A lot of today’s technology is a waste of time, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has told a conference in India. The man who helped popularise a lot of it said he didn’t care for instant messaging and explained why he had shut down his Facebook page.
Over the next decade, the way people interact with computers will change, Microsoft’s chairman told hundreds of government officials and IT execs.
Among other things, he said mobile phones will be used to test for diseases, computers will come with voice recognition, and the Internet will be used for much more than Web pages.
However, he slammed some technology, saying it is often a waste of time.
Gates said he reads a lot and not necessarily on-screen.
He added that he was not big on text messaging. “All these tools of technology let us waste our time if we’re not careful,” he said.
Gates said the buzz-phrase “social networking” applied to something that had been around for a long time: a way to communicate with numerous people at the same time.
But again, he’s less than keen, personally. He said he had once had a Facebook page but found every day “10,000 people tried to be my friend.” He told the conference that he spent too much time trying to decide “Do I know them? Don’t I know them?” Ultimately, he said, “I had to give it up.”
