is technology really more efficient?

In one of my technology coaching sessions with senior executives, the exec told me a story. He said, I'm always ready to learn technology and somethings that will make me more effective but sometimes people assume if it involves technology, that it will automatically be faster and more efficient, that isn't always the case. He proceeded to tell me about how 5-10 years ago he was in an airport and there was a fellow businessman that needed to look up a telephone number. He had all his phone numbers on his laptop so he took out his laptop, started it up, went through the boot process, opened the program etc. Meanwhile, the exec I was coaching, took out his handy dandy paper address book and in the time that he had already completed the call, the man looking up the phone number on the computer was still waiting for his computer to boot, etc.

He continued on telling me computers and technology aren't always faster or better. In this instance I agree, if the task is to look up a phone number while traveling, clearly the time it takes to boot the computer and look it up on there takes much longer than someone who is ttrying to look it up in a hand sized paper address book.

This reminds me of people using technology without really evaluating technology. Just doing it because if you can do it using technology, it must be better. I think it is important to remember that computers are a tool and they should be used when it is more efficient and it makes more sense, when the user can get a benefit by using the computer they can't get otherwise. I think this simple statement is often overlooked and computers are used to reproduce a system they could do using paper. I think the process should be analyzed not just use computer to do the same thing you did before computers.