Technophobia

=Technophobia=

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Definition
In summarized terms, technophobia (tek-nuh-foh-bee-uh) generally means fear of the usage or advancement of technology. It is the opposite of Technophilia. Technophobia invokes a wide range of negative emotions, like other phobias, such as incompetence, fear, nervousness, anxiety and stress. Technophobia was first introduced or first occurred in the 1600's when people working on farms gradually began to develop a mental disease because of their use of new machinery instead of using the traditional methods of farming.
 * What is it?**

There are two main types of technophobia, such as there is to homophobia and whatnot. The first type is the usual type of phobia; intense fear, anxiety or discomfort towards technology and it's rate of it's advancements. The second type is extreme hostility and disliking towards technology. However, when people use the word technophobia or technophobic, they generally associate it with fear or anxiety.

Technophobia is a widespread disease which can occur all over the world. As the Industrial Revolution flourished, study has shown that the technological advancements affected different groups of people in different ways. Some groups adapted immediately to the changes, using technology to record their history and conserve their ideas. Some, on the other hand, have taken a stance against technology, stating that it will eventually erase all of their traditional ways.

Symptoms
Like many other phobias, Technophobia has similar symptoms and effects. These may include symptoms such as:
 * panic
 * terror
 * quickened heart-beat
 * trembling/shaking
 * anxiety
 * nausea
 * shortness of breath
 * inability to concentrate
 * "losing control"
 * a fear of computers and related technology
 * unwillingness to change from one system to another
 * highly critical of any technology changes
 * passive resistance to new technology intiatives
 * slow to learn new technologies
 * relentlessly arguing the lack of need for technology

Sub-terms
Words that are related Technophobia include: Technophobe- someone who is afraid of using technology such as computers.Fear- an emotion caused by danger, evil or pain. It can be real or imagined. Fear is the feeling or condition of being afraid.Technology- the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means.

Relationship to genre of science fiction
Often, in many science fiction novels and movies, mad scientists, supercomputers, monsters, mutants, killer clones, robots, cyborgs, androids and viruses are included relating to aspects of technophobia. For example, the storyline could be robots develop self-awareness, genetics are combined to form a terrible mutation with the aim to destroy humanity who turned it into a monster, aliens are running out of resources on their planet so they attack humans to make Earth their permanent home. This is led to the destruction of humanity in terms of our freedom to the life of machines.

Science fiction novels and movies are based on the idea that in the future the human population will become extinct. Renown science fiction novels with relations to technophobia would include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein written in 1818 that is about the creation turns on to the creator causing fear, panic and chaos (technophobia). The best seller novel Prey by Michael Crichton with the plot of mad geneticists who are unaware of the disastrous consequences to the human population of their genetic experiments. This demonstrates the terror the mutated monster will arise, resulting in people having technophobia. One of the well-known science fiction movie would be The Matrix. The movie, that becomes a trilogy due to its success, revolves around the storyline that the solar-powered artificial intelligence machines created by humans eventually develops self-awareness. They then decide to take over the world, only to find the humans have polluted the atmosphere killing the Sun. As an alternative, the machines use humans to turn them into batteries for the machines to use as energy. Again, technophobia is evident to those who are aware of the situation, for example Neo the protagonist.

Not only is technophobia seen in the fictional character, the audience will eventually ask themselves the most common question, "what would happen if technology we know today takes over the world?" This will lead to technophobia being common in society today as fear is raised if such situations are likely to occur.

Daniel Dinello wrote a famous book that explores his opinion to "the dramatic conflict between the techno-utopia promised by real-world scientists and the techno-dystopia predicted by science fiction", which describes thoroughly the relationship between science fiction and technophobia.

Links
Technophobia << Hypnosis Australia. [] Technophobe- definition of Technophobe by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia. [] Technology | Define Technology at Dictionary.com. [] Fear | Define Fear at Dictionary.com. [] Table of Contents and Excerpt, Dinello, Technophobia!. [] Technophobia is Conquerable. []

Comments and discussion
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