influences and consumer decision-making for technology-related products." European Journal of Innovation Management 6.4 (2003): pp. 253–263. Print.</ref> First receiving widespread notice during the [[Industrial Revolution]], technophobia has been observed to affect various societies and communities throughout the world. This has caused some groups to take stances against some modern technological developments in order to preserve their ideologies. In some of these cases, the new technologies conflict with established beliefs, such as the personal values of simplicity and modest lifestyles.

Examples of technophobic ideas can be found in multiple forms of art, ranging from literary works such as ''[[Frankenstein]]'' to films like ''[[The Terminator]]''. Many of these works portray a darker side to technology, as perceived by those who are technophobic. As technologies become increasingly complex and difficult to understand, people are more likely to harbor anxieties relating to their use of modern technologies.

==Prevalence==
A study published in the journal ''[[Computers in Human Behavior]]'' was conducted between 1992 and 1994 surveying first-year college students across various countries.<ref name=studentstudy>{{cite journal|doi = 10.1016/0747-5632(94)00026-E|first1 = Michelle M.|last1= Weil|first2= Larry D.|last2 = Rosen|title = A Study of Technological Sophistication and Technophobia in University Students From 23 Countries|journal = Computers in Human Behavior|volume = 11|issue = 1 |pages = 95–133|year = 1995|quote = Over a two-year period, from 1992–1994, data were collected from 3,392 first year university students in 38 universities from 23 countries on their level of technological sophistication and level of technophobia.}}</ref> The overall percentage of the 3,392<ref name="W&R table-2"/> students who responded with high-level technophobic fears was 29%.<ref name="W&R table-2">{{cite journal|doi = 10.1016/0747-5632(94)00026-E|first1 = Michelle M.|last1= Weil|first2= Larry D.|last2 = Rosen|title = A Study of Technological Sophistication and Technophobia in University Students From 23 Countries|journal = Computers in Human Behavior|volume = 11|issue = 1 |pages = 95–133|year = 1995|quote = "Table 2. Percentage of Students in each country who possessed high levels of technophobia"}}; several points are worth noting from Table 2. First, a group of countries including Indonesia, Poland, India, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Mexico and Thailand show large percentages (over 50%) of technophobic students. In contrast, there are five countries which show under 30% technophobes (US, Yugoslavia – Croatia, Singapore, Israel and Hungary). The remaining countries were in between these two groupings.</ref> In comparison, [[Japan]] had 58% high-level technophobes and [[Mexico]] had 53%.<ref name="W&R table-2" />

A published report in 2000 stated that roughly 85–90% of new employees at an organization may be uncomfortable with new technology, and are technophobic to some degree.<ref name=orgstudy>{{cite web |url=http://www.learningcircuits.org/2000/mar2000/mar2000_elearn.html |title=Index – Learning Circuits – ASTD |publisher=Learning Circuits |access-date=2010-06-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511165100/http://www.learningcircuits.org/2000/mar2000/mar2000_elearn.html |archive-date=2008-05-11 }}</ref>

==History==
Technophobia began to gain attention as a movement in England with the dawn of the [[Industrial Revolution]]. With the development of new machines able to do the work of skilled craftsmen using unskilled, low-wage labor, those who worked a trade began to fear for their livelihoods. In 1675, a group of weavers destroyed machines that replaced their jobs. By 1727, the destruction had become so prevalent that [[Parliament of England|Parliament]] made the demolition of machines a capital offense. This action, however, did not stop the tide of violence. The [[Luddites]], a group of anti-technology workers, united under the name "Ludd" in March 1811, removing key components from knitting frames, raiding houses for supplies, and petitioning for trade rights while threatening greater violence. Poor harvests and food riots lent aid to their cause by creating a restless and agitated population for them to draw supporters from.<ref name=lud>{{cite web |author=Kevin Binfield |url=http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/kevin.binfield/luddites/LudditeHistory.htm |title=Luddite History – Kevin Binfield – Murray State University |publisher=Campus.murraystate.edu |access-date=2010-06-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610103858/http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/kevin.binfield/luddites/LudditeHistory.htm |archive-date=2010-06-10 }}</ref>

