Summary of Interview

His career as an RAF Officer

One of the major changes that Mr. Beardsall noticed in his career in the RAF was that of communication and transportation. At the beginning of his career he flew piston-jet engines, for example, whilst towards the end he flew mostly jet propelled craft. Journeys to the Far East became a question of hours rather than days and they also became far more reliable and safe as technology improved. This change, both as a civilian and as an officer, was undoubtedly an extremely beneficial change that had a very real impact on his life. "The world," he said, "opened up more" as a result of the greater use of jet engines. It enabled all parts of the British Empire to be within defensible distance and the invention of in-flight refueling further enhanced the ability of people to travel ever greater distances in smaller amounts of time.

Mr Beardsall could recall two memorable experiences of this new technology and the first one involved an occurrence with a DC3 when, upon attempting to land, one of the landing wheels fell off. Fortunately, he survived unscathed and was able to experience another near-death encounter when it was reported that there was a bomb aboard a plane he was piloting out of Hong Kong. It turned out to be a false alarm, but nevertheless remains with Mr.Beardsall even today as one of his most memorable, if perhaps most frightening encounter with modern technology.

He believed that, on the whole, the advancement in aviation technology had been beneficial in that it had much improved transportation and communication methods. However, he did say that the old method of flying was 'more fun' in that there was greater reliance upon one's own navigational skills, whereas today modern fighter jets tend to 'fly themselves' with their own on board navigation systems. He believed that the greater use of commercial aircraft has opened up parts of the world to be people that they otherwise would not have had the chance to visit.

His career as a social worker and beyond

While he was in the RAF he spent most of his time in or around the base, but once he left to become a social worker he had to find a way to travel to work and he therefore used a car.

He remembers quite nostalgically the cars he used to drive with their 'crash-gear-boxes' and different wind-screen wipers. He could never afford to buy a new one and so they always tended to leak. The cars he had then compare markedly to his present car -a BMW Z3! One of the big changes he noticed was the extent to which people no longer have to service their cars themselves. He suggested that this was part of a growing trend within society to replace and not repair, something he disliked as this primarily revolved around waste. He greatly enjoyed motoring then and still does - advancements in technology, such as the greater use of computers in cars, have not altered the sense of pride he feels about driving. On the contrary, the improvements in car transportation such as air conditioning and electronic windows have made journeys more enjoyable and safe. However, he did say that technology improvements have tended to remove a sense of individuality about cars and there is far more emphasis on functionality rather than personality.

Mr Beardsall entered the RAF as a pay accountant and is therefore quite well placed to give views on changes in the way in which people are paid. He experienced, like many of his colleagues, the change from being paid manually via cash or cheque, to being paid electronically directly into the bank. He acknowledged that many of his generation still felt more comfortable in dealing with hard cash rather than computerised transactions but he did not see himself as part of this stereotype. He regularly uses credit and debit cards although he refuses to use cash machines because they 'intimidate him'. He finds it difficult to remember the pin number and so there is perhaps at least some element of technophobia about him! He still prefers the personal contact he receives between bank manage/cashier and himself and believes that modern technology works against this.

Unlike many people of his age, Mr Beardsall is very computer friendly and is very open about his feelings towards them. As a single person, he believes that the Internet has been 'the best thing ever' for him because it has opened up a whole new world of people, places and information. He especially enjoys the chatting that he can take part in on the web. "It's a fantastic world...I never feel lonely" are some of the strong words he uses to describe this technological advance: "Modern technology for me any day!". He expressed the view that all the while there was a choice for people of his generation between new and old methods there is no problem. The problem arises when there is no choice and people must adapt to new technology which causes resentment. He made the point that change is not always welcomed by the elderly [e.g. metric to decimal conversion] but that he personally was not bothered by it.

He remembers quite vividly the first day computers appeared in his workplace when he had to computerise details of homes available for homeless teenagers in the area. Apart from a few initial teething problems, Mr Beardsall quickly mastered the computer and attended several courses to better his skills. He expressed concerns about our dependence upon computers and highlighted the dangers of what happens when they crash, giving the example of when he was in Tesco's and the whole store was brought to chaos as a result of computer failure. He did not object to having to adapt to the new technology and saw it "as a challenge". He said that before computers he would manually write long accounting books and said that it was possible that the greater use of IT has removed that sense of pride that people used to have in producing such hand-written documents. He was concerned that letter writing would become more and more scarce in the future. A problem he had with computers was that he could not trust it to calculate sums and so the result was that he double checked every move making the whole process longer!

The elderly tend to lose the willingness and concentration to embark on discovering a new technological advance he said to the question of why his generation were left behind by computers. That, and the cost of keeping up to date with constantly changing technologies, were seen by him as major barriers to computers making a significant impact on the 60+ age bracket. He has not had too many strange/bad experiences with computers although he has learned of the importance to constantly 'save' work for fear of losing it in a crash, something which has happened to him.

He has fond memories of his first TV and can remember listening to the radio especially. Over the years his TVs have become less heavy and less bulky and the quality of the picture and of the screen has undoubtedly improved over time. He has never owned a calculator because he prefers the old arithmetic method. He thinks that, on the whole, when there have been major technological changes [such as the TV, washing machine, computer etc.] the information has been there for people of his generation to take on board, but whether or not they have taken it on board is ultimately down to their own initiative.

They were all the main responses Mr Beardsall had to my questions but he did wish to add a few points at the end of the interview which I include here. He saw the improvement in fitness technology i.e. the greater use of gyms and the advancement of weights/exercise machinery as a major plus. The improvements in communication that have taken place through the development of television and telephones etc. are, he says, "vital in the conservation of peace". On a slightly smaller scale - Mr Beardsall also expressed concern over Britain's woeful performance in the workings of the bus public transportation system. "Why can modern technology not produce a more efficient method of dispensing tickets?" he asks. Why indeed!

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