By Dr Tafataona Mahoso

NEW technologies and new techniques have always been accompanied by euphoria, exaggerations and even delusions promoted by marketers seeking to reap benefits from them in the form of profits, influence or both.
That is why Africans have always taught the retention of common sense in the face of new apparently miraculous developments.
Such sayings as: ‘Kukwidzwa ndege yemashanga’ or ‘Kupiwa nyere (pito) yepfuta’ were meant to caution Africans in the face of new developments and promises.
“One does not go shopping for new clothes when one is already naked or down to the last dress,” is a common African proverb worth remembering when confronted with new technologies, new gadgets and techniques promising miracles.
Against the media hype by marketers and ideologues, common sense is always needed in order to choose technology, the appropriate gadgets and the relevant software or services that are consistent with one’s social, historical and strategic context.
On a global scale, let us consider the massive frenzy about the so-called ‘Year Two Thousand’ (Y2K) problem.
According to Robert L. Mitchell in Computerworld, December 28 2009:
“Ten years ago (now 18 years) this week, the much hyped Y2K crisis – which had come in with a long, sustained roar – went out with a whimper.
In the year leading up to the new millennium, IT organisations spent billions (of dollars) patching systems and replacing hardware and software that had infamously been designed to support only a two-digit year – a problem dubbed the ‘Year 2000 bug’, ‘the millennium bug’ or simply Y2K.”
The mass media hype bordered on hysteria.
To some extent it was a hoax.
But it had the effect which the marketers wanted.
According to Mitchell:
“(The) sceptre of a total paralysis of business operations resulting from cascading Y2K failures galvanised organisations into a frenzy of activity.
For many chief information officers, the unprecedented size and scope of addressing Y2K problems was the biggest project of their careers.
And then it was over.
On December 31 1999, the world held its breath – and nothing happened.
January 1 2000 came in just like any other day.
There were no major (systems) failures to report anywhere.”
Positive and benign effects of the hype
First, let us enumerate some of the positive and benign effects of the Y2K publicity:
l It publicised, on a global scale, the potential of digital technology for media, telecommunications, research and production;
l It raised the status of the information communication technology departments in most companies and institutions;
l It offered opportunities for societies lagging behind in communication infrastructure development to skip certain conventional (Fordist) stages and leap-frog ahead, thereby catching up or surpassing those previously considered to be ahead.
l It promised, on a world scale, to make information cheaper for education and other purposes than was possible under analog systems.
Negative effects of Y2K hype (pito yepfuta)
l The Y2K hype evoked terror and hysteria by suggesting that countries which could not meet the December 31 1999 deadline for installing new hardware and software would suffer power black-outs, train crashes, aeroplane crashes and massive bank failures because their computers would lack dating systems capable of entering the new millennium. The systems would be confused or would behave as if the world had come to an end at midnight, December 31 1999!
l It created panic among information officers in both the public and private sectors who did not have the time to plan carefully the acquisition of appropriate software.
l Most companies and institutions set aside projects of greater strategic importance because budgets and time had to be diverted toward anticipating and averting the exaggerated Y2K problem.
l It caused IT departments to work excessively long hours unnecessarily until long after January 1 2000.
l The Y2K hype caused other more critical software to be ignored or to receive less attention and less funding.
l Because of the panic and terror evoked, the Y2K hysteria became a budget-buster. Many companies and institutions over-spent on Y2K and took a long time to recover from the anti-climax and over-expenditure.
l In the aftermath, both shareholders and top managers realised they had been cheated. They reacted angrily against their IT departments and unleashed a backlash against them.
Y2K lessons for Zimbabwe
l The Y2K hysteria was orchestrated against all common sense and was a global expression of the harmful potential power of single-issue lobbies when backed by the media. Single-issue lobbies proved they could blow up a small technical challenge into an apparent world catastrophe and get away with it.
l The Y2K, as a hoax, demonstrates the danger of a project-by-project approach to development. Those who can convince and harness the press to support their singular project are also capable of distorting national development policies and driving whole nations astray.
l In communication terms, the Y2K hysteria demonstrates the power of repetition, even of false or distorted information.
The shareholders and top corporate managers who reacted angrily against their IT ‘experts’ and IT departments had reached a stage where they doubted their own common sense and followed the exaggerated claims of ‘technocrats’.
Here in Zimbabwe, especially since the onset of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) in 1990, the people have been subjected to one singular idea or project after another. The results in most cases have been bigger let-downs than those of the Y2K frenzy.
In the next instalment I shall examine the uses of technology and technicism as ideology.