Nearly a year into the pandemic we are all exhausted by the new routines of isolation and distance
working, shopping, and education. For me the most trying part of the new world of distance everything is the inherent fear of Zoom or other similar technologies and the obsessive need of people, even now, to do repeated testing before a presentation for fear that it will fail.
Many individuals are Luddites at heart. Luddites were a nineteenth century English radical group which destroyed machinery just at a time when the industrial revolution was beginning. They feared, and not irrationally, that new machines and technology would render them redundant as workers. Today’s Ludditism is partly about this, But it is also inspired by a fear of new technologies and that they could break down, not work, or simply fail at the most critical time when we need and depend on them. At work or school the fear is that if something does not work it will reflect badly on us, especially when it comes to a talk or presentation, both of which already generate high anxieties.
But Ludditism does not have to be about high or advanced technology. Years ago a friend worked for someone who then did not trust overhead projectors. The fear was that at a critical point they would not work when needed because perhaps the bulb in it would burn out. As a result, the person would come early to a meeting, turn the projector on and off several times, thereby enhancing the chances the bulb would burnout and it generally did. He then brought extra bulbs to his presentations, but his persistent testing before talks, resulting in bulb failures, only reinforced his lack of faith in overhead projectors, his need to test, ad infinitum.
In the last year between teaching, interviews, and talks, I have used Zoom, WebX, Microsoft Teams, or something similar well more than 1,000 times. I'm comfortable with it but not all are. For so many talks I am asked to schedule a pre-presentation test to make sure that the lighting, sound, display, and connectivity are perfect. They request to make sure that where I am sitting is good, that I know how to use chat, display slides, or to plan for a host of other issues. In reality, almost all the tests are a waste of time.
Testing my connectivity on a Tuesday will not guarantee that I have connectivity on Wednesday. The light and contrast for a test at 9:00 AM for a presentation at 3:00 PM will be very different. Where I am sitting at 10 AM to ensure proper headroom or balancing does not mean it will be the same two days later unless I am told neither to move nor breathe in the interim. Pets and children not around during a test might magically appear in the real presentation, and unless I am using the same computer and software as everyone else, Powerpoints might look or operate differently to different people. Finally, as much we may insist on it in tests, in the live performance someone will forget to mute or unmute, turn on or off the video, or drift off and not pay attention or simply forget how to do something that you did not account for.
I am simply exhausted by these tests! A simple talk or presentation doubles in time as everyone seeks to micromanage or anticipate everything that can go wrong. I have had people fearful for no reason that I would not show up, send me numerous reminders, or freak out if I am not on-line and ready for the talk and one more pretest 30 minutes or an hour before the real performance. Yes, being prepared and practicing is good, but all this is overkill. It’s time to stop.
I think I speak for many who are burnt out by all this. This new Ludditism feeds upon other fears and anxieties and it does nothing more than reinforce them every time something goes awry not experienced during the test. It’s time after 11 months to accept the fact that stuff happens, that we cannot control everything, and that it most cases now all this testing is simply a waste of everyone’s time.
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