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Computer literacy is required in almost any business field. It
not only puzzles me, but irks me when I hear forty-something male business executives boasting of their computer or cyber ineptitude. I’ve actually heard a deficient
male saying in an ‘aren’t I naughty’ kind of voice, “I can’t even send an e-mail!’ Shame on the idiot. To gender credit, I've never heard a woman executive proclaiming
her deficiencies.
IT buffs or 'techies' are techies precisely because they love their field. One typical characteristic of such folk is that they love sharing
their passion and getting others too, to share it. The result is that if you ask for help, advice or information, you'll almost always get an answer - and sometimes a
rather more detailed one than you bargained for!
As the saying goes, ‘The easiest way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.’ And the easiest way to absorb
computer or other technological skills (for we non-techies) is in incremental little bites.
Take inspiration from two seventy-something women I assisted into
computer literacy. A third - my seventy six year-old godmother - keeps in touch with us from Australia by e-mail, off her own state of the art notebook computer. So
it's never 'too late to start'.
I see medical professionals being left behind and facing a steadily eroding patient base because of technophobia. My erstwhile
dentist used to run a very tight ship and on the professionalism and hygiene front, couldn’t be faulted. But when I used another dentist for a specific procedure, I
realised how archaic (albeit squeaky clean) were his processes. He still used standard syringes for injecting pre a filling or other treatment. It was almost
inevitable that he literally struck a nerve when doing so. The impression paste he used, along with the adhesive for bonding, left a vile taste in your mouth that
persisted for hours. Even his X-rays were still developed by the old method.
The ‘new’ dentist has state of the art pain management equipment and it was only
when I felt my gum going numb that I realised I’d ‘been given an injection’. So teeny was the needle and so subtle the computer-driven pulses of through-the-skin
anaesthetic that you literally had no discomfort during any of the procedures other than that of sitting with your mouth agape. Her X-ray equipment is digital and the
instant the shot’s been taken, the (magnifiable) image is visible on her seriously large LCD computer screen for her and you to discuss.
Whether the resistance
to change is driven by the (obvious) economic investment required, or simply by a dislike of on-going learning, I have no idea. But I guess one day the old dentist
will have to shut up shop because he’s not attracting any new patients and he’ll ask himself, ‘Why?’
Essential components in a 'student', one who is being
mentored, or someone on a growth curve, are curiosity and a genuine desire to learn more. Then comes that crucial attitudinal ingredient - humility. If we think we're
too ‘senior’, experienced or important to get back to crawling in nappies while we learn a new skill or process, our regression journey will have started in earnest.
We will garner neither respect nor admiration from those (particularly the young) around us. And we will remain trapped in our self-selected cocoon of ineptitude,
ignorance and inexorable failure.
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