TTW Guest Post: Love thy Luddite
The Importance of the Non-Techie or How I Learned to Stop Pulling Out My Hair and Love my Luddite
by: Mick Jacobsen
My wife mocks Twitter thoroughly, “You don’t even know these people,” she repeats. She thinks Facebook/MySpace is weird. She considers online gaming to be silly. She wasn’t sure about this whole “Blog Thing” and renamed my Google Reader an RSS aggravator (which I still find hilarious). She doesn’t want her images on Flickr. I think it is safe to say she pretty much dislikes any 2.0 technology on contact.
Last week she started a LibraryThing account and loves it. She is now using my Facebook account to talk to friends. She uses Delicious to bookmark webpages. She has her own RSS aggregator (Google Reader) and iGoogle page. She even created and wrote for a special interest blog on Wordpress.com.
What does this have to do with librarianship? Well, doesn’t that first paragraph (besides the wife part) describe a significant portion of your coworkers? Wouldn’t it be great if you could move them to the second?
Here is how I do it:
1. Listen. Never dismiss what your Luddite says. You may not see how it applies, but it surely does in their eyes. When, and it is most certainly when, not if, they have misgivings about a technology it may be necessary to move on. You might be introducing the wrong technology at that particular time or you may need to reexamine the technology. The Luddite may very well have thought of something you haven’t and it may not be as useful as you hope (I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me).
2. Don’t push too hard (if you can avoid it). Sometimes all it takes is talking to them at the right time. Understand their schedule. Some people are ready to play at the start of the day, some after lunch, some while eating lunch, etc. The first time I introduced my wife to LibraryThing she wasn’t interested. A few months later she noticed me using it (looking at all my pretty book covers) and asked “What is this and why did you never tell me about it before?” A minute or two of introduction and away she went. This also has proven to be true with a few of my coworkers in regards to the newly created blogs at MPOW .
3. Respect. Their concerns are not generated from hate of tech. (well in most cases) or lack of intelligence; it is because they don’t see the point. Show how you are personally using this new technology, how others are using it, and how they specifically could. Hypothetical situations just don’t seem to work.
I am sure more techniques are available, but these three are the ones that have worked for me so far. What does everybody else do?
As a side note it is probably better not call anybody a Luddite.
—
Mick Jacobsen is Adult Services Librarian at the Skokie Public Library.
March 11th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
[...] Converting Luddites to Social Media and Other Tech…03.11.09 11 03 2009 This is a great and USEFUL excerpt from Mick Jacobsen, Adult Services Librarian at the Skokie Public Library, which I found on Michael Stehpen’s Tame the Web blog today titled The Importance of the Non-Techie or How I Learned to Stop Pulling Out My Hair and Love my Luddite: [...]
March 11th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Great post.
I think that the most important element, which ties in with everything you’ve said, is empathy. If they don’t see things your way, then chances are that you don’t see things exactly their way either. Librarians are already Empathy Champions in conducting reference interviews. The same should apply when promoting information literacy with new technologies.
March 12th, 2009 at 3:00 am
[...] post that I found somehow reassuring was Love thy Luddite: The Importance of the Non-Techie or How I Learned to Stop Pulling Out My Hair and …by Mick [...]
March 12th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I asked a couple of staff here what a “luddite” was. We had to Google it. (neat, we rely on Google instead of running for the dictionary) Anyway, maybe the question is why do we so badly want to convert people?
March 15th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I <3 this post! Not just for librarians but for relationships! I’m slowly converting my loved ones to iGoogle, twitter, even slowly convinced my mother to start using IM. It’s so fun.
March 15th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Aw shucks Leah. I see you got your b-friend on twitter… What I really appreciate is that your loved ones will really tell you what they think. That is what the concept of this post originally was, the importance of the honest, pragmatic Luddite in life + work.
June 25th, 2009 at 1:37 am
[...] that Luddite is a pejorative term, though I don’t know that I would have bothered reading Love thy Luddite by Mick Jacobsen (who mentions that “it is probably better not call anybody a Luddite” [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Well, personally I do not like the term Luddite, as it seems to confer somethng more darker. However it is a far better descriptive term than “incompetent” or “resistant”. More Useful Beneficial Computer Information
July 5th, 2009 at 2:31 am
[...] recognize that Luddite is a derogatory term, but I do not know that I would be embarrassed to read love thy Luddite by Mick Jacobsen (who mentions that “it is probably preferable to not call a Luddite [...]
August 4th, 2009 at 2:33 am
Hmm… I read blogs on a similar topic, but i never visited your blog. I added it to favorites and i’ll be your
constant reader.
September 4th, 2009 at 8:29 am
I think that apple is going to loose a lot of the female market–the ones who don’t really care about tech
October 10th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Güzel bir kaynak, aç?klay?c? bilgileriniz için çok te?ekkürler.
October 10th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Thank you for the usefull article.