Abstract—If there is a defining condition of the modern age,
it is undoubtedly the unbridled faith our culture has in the
power of technology to provide a panacea for virtually all our
problems, be they technological problems or not. Western
culture's unreserved commitment to the importance of what we
shall call "classroom computechnology" represents one facet of
this almost religious-like faith in technology. In this paper we
shall argue that the ever burgeoning cultural preoccupation
with computechnology has become so socially entrenched that
the psychology and behaviour it engenders represent a
syndrome in its own right, which in this case we have identified
as the "compuphilia paradox". The term compuphilia is
intended to convey the sense of an individual’s (or of a culture’s)
infatuation with computechnology that is so extreme and
addictive that the justification for its habitual use has become
perilously uncritical and emotively mesmerising.
Index Terms—Computer, technology, pedagogy, education,
dehumanise, depersonalise.
The authors are with the University of Newcastle, NSW 2308 Australia
(e-mail: ron.laura@newcastle.edu.au, fraserhannam@yahoo.com).
Cite: Ronald Samuel Laura and Fraser Douglas Hannam, "Philosophical and Educational Reflections on the Paradox of Anthropomorphising our Computechnology, While Simultaneously Dehumanising Ourselves," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 146-151, 2018.