The 19th century was also the beginning of modern science, with the work of [[Louis Pasteur]], [[Charles Darwin]], [[Gregor Mendel]], [[Michael Faraday]], [[Henri Becquerel]], and [[Marie Curie]], and inventors such as [[Nikola Tesla]], [[Thomas Edison]] and [[Alexander Graham Bell]]. The world was changing rapidly, too rapidly for many, who feared the changes taking place and longed for a simpler time. The [[Romantic movement]] exemplified these feelings. Romantics tended to believe in imagination over reason, the "organic" over the mechanical, and a longing for a simpler, more [[pastoral]] time. Poets like [[William Wordsworth]] and [[William Blake]] believed that the technological changes that were taking place as a part of the industrial revolution were polluting their cherished view of nature as being perfect and pure.<ref name=romanticism>{{cite web |url=http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html |title=Romanticism |publisher=Wsu.edu |access-date=2010-06-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528014616/http://www.wsu.edu/%7Ebrians/hum_303/romanticism.html |archive-date=2010-05-28 }}</ref>

After [[World War II]], a fear of technology continued to grow, catalyzed by the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]]. With [[nuclear proliferation]] and the [[Cold War]], people began to wonder what would become of the world now that humanity had the power to manipulate it to the point of destruction. Corporate production of war technologies such as napalm, explosives, and gases during the [[Vietnam War]] further undermined public confidence in technology's worth and purpose.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Goodyear|first=Anne Collins|title=From Technophilia to Technophobia: The Impact of the Vietnam|journal=Leonardo|year=2008|volume=41|issue=2|pages=169–173|doi=10.1162/leon.2008.41.2.169|s2cid=57570414}}</ref> In the post-WWII era, [[environmentalism]] also took off as a movement. The first international air pollution conference was held in 1955, and in the 1960s, investigations into the lead content of gasoline sparked outrage among environmentalists. In the 1980s, the depletion of the ozone layer and the threat of [[global warming]] began to be taken more seriously.<ref name=environment>{{cite web|url=http://www.runet.edu/~wkovarik/envhist/ |title=Environmental History Timeline |publisher=Runet.edu |date=1969-06-22 |access-date=2010-06-02}}</ref>

===Luddites===
{{main|Luddites}}
[[File:Luddite.jpg|thumb|right|160px|''The Leader of the Luddites'', engraving of 1812]]
Several societal groups are considered technophobic, the most recognisable of which are the Luddites. Many technophobic groups revolt against modern technology because of their beliefs that these technologies are threatening their ways of life and livelihoods.<ref name=Jobs>{{cite web |url=http://www.regent.edu/acad/schcom/rojc/mdic/luddites.html |title=The Luddites |publisher=Regent.edu |access-date=2010-06-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100529165818/http://www.regent.edu/acad/schcom/rojc/mdic/luddites.html |archive-date=2010-05-29 }}</ref> The Luddites were a [[social movement]] of British artisans in the 19th century who organized in opposition to technological advances in the textile industry.<ref name=lud /> These advances replaced many skilled textile artisans with comparatively unskilled machine operators. The 19th century British Luddites rejected new technologies that impacted the structure of their established trades, or the general nature of the work itself.

Resistance to new technologies did not occur when the newly adopted technology aided the work process without making significant changes to it. The British Luddites protested the application of the machines, rather than the invention of the machine itself. They argued that their labor was a crucial part of the economy, and considered the skills they possessed to complete their labor as property that needed protection from the destruction caused by the autonomy of machines.<ref>{{cite book|last=Randall|first=Adrien|title="Reinterpreting 'Luddism': Resistance to New Technology in the British Industrial Revolution" Resistance to New Technology: Nuclear Power, Information Technology and Biotechnology|year=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=57–80|isbn=9780521455183|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WqlRXkxS36cC}}</ref>

===Use of modern technologies among Old Order Anabaptists===

Groups considered by some people to be technophobic are the [[Amish]] and other [[Old Order Movement|Old Order Anabaptists]]. The Amish follow a set of moral codes outlined in the [[Ordnung]], which rejects the use of certain forms of technology for personal use. [[Donald Kraybill|Donald B. Kraybill]], Karen M. Johnson-Weiner and [[Steven Nolt|Steven M. Nolt]] state in their book ''The Amish'': {{Cquote|More significantly the Amish ''modify'' and ''adapt'' technology in creative ways to fit their cultural values and social goals. Amish technologies are diverse, complicated and ever-changing.<ref>Donald B. Kraybill, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner and Steven M. Nolt: ''The Amish'', Baltimore 2013, p. 313.</ref>}}

What the Amish do, is selective use of modern technologies in order to maintain their belief and culture.<ref>[https://www.wired.com/1999/01/amish/ ''Look Who's Talking'' – an article about the selective use of technologies among the Amish.]</ref>

