Technology

Fear of Technology

Unimaginable benefits of Slack for Writers

There is nothing to be feared in this life; only to be understood [Madam Currie].

Background

Technology creates anxiety and fear for many people. While it is embedded in the lives of younger generations, it is still unnatural and cold for the older generations. Even though I am part of the older generation, I was fortunate enough starting with technology at a very young age and made it an exciting profession.

Over the last 40 years, I helped many people to overcome their fears and reduce their anxiety. By educating thousands of adults in technology at different levels, I understand and empathize with the sentiments of older generations for technology.

As part of my cognitive science studies, I also researched the field and identified that technophobia was a phenomenon. Therefore, I have sympathy and compassion for adults who have this phobia. Through my knowledge and experience in technology, I cured technophobia for many adults. Some of them were severed cases. After their treatment, they not only liked technology but also they added technology as an essential enabler and enhancer to their capabilities.

Why did I give you this background?

As you know, to bring the writers and editors of ILLUMINATION to a virtual place to converse and collaborate, we created a Slack channel.

However, I had many email messages from members asking and making comments like “what the hell the Slack is?”, “do we really need to join another stupid tool?”, “I have no time for playing with gadgets”, “technology frightens me”, “what is the use of Slack”, “I don’t think it will add any value to your brilliant strategy”, “I don’t know how to use a smartphone or tablet, I use my PC for writing that is it”, “please don’t pressure us for joining weird things, we are not technologist like you”. These are only a few examples.

My point is: there is a considerable amount of resistance towards new technology tools. I understand and respect. But I will not give up!

Some of the fear, rightly, are caused by social media tools such as Twitter, full of anonymous online bullies. We know that many social media tools are disruptive and stressful. I even wrote an article on social media distraction to warn writers.

However, Slack is not a public social media tool and will not waste your time if you use it wisely.

Slack is a business tool professionally used by thousands of corporate organizations, startup companies, and freelancers. It is used as an agile communication tool for collaborative teams spread across the globe.

Slack is an innovative, functional, and secure tool which can enhance our capabilities as writers. In my view, every writer must learn and use Slack. I have no affiliates with Slack and use the free version like anyone else. It is appealing and compelling because it is free and scalable to a global audience. As long as you have a smartphone, tablet, or PC with an Internet connection, you can use Slack from anywhere in the globe.

By learning and using Slack, you can open a new window of opportunities to your life. One of the philosophy professors, who is my mentor, hated technology. As an appreciation of his incredible contribution to my profession, I introduced Slack to him. He learnt it in less than a month time.

This person, from traditional and academic background, thanked me and awarded me because by introducing Slack, a new meaning was added to his life. Nowadays, he uses it confidently, even more than me, to communicate with many people.

He said that in this isolation time, Slack had been his best friend because he could connect with people any time of the day as he was subscribed with many channels in different parts of the world. He made fascinating friends. His compliment was “you helped me connect with many people whom I consider close friends now.”

Initially use of Slack looks complicated and overwhelming for many people. The learning curve is inevitable. But once you use it a few times, you will start enjoying it. I believe you too will thank me for introducing it to your life in a few months.

You not only get an opportunity to socialize with many writers to maintain your sanity in these difficult times but also contribute to the growth of our community. Some of our writers are using Slack to get their articles reviewed, to gain insights on topics, and get ideas for their future articles. They also share content and distribute the content in creative ways. There are many more creative use cases for Slack.

Use of Slack can certainly raise your writer profile on Medium.

Communication with other writers via Slack can also be therapeutic as discussed in the attached article.

Please don’t resist this glorious opportunity. You don’t know what you are missing. What is the point of resistance to human connection using a gadget? It is not more harmful than a mobile phone.

It doesn’t cost you money.

We don’t sell anything.

We don’t harm.

We are not a religious cult to convert you.

We are open, trusted, compassionate, empathic writers’ community.

All you need is a few minutes of your time to connect with people. If required, you can invest more of your time to reap the benefits. You don’t have to be connected to Slack all the time. You can check it every now and then. The messages are not deleted. They will wait for you to be reviewed at your convenience.

Topics created by ILLUMINATION writers

I shared the attached article covering the topics on ILLUMINATION within the last 24 hours. Please read and support as many articles as possible. You can share this list in your networks to create visibility to our content.

Featured Article

I want to feature an article from Karen Madej 💛 today. Karen is a collaborative writer who has been helping our community to gain visibility. Here is the article you can support Karen today.

I had the honour of writing a testimonial for Karen. Please see attached article for my reasons to write this testimonial.

You too can write your testimonial for Karen and other writers. Remember the rationale here.

Articles distributed to topics

Five articles from ILLUMINATION were distributed to topics. These are super high quality articles as I had good feedback from several readers via email today. Many thanks to Alvin, MaryRose, Spandrel, Dipti, and Paul for creating visibility of our publication to multiple topics. We had a huge spike today! Probably readers are curious and may be asking “what is the new child on the block?” referring our three week old publication.

The Lockdown Is The Perfect Time to Read by Alvin Ang distributed to #books #lifestyle #self

Isolation For The Common Good by MaryRose Denton distributed to #spirituality

Don’t Stop Reading the News, Just Change How You Do It by Spandrel distributed to #media #socialmedia

5 Strengths That Emerge When You Fail by Dipti Pande distributed to #self

The Difference Between Toxic Micromanagers and Leaders by Paul Myers MBA distributed to #leadership #work

Articles about ILLUMINATION

The following articles provide useful feedback and perspective on our progress. Let’s read them and provide feedback to the writers.

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