It is undeniable that IT plays a significant role in contemporary life. The fact that most people do not comprehend the machinations behind flicking on the TV, reading e-mail, buying things using credit cards clearly defines the transparency of IT among its casual users and its ubiquitous nature.
Private and public companies invest huge sums of money every year to update their IT infrastructure in order to remain technologically informed.
In the education sector, universities experience constant pressure to maintain their technology savvy image in order to attract new students who anticipate wireless internet all over the school premises, technically knowledgeable lecturers and online course resources.
Since IT is around the people and invisible to the eyes, individuals must watch the technology they use carefully in order to determine its impact on their self identity.
Coupland’s MicroSerfs is a novel that revolves around a group of information technology workers of mid-1990s whose residence is the Eastern suburbs of Seattle in Washington. The novel loosely tells the real life experiences of Microsoft employees and precisely captures the lives of individuals of the dot com era.
Their identity is affected by the invention of computers since they can blindly spend so many hours in a day blindly staring at their computer screens. Most of the characters in Coupland’s novel exhibit an almost religious devotion to IT.
Their personal identity is completely subsumed under their all inclusive desire to work in the Information technology industry. Some say that without their computers they are useless (Coupland, 2008).
For the characters in the novel, technology is central in the development of personal values and self identity. It has the potential to pose significant challenges both in the religious and social realms. The characters strife to master their computers the same way they master their lives.
Coupland explains how dehumanizing life is at Microsoft which is one of the most technological enterprises in the world. In the novel, Michael who is the most outstanding programmer in the group receives an email from the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates that criticizes his work.
The email traumatizes him such that he decides to keep to himself in his office as he refuses to get in touch with the rest of the world. Daniel who is the narrator points out that with the main focus of dominating the IT and software industry, the life of individuals in the IT industry revolves around work only.
The identity of workers disappears as evidenced by Michael who locks himself up in the office and refuses to eat, simply because his work in the IT industry is been criticized by the president of Microsoft (Coupland, 2008).
As a result of technology, the Microserfs are always stressed in addition to the low salaries they are paid. Apart from their work in the IT industry, their lives have minimal satisfaction. Some of them admit that their world consists of Microsoft, home and Costco.
The working environment in the IT industry does not give them a chance to establish relationships hence most of them remain single even when they are supposed to be married. They start relationships but they are soon taken over by their works.
Having families is an integral part of reinforcing the identity of individuals but the IT industry disrupts their identity since it denies them a chance to establish their families.
The stress associated with the efforts to construct technology sometimes causes isolation as opposed to the connection which supposed to be achieved. Coupland says that workers stay close to each other yet they do not visit each others office as is the case with Daniel and Karla, who have never gained access to the office opposite theirs.
The workers only get to engage in a genuine conversation for the first time outside their work station when they get a break. The interpersonal gaps occasioned by technology cannot even be bridged by emails since once they are send, they is no chance of connecting with the people.
This clearly portrays how technology disrupts identity. It makes it difficult for people to identify themselves with their friends or colleagues at work because they either do not have time to interact or because they can simply connect by using technology (Coupland, 2008).
Coupland relates the emptiness caused by technology and how it disrupts identity to the specific Microsoft conditions. As the characters in the novel embark on a mission of reinventing and rediscovering their humanity, their attempts seem to be defiance against the dehumanizing and depriving effects of technology at Microsoft.
The rather complicated reevaluation of identity and humanity in the novel comes out strongly as the novel comes to an end. Daniel’s mother suffers a stroke, prompting the interiority community to surround her, remaining with her and willing to support her go over the unfortunate condition.
After trying to assist her for two weeks, an idea strike, that they should provide a computer keyboard for her to type messages for them to read. Michael assists her to move her fingers and through that method, they are able to communicate with her once again.
Reference
Coupland, D. (2008). Microserfs. New York: HarperCollins.