A New Technology Looks Like a Toy

　When I was a junior high school student, mechanical pencils started to spread among students. We loved those. We were excited to use the new technology. But one of my aged teachers argued, “You should not use those toys. Use a pencil. If you use a knife to sharpen a pencil, it concentrates your mind.”

Actually, I didn’t agree with him. But mechanical pencils had problems in those days. They broke easily. So, I used both pencils and mechanical pencils.

When I was a university student, electronic dictionaries started spreading among students. We loved those. We were excited to use the new technology. But one of my aged professors argued, “You should not use those toys. Use a paper dictionary. You will memorize new words better by using a dictionary.”

Actually, I didn’t agree with him. But I have to admit that the very first electronic dictionary models were very expensive, and they didn’t have as much information as paper dictionaries.

When I was a teacher at a technical school, digital cameras started to spread. I was not interested in those. But one of my senior teachers argued, “Those are not real cameras. Young people miss out on the precious time waiting for photos to develop.”

Another of my senior teachers gave me a digital camera. It wasn’t useful. The number of pixels was too low. That was one of the very first models.

When smartphones started to spread, I thought, “These are toys for people who have a lot of time to kill.”

My wife recommended a smartphone to me, and I started to use it. The first smartphone models ran out of power quickly and froze up easily. But now, I can’t do anything without my smartphone.

Such things have always happened in history. Guns were imported to Japan in 1543. In those days, Japan was in a period of civil war. In 1575, Oda won against Takeda by using guns effectively.

I assumed Takeda didn’t know about guns. But I was wrong. The Takeda faction was aware of guns. They bought and tested them. But their leader’s conclusion was, “These are useless on the battlefield.” Maybe the very first guns brought to Japan were not of high quality.

New technologies always appear disguised as useless toys. The very first models are of poor quality. Young people happily use new technologies. Aged people tend to hesitate. They feel that using a low-grade new thing could be a waste of time. I think old people lose their patience. They are busy. They might feel that the time it takes to learn to use a difficult toy could be humiliating.

Keeping up with the times is hard.

 

Proofreading by Michael W, ProofreadingServices.com

Picture by LadadikArt