People not "in tune" with technology

[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.

 

[JasonBurnout16]

Well I get scared using my computer for anything too powerful because it isn't very big or strong and will slow down to a crawl if I try to play anything upwards of Runescape.

I can type though - it's one of my better skills, being able to type fairly quickly. I can't touch type, I do a sort of mini variatian (I use my forfinger and index finger and occasionally the second smallest finger on my left hand) and I don't have to look at the keyboard when I type ether.

But getting to know how a computer is not for me - it's why I have friend's who do it

I can fix a computer if the problem is basic. Virus's are usually quite simply a matter of google searching the problem and following a step by step guide. Tbh I imagine most people do this and it's only one or two idiots who manage to totally destroy their computer.

Like people have said, most people can drive yet very few can fix a car. But everyone knows what a bad sound is - even stupid people.

 

[teqrevisited]

People still can't "type", I see tons of people pecking the keys. 20, 30, 40 words per minute.

I always silently laugh when I see that. I try not to but I just can't help it. Then they look at me like I'm some kind of god because I can type and watch tv at the same time. The thing is we all had to sit through the same touch-typing lessons in school so they have no excuse.

I suppose it comes down to usage. They don't use computers all the time so they're naturally a bit rusty when it comes to tapping away at the keys. Then again we're all given at least some proprioception. Maybe it's just a hand-eye coordination thing made worse by the sheer number of keys and their, at first, apparently random order.

 

[Ledan]

Coming from a family where my mother taught me how to use a computer and who was often the bug fixer, and my dad taught me how to crack (legally bought) cd's, I can't really relate.

 

[Scarim Coral]

While I do sort of agreed (since my parent are awful on it but yet they wnat to use it now much to my dismay) but honestly the people I met who can't use an computers are justify for their insufficient computer knowledge.

Unlike us who use the computer on a daily basis, there are some people who can honestly don't need to use a computer for a week and more. They have alternative to what we do like watching tv instead or steaming, watching the news than going to a news page and etc. This imply to any age group (since one of my cousins doesn't own a computer at all). Yeah the people who I met who are like that are the unemployed adult (on Jobseekers like I used to be on). They had a hard type trying to type out their CV so I help them out abit. Also no, don't say they need to use a computer for CV or job related as the jobs they applies to are not computer related at all.

For adult, they did not had an IT class when they were young and while you can go to IT classes as an adult or learn it themselves but it's up to themselves wheather they really want to learn it or not since afterall they're adult. There's no point for people like me to tell them to learn or take lessons since that would make me an hypocrite. Our true excuses for not learning is due to our laziness. For me to keep telling someone to learn to use an PC would be like my mum keep telling me to learn Chinese properly. I never going to do it unless I genuie (motivated) I want to.

 

[EeveeElectro]

My mum is pretty awful with technology. There was never a computer in our house growing up so I guess I can understand.
I was taught how to use one and was pretty bad myself when we first got one about 8 years ago.
Even know I'm not brilliant. I can type pretty fast, could probably fix a basic problem and get rid of a virus and I know how to use all the programs on my computer.

My mum is pretty ignorant with stuff, I have tried telling her a thousand times how to do stuff and she still herps and derps whenever she tries to use the laptop.
Saying that, I had IT lessons at school and she didn't obviously.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

I don't mind much for those who do not care for technology or the advancements of society through the progression of technological wonders. I just get annoyed when these people tend to get angry at people who are tech savvy or just have a clear advantage in life because they know how to use a computer, access the internet, use a phone, etc.

Either learn how to use these seemingly difficult devices or STFU.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I can't beleive the OP still types... dude I have been voice controlling for ages...

Seriously though, tecnology changes, and will change again. Lots of people don't need them in their lives because theor social life/job doesn't require it... those whose jobs involve sitting using computers all day are different to say, an electrician who doesn't... i bet an electrician also thinks its crazy that not everyone can rewire a plug... where as I think it's amazing that in this day and age, with the masses of information at our fingertips someone can still make a rediculous presumption based on their own life in comparison to other peoples..

 

[Bestival]

Live and let live I say. I love computers and almost everything that's related to them. But I don't expect everyone to do so. Some people just have zero interest in them, and that's fine. I'd rather see someone type slow than being forced to spend hours with a keyboard everyday so they can learn to type faster.

I myself have no interest at all in football (or any organised sport for that matter, but football is most popular around here, so I subjected to that most, and thus it gets subjected to most of my rage) and if someone tries to force it on me (which occasionally happens) they are subjected to all of my impotent rebelling. Which just means I go "Oh man, this suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks!" and leave.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

Runescape taught me how to effectively type

REALLY?

OT: My dad is terrible with PC's and I don't mean just typing, he's just absolutely awful at everything with a PC. He types with one hand extremely slowly and the look of concentration on his face when he's typing is actually hilarious.