Technological Entrapment

TECHNOLOGICAL ENTRAPMENT

    Wikipedia describes the word “entrapment” as a criminal law term meaning “a law enforcement agent inducing a person to commit an offense that the person would otherwise have been unlikely to commit.” The word also occasionally occurs in medical diagnoses indicating pinching or pressure upon a vital nerve or vessel creating pain or dysfunction.
    In my opinion, however, entrapment is also a concept used (secretly) in the field of technology! The result is not outright crime, but it can involve significant financial pain and emotional suffering. I can illustrate this assumption from our own experiences of the recent past.
    Within six months, both of our laptop computers needed to be replaced. We replaced first one, and then the other with newer, updated models with more current software. Then we discovered that the software on these newer models no longer will back up the data from the hand-held calendar device I have used happily for fifteen years. But, even in retirement, I need a calendar device to remind me of future commitments which my aged memory cannot retain. The net of technological entrapment had begun, entrapment into a program of intentional obsolescence!
    It was past time for us to upgrade our cell phones, so that seemed to be the answer to my dilemma. Most of the newer phones include a calendar function so I could have my calendar and phone in one little bundle of hand-held technology. However, in that cute little “tech toy,” I discovered step two of technology entrapment. Unwittingly, I had been locked into a system requiring ever more complex knowledge! I had to read several instruction manuals just to learn how to turn it on! Then I pored over many “Help” screens trying to figure out what all those little pictures meant.
    The best instruction of all, I discovered, was trial-and-error. Waiting my turn for a haircut, I turned the device on and began tapping pictures and buttons willy-nilly, just to see what happened. I learned more about operating that little hand-held mystery in that hour than from all the available “How to...” manuals!
    Our new phones were free. But, of course, the service agreement involves a monthly fee. The phones also have “Hot Spot” capabilities (I think that means they can connect us to the internet from wherever we are. At least I hope that’s what “Hot Spot” means and it won’t burn a hole in my pocket!) That new “Hot Spot” capability costs $30 per month on each phone. We’ve been paying $60 per month for personal “My-Fi” service. Fortunately for us, it looks like we’ll come out at about the same cost which includes increased convenience and capability. So,thus far we have avoided Entrapment Step three: being caught up into a spiral of increasing costs!
    One final form of technological entrapment has haunted our household for the past three evenings. Computers, hailed as the key to simplifying our lives, often lock us into an ever-increasing level of frustration. My resident computer specialist (alias husband) has spent countless hours on the phone with the computer company “techs” trying to solve a software problem on my almost new computer. He has “restored” it back to early October and then had to re-install the more recent stuff, but that didn’t work. Next, under the guidance of the tech the following evening, he downloaded and re-installed the software of the program supposedly causing the problem. That didn’t work either.
    Finally, this evening. with the tech directing him step by step over the phone (from the Philippines!), he wiped the hard drive clean and started over. He carefully re-loaded all the programs that he had already installed several times, but it worked!
    He stayed calm and relaxed through the whole three-day process, saying only, “Every time I do this I learn something new.” I, however, was a basket case of frayed nerves and angry feelings. There’s nothing that can make me feel so helpless as a computer glitch or malfunction -- and I don’t do helpless well! I want to get in there and fix it right now or, if I can’t fix it, I want to throw it out the window to vent my frustration! That’s why Bruce is the “computer guru” of our household. We simply can’t afford my repair methods!
    The whole system of technological entrapment is subtle. I backed into it unaware and was hooked before I knew it. Once trapped, for many users it is just a short slippery slope into cycles of social isolation skipping visits with the neighbors to rush home and check e-mails. A general deterioration of health and well-being can occur from spending long hours sitting and staring at a computer screen. Tempers may flare as “tech toys” will not do what users want them to do. Waistlines expand and chronic health problems develop when Web browsing replaces physical exercise.
    Unlike criminal law entrapment, technological entrapment may not result in criminal behavior. There are, however, times I think it may drive me over the edge of sanity. I wonder, would that be a crime, a public service or a personal relief?

24 Nov 2010 - mshr

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