Luddite

"I'm a bit of a Luddite," she said. She's not the first person to say it, and she won't be the last, but she's still wrong.

They're almost all wrong.

Every time I hear someone say "I'm a bit of a Luddite" I have to stop myself from replying:

"No, you're not. You're just reluctant to learn how to use technology. I'm a bit of a Luddite, you're just holding yourself back."

If, like me, you believe that the automation of jobs sucks and we shouldn't be replacing human beings with machines - no matter how efficient they might be - due to the fact that the cost to our society is too great, then you could justifiably call yourself a Luddite.

If you, like me, believe the factory system pioneered by textile companies during the Industrial Revolution was the beginning of a process that has had a detrimental effect on our species and the planet, than you can call yourself a Luddite.

If you, like me, believe that the Industrial Revolution itself was, by and large, a bad idea...

Well, you get the drift.

If, however, you just find Word 2007 too different from Word 2003 and you'd rather not have to deal with it... Well, I'm afraid that doesn't make you a Luddite, it just makes you someone who needs to think carefully about aptitude and attitude and try to work out which one is getting in your way so that you can do something about it.

Smash the knitting frames! Down with spinning jennies! Curse your capitalist industrialism! Let the working man work!

Ahem.

As you were.