Technology gone mad, or just the poor user?

DILEMMAS

After a huge struggle, 45-year-old Julie's mastered a word processor. But the company she works for from home now says it will only accept documents on e-mail or modem. Her son is enthusiastic, but now she feels terror and doesn't know where to start, and wonders why this is.

TECHNO-PHOBIA. I couldn't sympathise more. I wrote my first book in pencil, became a whizz at the typewriter, mastered the trusty Amstrad with the help of an enthusiastic son, and, when it finally cracked up, I followed suit. I've got the hang of Microsoft Word but I hate it.

When Julie was writing and posting her reports off, she took it all in her stride. She didn't even have to think about it. It was as easy as talking. Being asked to communicate in a different way is rather like someone saying that your mouth will have to be sealed up in future and that you have to learn another way to speak. It is as terrifying as that and small wonder that Julie cries in her sleep at night with panic.

Before, she was powerful, in control; now she's suddenly been demoted to the role of dinosaur.

Through no fault of her own, the playing field has been changed.

On top of this is the resentment and anger. Who are these cruel people who have decided how she will communicate with them? And who are the people who wrote the books that are meant to be so user-friendly with their funny new vocabulary about fonts and formatting, templates, routing slips, toolbars, formfield, macro, and mail-merge?

It's all very well to suggest employing someone to explain it to you, but anyone who's tried explaining it to me has always tried to lure me into areas in which I have no interest. I do not want to lay my pages out in columns and add pictures! And I do not want to throw my copy away into something called Trash, a word used only by Americans. I want it to be called Wastepaper Basket or Rubbish!

Julie should probably promise her son a sizable cheque if he can get her sorted with e-mail or a modem. Hand the task over to him - he obviously knows about it - and let him set it up, and then let him explain, in words of one syllable, exactly what she should do to send a message. And how should she take these notes down? Well, I've got an original suggestion. How about good old handwriting?

READERS REPLIES

If Julie knows of no one who can instruct her, I am sure she will be able to find professional advice even if it means paying for an hour or two. The way in which my partner was able to become very proficient was to write down in her own words in a notebook, her own instructions to achieve the operation.

Morgan Jones, Lyme Regis, Dorset

Firstly, Julie should stand back from the problem and try to take it calmly. Secondly, she should visit her local library or use Yellow Pages to find out if there are any courses which are being run. Thirdly, she should ask her friends if they can help her out at all if she gets stuck on it or one of them can teach her how to use it.

Gillian Wotherspoon, Cambs

Just ask any Internet provider company to send you a floppy or CD and follow the instructions. Don't worry about the terminology; people who throw jargon around usually have a chip on their shoulder about having a tiny brain.

Lenla Sanai, Glasgow

If, from the friends who have `offered advice', one trusted person can be selected to install the necessary bits for E-Mail connection (or perhaps her company could assist - the very least they could do), then Julie be taken through the mechanics. I suggest that, if Julie takes the view that all she is doing is passing her hard work to her company, by a means that makes life easier, and relax about the whole thing.

Chris Walker

NEXT WEEK'S DILEMMA

Dear Virginia, I've been married for six months and I am starting to get really frightened. Four times, during arguments, I have lashed out at my husband physically. I'm not one for getting out of control normally, so when I've hit, scratched or bitten him during an argument, I feel incredibly guilty.

My husband naturally hates it, but he's never retaliated, and he said he gets quite frightened by my outbursts, which are usually sparked off by feeling slighted or needlessly jealous. How can I stop myself being so violent? Do any other women have this problem?

- Joyce

Letters are welcome, and everyone who has a suggestion quoted will be sent a bouquet from Interflora. Send comments and suggestions to Virginia Ironside at the Features Department, The Independent, 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL (fax: 0171-293 2182), by Tuesday morning. If you have a dilemma of your own that you would like to share, please let me know.