Back When Books Emerged As a New Technology

I encountered this video - Introducing the Book - on YouTube, which shows how help desk in medieval would do to introduce the new “technology” – BOOK! It’s a hilarious one. At the same time, however, it vividly demonstrates how people deal with new technology with their old mindsets. It could happen to anyone.

This makes me think after the laughter. On one hand, being technology-proficient, we may sometime neglect the fears and difficulties other people often have when facing new technologies. The key is how to clarify those fears and difficulties a user may have beforehand and then try to clear them along the way.

On the other hand, this video might be a good tool to start a workshop about technology. Although it is less threatening than the dazzling “Machine is Us/ing Us” video we introduced before, it will put the audience at ease since being nervous and confused about new technology is quite normal and would’ve never been an obstacle to learning.