Whatever happened to all the promises we were made when computers first arrived?

[SteveC]

Way back in the late seventies when I was still at school, computers were the big thing they were going to revolutionise the way we all worked, we would work fewer hours have lots more leisure time and in general computers would do a lot of jobs done previously by people. I’m sure those that remember these times have many similar stories...

My question is what happened?

In my opinion everyone works as hard as they ever did, the amount of leisure time is actually decreasing as governments seek to increase the retirement age and well, I could go on but I would be interested to hear other peoples thoughts.

[Vivid Color Zack]

Employers mentality is like this:

then:
My company makes 200 widgets an hour in 1970 without computers. My employees work hard 8 hour days.

now:
My company makes 2,000 widgets an hour in 2009 with computers, my employees work 8 hard hour days.

The goal in every business was always to maximize profits not maximize down time. If the gal was simply to get the same amount of productivity in less time, then yes computers would have given us all much more free time. I think everyone's always begging for more though, and a full plate of busy crazy life means more opportunity to make more money.

I don't have a good sense of what I'm trying to say, maybe I'll revise this a little later, haha.

[vangogh]

I remember those times very well.

Computers just let us work on other things. We're human beings. As much as we like to talk about early retirement the truth is we all need to have something to fill up our day and make us feel productive.

I really couldn't imagine a time when people aren't spending most of their days working in some fashion. Maybe one day we'll be working more on things solely for the joy instead of to pay the bills.

The early promises were just that, promises. In many ways it's not much different than the idea that you can set up a passive income stream online and never have to do anything other than run to the bank to deposit your checks.


hen:
My company makes 200 widgets an hour in 1970 without computers. My employees work hard 8 hour days.

now:
My company makes 2,000 widgets an hour in 2009 with computers, my employees work 8 hard hour days.

Zack, you're exactly right. Companies were never going to let workers stop working as long as profit was on the table. And in fairness to the companies we all demand it as consumers. We want more, faster and cheaper. We demand an ever quicker lifecycle to products so companies can bring us the latest and greatest that outdoes last week's model.

[rezzy]

I think its the whole thing were thats happened, the times shifted and adapted and now it doesn't matter.

Along with the new abilities people waste time on youtube, twitter, facebook etc. As a technology progresses, the advantage it once provided because less and less apparent.

For instance, my job use to take a few months to complete an event. Because of all the mailings required. Now, this can be completed in a few weeks using email because communication is much faster.

[dynocat]

I'm looking at the OP as how those promises relate to me as a small business owner operating since before home computers. Like many of you, I wear many hats from management and marketing to customers service and shipping. It's made so much information available that I wouldn't have had easy access to before. While that's been extremely educational and useful, it's also been a time consuming distraction. One person (at least me) can only absorb and put to use so much information.

This past week alone I've worked in some capacity on daily orders, shipping and customer services, while also researching and purchasing supplies, private label pricing, product UPCs and website design and maintenance, to name a few.

With supplier and customer emails and phone calls back and forth, a few business forums, I'm working far more hours than I did in 1988 when I got my first pc--a little XT with an amber screen! :) :)

Before I leave the impression I'm anti technology, I have to say I am enjoying it much more now! Just yesterday I saw "WordPerfect" on a list of word processing programs. I forgot I was ever impressed with it and am thinking it's not even around anymore. Same with a "Wang" word processor. I remember that being a huge piece of equipment and all it did was process documents. We've come a long way!

[vangogh]

Think about how hard it would be for you (or any of us) to wear all those hats without a computer. Say you spend 50 hours a week working now. To do the same without a computer it might take you 70 hours. That is saving time.

The idea of us working less hours was a little silly, because we still need to do something to fill our time. There are people who do work part time hours and support themselves. Most of us though, would choose to work full time anyway and make more than just supporting ourselves.

Also you have to factor in that computers make it easier for more people to enter the same markets thereby increasing competition and leading to us working more to stand out.

Computers do save time and a lot of it. We just find new ways to fill that extra time.

[Ad-Vice_Man]

When a Vacuume is created, something will come along to fill it...

It applies here, it applies to business in general. Which is why I wan't worried about the crumbling US Auto manufacturing industry.

Even if Ford, GM and Chrsysler all simultaneously ceased to exist today... If there were a market for American Made Cars, some industrious organization would rise to fill it.

[KristineS]

I remember those promises too, although I also remember hearing we'd have flying cars, so I took those sort of predictions with a grain of salt.

I think computers did free up some time, but they also created a whole set of new jobs and tasks as well. In some ways things are a lot more efficient. Take, for instance, record keeping. In the old days someone typed up a record and it sat in a file somewhere. The papers had to filed in the appropriate file cabinets and so on. Now, someone types in a record and it's recorded electronically and can be pulled up with a few clicks of a button. Since it's now so easy to find information, people are expected to do more with it, so that time that used to be spent simply maintaining the record is now spent doing things with that record.

Personally, I don't think the majority of the workforce will ever go to shorter days, at least not those people employed by others. Somehow, it has become ingrained in employers that an 8 hour day is the minimum. So that's what we have.

[Evan]

Don't forget the thought of the "paperless" office.

Computers have allowed for more paper to be printed than ever before!

[Ad-Vice_Man]

Don't forget the thought of the "paperless" office.

Computers have allowed for more paper to be printed than ever before!

I think part of that is a generational / adoption issue. When I was a young buck 10 or so years ago, my boss would have me print out her e-mail to read and then handwrite out replies for me to type and resend on the back of the print out (at least she was using both sides of the paper).


We'll eventually get to paperless as more generations and technology makes reading off a screen easier... take the Kindle for example.