People not "in tune" with technology

[BadPublicity]

Why do people need an excuse to not be competent with computers? And why would it be embarrassing? If people aren't interested in computers they're probably not going to try and learn about them, and that's fine. It shouldn't bother you or anyone else if a person doesn't share the same interest in something that apparently they 'should know about'.

 

[xDarc]

Growing up, at least 2/3rds of the people I "knew" in school, and or anywhere, could not operate a computer at a self-reliant state. This includes, parents, siblings, friends.

Gen X'ers and Gen Y are Waaaaaay better at computers than people 5-10 years younger than us in general. Thank Apple and touch screens for again making computers a magic voodoo box.

The other thing I noticed is that young people have less patience. If you can't push a button on a touch screen and receive instant gratification, it isn't worth doing.

We're all going to hell. : )

 

[Vault101]

Photoshop or web design. I think I could learn easily but I've never had a compelling reason to do so.
.

I think those are different to knowing the intimate details of how your computer works, its knowing how to use a complex program and understand photo editing and all that

like the difference between knowing how to fix your car and knwoing how to give your a car a killer paint job

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I do think that some kind of basic guide should be in the manual.

Just a list of things to watch out for.

If you get a popup saying you've won an ipod, and you didn't enter any contest to win one, then you haven't. Stop clicking random stuff.

IF you get an email from you bank saying your account has been hacked and you need to enter your information, yet it's full of spelling mistakes and the link takes you to some crazy URL, even tho they're using the bank's logo, it's not real, close it, delete it and walk away, phone your bank if you're concerned.

Anything offering to 'clean/speed up your system for free' is actually offering to clog up and slow down your system, then sell you the fix for lots of money.

Keeping your passwords/ network IDs in a text file on the desktop isn't the most secure option. By all means print them out, just don't stick them on the wall in full view of your webcam (Against old advice, but it's been shown that the thieves who hack your computer are different types to the ones who'll break in and steal said computer.)

Oh and for fark's sake, LET your techy son/sister/friend SHOW you how to do things, don't expect them to just give you a step by step guide on how to do the one thing you want to know, if you let us show you how to use the damn browser in full, you wont need us to give you a step by step guide on how to view the SECOND website you hear about that you might want to see. I swear, my mother does this. Flatly doesn't want to learn anything, but wants me to show her how to get to a site from the starting point of the PC being on. Flatly refuses to know about typing things into the url bar, or google, or whatever.

 

[MetalMagpie]

Be cautious of sneering. One day you will need someone else to help you fix your car, or unblock your drains, or re-grout your bathroom tiling, or cook a Christmas dinner, or any of the other hundreds of tasks that you may not know how to do.

Nobody knows everything, and we all have different specialist subjects.

I sometimes find it a bit weird that my sister doesn't really know the difference between wifi and bluetooth. But she finds it finds it staggering that I don't know the difference between turmeric and saffron!

The simple fact is that - beyond feeding myself without getting food poisoning - I have no real interest in cooking. (So don't bother telling me what the difference between those two spices is, because I simply don't care and will forget again in about thirty seconds.)

The equally simple fact is that - beyond using the web - many people (including my sister) have no real interest in computers.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Growing up, at least 2/3rds of the people I "knew" in school, and or anywhere, could not operate a computer at a self-reliant state. This includes, parents, siblings, friends.

Gen X'ers and Gen Y are Waaaaaay better at computers than people 5-10 years younger than us in general. Thank Apple and touch screens for again making computers a magic voodoo box.

The other thing I noticed is that young people have less patience. If you can't push a button on a touch screen and receive instant gratification, it isn't worth doing.

We're all going to hell. : )

Louis CK said it best, about modern society:

"We have cellphones, and people are bitching because a photo of Axl Rose hasn't appeared for 3 seconds after they demanded it. It's gone to fucking SPACE, can you give it a fucking second?"


(The irony being I'm exactly the type to ***** for pages about the tiniest things )

 

[The Tibballs]

My biggest issue is those people that are just to lazy to learn like my mother and sister.

My mother at least has the excuse of being older, therefor not really being exposed to computers when she was younger, but she's still lazy about learning to do basic thing like word processing or ever how to print or save a file. Her reasoning behind it is she's not interested in computers so why should she learn? I remind that she uses computers almost daily at work and she replies with "Yeah, but I HAVE to use those ones" The most annoying thing about it that I'm the one she calls when she needs help and if you've ever tried to explain to your mother over the phone how to do something on a computer you'll most likely agree it's very fucking annoying.

My younger sister on the other hand had computer classes from grade 6 onwards, but she's most likely to lazy or to stupid to learn, personally I tend to side with the latter. :/

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Runescape taught me how to effectively type, not some crummy school half witted "Computer game" program. So I don't have much room to talk on the typing manner.
.

I never learned to touch type, and I think I'm doing ok

I learned to touch type just from using a computer to talk to people. I still only type with my index fingers, though.
When I first noticed I could do it, it was amusing to me that the first thing I could touch type was "That's what she said".
Now I've had sitatuions where people start conversations with me in real life whilst I'm typing and I'll turn my head and talk whilst innately still typing. It's quite funny, it freaks them out.