==Technophobia in arts==
[[File:Frankenstein's monster (Boris Karloff).jpg|thumb|left|''[[Frankenstein|Frankenstein's Monster]]'' is often considered to be an early example of technophobic ideas in art.]]
An early example of technophobia in fiction and popular culture is [[Mary Shelley]]'s ''[[Frankenstein]]''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://tcjournal.org/vol3/rogers|title=Critical Essay – Old Games, Same Concerns: Examining First Generation Video Games Through Popular Press Coverage from 1972–1985 {{!}} Technoculture|website=tcjournal.org|access-date=2019-11-08}}</ref> 

A 1960 episode of ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]'' called "[[A Thing About Machines]]" deals with a man's hatred for modern things such as electric razors, televisions, electric typewriters and clocks.<ref>[https://twilightzonemuseum.com/media/machines.php Twilight Zone - A Thing About Machines]</ref><ref>[https://filmschoolrejects.com/exploring-the-twilight-zone-40-a-thing-about-machines-cbfccc36ed/ Exploring The Twilight Zone #40: A Thing About Machines - Film School Rejects]</ref>

Technophobia achieved commercial success in the 1980s with the movie ''[[The Terminator]]'', in which a computer becomes self-aware, and decides to kill all humans.<ref name=":0" /> 

Shows such as ''[[Doctor Who]]'' have tackled the issue of technophobia – most specifically in the episode "[[The Robots of Death]]", with a character displaying a great fear of robots due to their lack of body language, described by the [[Fourth Doctor]] as giving them the appearance of "[[Uncanny valley|dead men walking]]". Series consultant [[Kit Pedler]] also used this fear as a basis for the inspiration of classic ''Doctor Who'' monsters the [[Cybermen]], with the creatures being inspired by his own fear of [[artificial limbs]] becoming so common that it would become impossible to know when someone had stopped being a man and become simply a machine. ''[[Virtuosity]]'' speaks of a virtual serial killer who manages to escape to the real world. He goes on a rampage before he is inevitably stopped. This is a true technophobic movie in that its main plot is about technology gone wrong. It introduces a killer who blatantly destroys people.<ref name="scifi">[https://kwarc.info/teaching/TDM/Dinello.pdf Technophobia: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology]</ref>

[[Avatar (2009 film)|''Avatar'']] is exemplary of technology's hold on humans who are empowered by it and visually demonstrates the amount of terror it instills upon those native to the concept. It enforces the notion that foreign creatures from Pandora are not only frightened by technology, but it is something they loathe; its potential to cause destruction could exceed their very existence. In contrast, the film itself used advanced technology such as the [[stereoscope]] in order to give viewers the illusion of physically taking part in an experience that would introduce them to a civilization struggling with technophobia.<ref>[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/26/091026fa_fact_goodyear Man of Extremes|The New Yorker]</ref>

==See also==
{{div col}}
* {{annotated link|Anarcho-primitivism}}
* {{annotated link|Anti-consumerism}}
* {{annotated link|Antiscience}}
* {{annotated link|Black Mirror|''Black Mirror''}}
* [[Butlerian Jihad]]
* {{annotated link|Chemophobia}}
** {{annotated link|Chemtrail conspiracy theory|"Chemtrails" conspiracy theory}}
** {{section link|High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program|Conspiracy theories}}
** {{section link|List of conspiracy theories|Weather and earthquake control projects}}
* {{annotated link|Darwin among the Machines|"Darwin among the Machines"}}
* {{annotated link|Dystopia}}
* {{annotated link|Digital phobic}}
* {{annotated link|Erewhon|''Erewhon''}}
* {{annotated link|Enshittification}}
* {{annotated link|List of phobias}}
* {{section link|Metaverse|Criticism and concerns}}
** {{annotated link|Virtual reality sickness}}
* {{section link|Minimalism|Minimalist lifestyle}}
* {{annotated link|Neo-Luddism}}
* {{annotated link|Mennonites}}
* {{annotated link|Back to the land movement}}
* {{annotated link|NIMBY}}
* {{section link|List of conspiracy theories|Predictive programming}}
* {{annotated link|Radical environmentalism}}
* {{annotated link|Reactionary}}
* {{annotated link|Technophilia}}
* {{annotated link|Technostress}}
* {{annotated link|Technological singularity}}
* {{annotated link|Ted Kaczynski}}
* {{annotated link|The Matrix|''The Matrix''}}
* {{annotated link|Uncanny valley}}
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Brosnan, M. (1998) Technophobia: The psychological impact of information technology. Routledge.
* Dan Dinello ''Technophobia: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology''
*"[http://environmentalhistory.org/ Environmental History Timeline]." 20 July 2008.

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline}}
*{{Commonscatinline|Technophobia}}

{{Media and human factors}}

[[Category:Technophobia| ]]