Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

This was one question Simon Armitage asked himself at one point in last night’s, Upgrade Me, the first in a series programmes in BBC Four’s “Electronic Revolution” season. If you missed it you can catch it on BBC’s iPlayer for the next seven days in the UK, or it is repeated on a number of occasions until 5th October on BBC Four. I’m grateful to Bill Gibbon who noticed that the music was the theme from The Computer Programme broadcast on BBC2 in 1982, actually, from the album, Computer World by Kraftwerk. But I digress …

Armitage, a modern day poet, writer, musician, and “upgrader” by nature, showed us his cast off hardware and gadgets, which he admitted he has much affection for. It reminded me of the now rather worn out cliché about digital natives and immigrants as he delved into the “story of his upgrading”, his own “archaeological” collection. He made the observation that technology implies success, knowledge and power and that it is no longer about function, but form and even muses that it may now be about ‘art’.

He goes to a typical Secondary school and asks the 12 year olds to put their devices on the table and discovers that 49 out of 50 have a mobile phone, while all have a digital camera of some sort. He observes that, in this context, these devices can be a ’social tool’ to bring people together, while later on the metro in Seoul, he notes that in the most ‘connected’ country in the world, one can be isolated in a crowd. My favourite bit is when he shows the 12 year olds “a portable device” (a record player) from his era and wonders if they will be able to work out what it is and how it works, which of course they do easily.

Another fascinating interview he conducts is with Emma Allback, one of the few that has actively rejected technology. Living in a wood in Pembrokeshire she has no washing machine, microwave or even electricity and sees herself as a “conscientious objector” with regard to technology. Her only small concession is the use of a telephone two fields away. Clearly she does not need technology to be happy, but does require some social interaction.

Perhaps this is the lesson that the programme taught me. It’s not the gadgets that make people happy (Dr Catherine Jansson-Boyd, a Consumer Psychologist, points out that consumerism per se, is not the answer) but social interaction. Technology does what it does best and makes normal everyday tasks and needs easier to do or obtain. This is equally true with regard to the gadgets we might buy. In my mind, function still remains the overarching reason we enjoy technology.

Image credit: Rain Rabbit

Tags: simonarmitage, BBCFour, upgrademe, gadgets