"Fear and loathing of cyberspace not uncommon"

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

[I just got back from Fox News, where I was on with someone from the
Chicago Bar and Donna Rice-Hughes (yes, that Donna Rice). Rice-Hughes, now
an anti-porn activist at Enough is Enough, did her part to promote fear and
loathing of cyberspace. "Chatrooms are a pedophile's playground. Kids are
falling through the cracks." She called for more obscenity prosecutions
online, but told me afterwards she didn't endorse labelling schemes like
RSACi. --Declan]

***************

By DONALD M. ROTHBERG
Associated Press Writer

	WASHINGTON (AP) - The world runs on computers and, in a sense,
computers run the world. But all this technological progress comes at a
price, a new problem psychologists call computer phobia.
	It is everywhere - in private industry, in government and in the
home. For many people computers are wondrous machines offering access to a
vast world of knowledge.
	But to others they are impersonal monsters that react to an errant
key stroke with this brusque message: "You have performed an illegal
operation. This computer will shut down."
	When the car or the dishwasher breaks down, people curse the
machine. Often when the computer malfunctions, the first reaction is, "What
have I done wrong?"
	Nowhere is the problem of computer phobia likely to show up the
most than in the federal government. The government has millions of
computers. Literally.
	Larry Irving, assistant secretary of commerce for communications
and information, said there are people "who resist and people who are
intimidated" by the increasingly technological focus of their jobs.
	"It's a problem, but it's not insurmountable," he said. "You just
have to find a reason for people to get over it."
	Irving cited the man at the top of the government. "My sense is the
president did not spend a lot of time doing personal e-mail until his
daughter went to college," he said.
	"A lot of people are embarrassed about saying they're afraid of
computers," said Carol Goldberg, a clinical psychologist who conducts
workshops to help corporations deal with technological stress.
	Michelle Weil, a clinical psychologist in Orange, Calif., and
co-author of the book, "TechnoStress: Coping with Stress at Work, at Home,
at Play," said about 15 percent of people love technology and up to 25
percent of the rest are what she called "resisters."
	"The resisters will have higher stress, lower productivity, less
efficiency and higher workers comp claims," she said.
	As the biggest user of computers, has the government seen greater
absenteeism as technology grows?
	"I suspect that may be true," said Don Heffernan, assistant chief
information officer at the General Services Administration, the government
property agency.
	A year ago, every GSA employee was given Internet access, Heffernan
said. "Going into that we knew there were going to be people, even people
who used computers a bit, who were going to be intimidated by the
Internet," he said.
	To help employees adjust to the new technology, GSA Administrator
David Barram urged those who were experienced in using the Internet to
"become five-minute tutors" for those intimidated by the technology.
	Weil is less confident than the government officials that getting
over computer phobia is just a matter of incentive.
	"This problem has not gone away," she said. "In fact, it's getting
worse. We wondered that as technology got more commonplace in society
wouldn't people just get used to it.
	"The answer is no. In fact, some of the technology now makes less
sense than the technology did 15 years ago."
	Irving, the Commerce Department official, said the biggest
indication that people are overcoming computer phobia is in one huge
number. "This year 2.7 trillion e-mail are going to be sent around the
world," he said.
	"That means a lot of people have overcome their paranoia and their
phobia."

Donald M. Rothberg has covered the federal government for The Associated
Press in Washington since 1966.


-------------------------
Declan McCullagh
Time Inc.
The Netly News Network
Washington Correspondent
http://netlynews.com/