Computers and technology indeed are wondrous devices that enrich our lives and afford us the ability to do things we could only dream about 40 years ago.

Computers are terrific when they are used as tools, just like cell phones and other tech devices, but too often they are treated like toys. This is why we see teen-agers engrossed in their smart phones bumping into street lamps and normally rational adults getting into stupid traffic accidents because they were too busy yakking on their cell phones to notice something happening in front of them. We indeed are a nation of distracted people.

My first encounter with computers was in October 1976, just after I first arrived as sports editor at the Albion Evening Recorder. The entire news staff started to work on CompuEdit systems, an entirely different way to work than any one of us had experienced before.

It must have been a lot like climbing into a horseless carriage because a lot of old-timers cackled and continued to use their typewriters when there were power outages, rendering our new-fangled devices temporarily worthless. But these days I can’t think of anybody who still uses typewriters to crank out editions of newspapers. Computers, like cars and microwaves, are here to stay.

Yet computers and the Internet are fraught with horrible dangers as well. Besides the customary hand-wringing over Internet porn, there are sites on the web that can drag you into places you never wanted to go and the reason for the problem is entirely one thing — money.

Not long ago I was surfing for news and finally became curious about a persistent ad that asked me if my Mac was slow. Indeed, it had been in recent times, so I clicked on an icon that promised to clean my Mac and purge any bad programs in its system. When I took the plunge and made that click, I was shocked and frightened because my computer immediately froze up and my only salvation was a phone number that appeared on my screen. I called the number and was greeted by someone “out there” who said my computer indeed had serious problems.

The techie I reached offered to fix all my computer’s troubles immediately for a fee of $99, or a $399 fee that could cover an entire year. I chose the former.

Then I had to allow the techie wireless access to my hard drive over the phone and he proceeded to clean up supposed “problems” he found in my system.

He sent me a lot of information over the Internet about the company and I have to admit he restored my system that less than an hour previous had been in such dire straits.

Yet it really felt creepy to have a perfect stranger from far away and with an Asian accent repair serious problems on my computer for just $99. I began to ask myself if this company deliberately created the problem so it could fix it and make a quick $100. Sometimes, Jeff Salisbury talks about “bait and click” schemes.

I should have known better than to get sucked into somebody’s manipulative cyber game to extract money from my meager resources. I will try from now on to trust my new-fangled tool only to Kevin Woltjer, my tech repair guy from Personal Computer Repair near Rivertown Crossings. I’ve been doing business with him since Comp USA went belly up.

It’s almost like shopping local rather than at big box stores.