If you are reading this, there’s a good chance you have internet access, an email address and use of a computer. And that means you will understand my concern for people who don’t use computers.
Computer-free people come in various categories. Some people can’t afford to set themselves up with a computer. Some are just too old to be bothered, although I was heartened to hear about the 108-year-old who answered her emails every day and even wrote a blog. Sadly, she died just a few weeks ago.
Then there are the people who take pride in their lack of computer literacy, sometimes to the point of declaring they are happier and more liberated than those of us ‘enslaved’ by our computer reliance.
I respect their decision to live computer-free lives, but wish I could find some way to convince them that the opposite is true, that their computer phobia seriously limits them.
I don’t need to tell you, fellow computer fans, the benefits of the internet in every area of our lives. But I doubt anything we say will change the minds of people who prefer (as is their right) to use typewriter, pen, paper, postage stamps, mail boxes, and hard copy encyclopaedias and dictionaries.
Here at Open Road, we get stacks of snail mail every day, most of it hand-written, often in beautiful fountain pen copperplate. These computer-free people make lots of interesting points and I use many of their letters in the Torque Back section of Open Road’s print edition, although I admit the letters that come by email are generally more original and rational, and therefore more suitable for publication.
Almost every day, the beautiful copperplate tells me that important information is missing from Open Road – information that is easily available on mynrma.com.au or openroad.com.au.
These websites contain massive amounts of such information, all of it important and relevant to NRMA Members. In this age of miracles and wonder, isn’t it great that all Members can, if they so choose, tap into this information at any time?
If we were to include this in every issue of Open Road it would be the size of 10 telephone books.
If computer-free Members would just try using the internet (and this can be done cheaply or free at many public libraries), they might realise how much it could open up their world.
I hope this new-look, easy-to-read e-zine opens up your world. We have changed the way you get to the stories. All you have to do now is click on whatever interests you in the contents list and you will be automatically taken to a web page containing that story. Click on the return to e-zine link at the end of the story and you will go back to the contents.
Malcolm Fraser reckoned life wasn’t meant to be easy – but that was way before the internet.
David Naylor
Editor-in-chief
Open Road e-zine August 2008
 |
Back to e-zine |
