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These days it seems technology is everywhere. Just the other day, the bin in our local foodcourt, having been somehow instilled with a technological soul, thanked me for dumping my half-eaten cheeseburger into it.

Thank you for eating me. Sorry about the cholesterol!

I’ve always been a big believer in technology and there was a time when I would dump a perfectly good mobile phone because a newer, shinier one with more bells and whistles came out and I would buy gadgets just because they were new and revolutionary. I even taught myself MIDI programming because Roland launched a synthesiser that you could play with a guitar. The epitome of what industry types call an “early adopter” I was always first in line to try out some new piece of software or some such gizmo but lately I’ve found myself suffering from technology fatigue and I’m starting to question exactly how useful all of this technological gimmickry really is.

Although people seem to assume I do, I don’t have an iPhone or Blackberry  and have no plans on getting one because I really don’t need or want one (they’re far too trendy for my liking and I’m not that much of a sheep) and can’t be bothered learning how to use something that I’ll probably break and have to replace in 6 months anyway. I don’t use Twitter because I can’t see the point and if I’m honest, my ego doesn’t need that much of a boost and my stalker tendencies haven’t developed to that level yet (although I do use Facebook and Myspace, shame on me). I refuse to get a Sky+ box (Tivo for you Americans) although I did dabble with digital radio before it inexplicably died in a splutter of electronic epilepsy. I’m not sure whether my newly emerging Luddite nature is because I’m getting older (bah!) or because I’m getting cynical but either way I’m increasingly sceptical about gadgets billed as absolutely essential.

The proliferation of technology does seem pretty unstoppable in virtually every area of our lives and translation is no exception. We are constantly told that in order to keep up with the competition and attract those high-value projects we simply have to embrace ever more sophisticated technologies. Of course with a few exceptions, none of this technology comes cheap. But then again, if we are to believe the promises of increased productivity, improved quality and consistency, customer satisfaction, world peace and an end to hunger isn’t it worth it?

In translation, the mantra among those in the know is that nobody can realistically expect to work as a translator without technology. I’m a whole-hearted believer in this. I can’t imagine a translator not using a PC, not translating directly onto the screen by overwriting the source text). But is all this technology going too far? Lots of people I know hate translating with TM tools such as Trados or Deja Vu because it spoils the enjoyment of translating and if I’m honest, I’m not a big fan of translating with them either and there is at least one study that I know of which shows that TM tools can actually damage the quality of texts. There’s also the fact that I now automatically factor in an additional hour or two at the end of a translation project to fix whatever unforeseen and unpredictable calamity will invariably befall my leading tag-based translation memory tool. Terminology management tools, too, may be useful but unless someone sends you a ready-made database you can waste so much time creating one that it’s just not worth the effort. So for all the promises and hype, you have to wonder whether the technology really does help us as translators. I feel something of a hypocrite because I teach technologies to my students and hammer home the importance of it yet I have my misgivings about the tools.

TranslatorBot 3000™

The technology companies, however, seem desperate to try and fuel this obsession with technology by churning out update after update and new product after new product even if what they are offering doesn’t seem to really offer anything new, worthwhile or even useful. You get the impression that the people pushing for more technology in translation won’t be happy until they we’ve been turned into translating cyborgs, one and the same with our computers. But dig beneath the surface gloss and you’ll find that what they are offering in many cases is a way of dealing with the increased workload and problems which their products themselves have caused. Just look at some of the latest releases which were supposed to add new features but which have been so buggy that translator forums are filled with frustrated users’ stories and people are being advised to wait until a service pack is released.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that software and other types of technology are just tools. They are supposed to help you do something else. They’re a means to an end, not and end in themselves. You should only use something because you need to, because it will help you do your job better or more easily not because you think you should because of some mercurial promise of everlasting revenue by a software company. Buying something simply because it’s new or because the company makes a fuss over some new feature or other (possibly because they want to boost their cash-flow to see them through the recession and which in reality provides very little benefit to the ordinary translator) is a waste of time, money and precious sanity. The long and the short of this technology business is don’t believe the hype, do your research and buy what you need. And if you do need to indulge in frivolous purchases, buy a guitar, a vocoder,  a remote control helicopter or a robot.