Thanksgiving Info Tech With Mom

Over Thanksgiving, I asked my mom what her favorite recent information technology is at work as a billing manager and receptionist at a dental care center.  She told me it is a scanner, which allows her and her co-workers to scan physical documents and save the contents into their computers to make sharing documents more simple and become less reliant on paper documents.  She told me it makes her job more efficient as she no longer has to look for documents as they are all saved by some fancy software she installed on her computer.  The idea behind it, as introduced by the head honchos of the dental center, is to move towards a paper-free work environment, and this ability to scan documents into a digital format eliminates the need for keeping paper copies in the workplace.  This process increases productivity and eliminates wasteful use of massive amounts of paper, and also replaces the need to make use of fax machines as scanner technology allows users the same capabilities digitally.  She's fairly competent when it comes to taking advantage of new technologies so long as somebody explains it to her.  For her, the transition to scanner was fairly simple, even though she seems unable to figure out technologies outside of her workplace that don't force her to adapt.

In reflecting on what my mom told me, I found it interesting that she explained her integration into scanner technology so simply as a 2-step process of downloading the software and then making use of the scanner.  Oftentimes, at home, she can't even figure out how to access the internet.  At home, she never really tries to look into issues and learn how to use technology, she just relies on me.  Maybe a technology that could explain how to use other technologies to her so that she would no longer have to rely on me just as she no longer has to rely on paper would be a fairly efficient thing.  This scanner, an apparent product of the network society, has, interestingly enough, rendered various aspects of print culture irrelevant in terms of my mom's workplace,  I think her workplace's paper-free approach is admirable in terms of environmental conservation, and also in terms of improved efficiency as new technologies develop to make the common workplace such as hers that much more productive.