Holy shit, I thought I was the only one who people freaked out when I turn and talk to them while continuing to type in another conversation or report!

yeah yeah, I know "you are never the only one" but still, fun to hear that others get the same reaction xD

(Sorry double post xD)

yeah, get kids into chatrooms or games where communication by text is necessary, and they'll up their typing far more effectively than any amount of Mavis Beacon's boot camp style of training. People learn anything far more effectively when they happen to be doing something they like.

 

[SecondPrize]

nothing wrong with misspelling blu-ray. We all know how to spell blue, we don't all know how to spell cutesy brand names.

 

[Nerexor]

I've found there are really only a few types of users, the biggest divide being people who have an understanding, on some level, of how computers work in both hardware and software terms, and those who learn to use them procedurally and never really think about how they work. The latter kind tend to be most troublesome because when something goes wrong they have no clue at all how to start fixing it. Or if they need to try something new or different, they have to ask someone else rather than just playing with the program and figuring it out themselves. And I'm talking basic things here, like working within MS office and you don't know how to do something.

Most people get by just fine with procedural based knowledge. It's hardly essential to know how systems work in general. But it is very damned useful when things go wrong or if you need to figure out aspects of a system by yourself.

The same goes for anything. There are people who understand cooking and know to add a pinch of this or that without looking. Me, I need a recipe that uses exact measurements every time even if I've made the dish before. Hell, I still need to look at the directions on kraft dinner!

 

[Beliyal]

Usually, I just shrug stuff like that off, but when I see people from college who don't know how to format word files or how to navigate the computer, I can't do anything but wonder where they have been living for the past decade. Okay, I understand that not all people are socially retarded and spend their lives on the computer like me, but when you go to college and you can't properly enter a footnote into your assignment, I'd say that's really embarrassing and inappropriate for a young person who aspires to have college level education. Worst of all, when people are so inept with computers, I have to waste my valuable time to help them out because they are still using hotmail e-mail address and wonder why can't they send a shitload of pictures to another person, or ask me to come and install office for them, or ask me to give them extensive instructions on how to use Word. Gee people, learn it already, you'll need it to function throughout your education and your job.

When it comes to people who don't need stuff like that or people who are far too old, I don't mind. But when it comes to my college friends I'm just confused. My poor professors, I've seen some of the assignments they got from some people and I feel so sad for what they had to look at from 20+ year-olds.

I won't even go through what typing only with index fingers does to my feelings.

My biggest issue is those people that are just to lazy to learn

And this. I get the same feeling from many people. Why should they learn when there'll be some fool who will do it for them? Thankfully, I recently started telling people what to do and let them learn on their own, instead of doing it for them.

 

[IamQ]

It's a little strange, yeah. You often hear actors in interviews saying "Oh, I'm not a very computer-savvy person." This is when they get questions like "Have you looked up other peoples movies on the internet?". I mean, it's not rocket-science.

Well it varies, I like to think I know what I'm doing when it comes to software but if you begin to talk to me about hardware I have no freaking clue. Seriously some sort of wiki explaining what everything is would help.

I'm also with this guy. I'm saving up for a better gaming PC, but I will not be the one building it. I have no clue about the latest Nvidia 57894368409365 graphics card and stuff. All I know is that they do my computer good, and to be able to play more games I need me a better one.

Also, since you mentioned tpying speeds, I wanted to check mine. According to what I can only assume to be the most legit of legit tests, my words per minute are 60. One word a second, not too shabby.

 

[o_O]

I've been working with computers my entire life. Yes, my entire life. According to my mother, I managed to kill the entire network of my local university when I was 2 or so. Despite that, I cannot type. At all. I have to be looking at the keyboard. It is for this reason I got a backlit keyboard. The shaaaame.

Also, all these technologically illiterate is great for us who work in the tech repair field. Sure, they might manage to destroy their computer, but that means they're paying us to fix it. So I dunno what you're complaining about. If you don't want to fix their shit, send them our way or ask them to pay for your time. If they complain about having to pay, tell them that's the price for not being able to fix the damn thing themselves.

 

[omega 616]

no one can operate one of the most important tools humanity has at even a basic level.

They can turn it on, type (speed doesn't matter, unless your job is to be typing over 60 words per minute) and use browsers ... isn't that basic use of a computer?

Shit the majority of people drive cars, do you know how to repair one? How can you not know the basics of car care? Even if you do know why should everybody? There are specialists trained for it.

This OP is just elitist, your having a go at people for not being as good on computers as you are. People have different interests, so everybody learning how to fully build, maintain, type 60 WPM plus and be computer wizards is unreasonable if they don't have an interest or ever want to use that knowledge.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Computer illiterate people don't frustrate me unless I have to talk them through a problem over the phone. I have new found respect for support call centres after I had to spend 40 minutes on the phone helping my uncle open chrome after he deleted the shortcut from his desktop, but he's never used a computer in all his life so I can let that slide.

However what really annoys is people who simply refuse to learn some basic computer maintenance skills (or refuse to learn new things in general) despite working on a computer nearly everyday. I think in that situation you really should have some knowledge on how to fix some basic problems.

captcha: live with purpose. Guys the catpchas are getting philosophical on us.