what does that button do?
I spent the last few days trying to come up with an idea for a blog posting. I scoured the countryside, oppressed the local villagers, and spoke to an oracle (actually, his name was Bob. He drank a lot, and he washes car windows.) Due to Bob’s less than helpful nature when it came to blogs and possible topics, I was lamenting my literary road block….
Until!
At work, I noticed a trend among our customers - a lot of them tend to use the phrase “oh, I don’t know these computer things” about as often as a trucker takes speed. That is, to say, all the damn time. These aren’t old, crotchety people like your grandparents who have trouble figuring out what the blinking “12:00″ on the VCR means, either; all of the people stating these things are my age, or close enough to be considered my age by anyone outside of a college. They should know technology, since they cover themselves in the crap, most of it bearing the Apple logo to my dismay (Apple and the Apple logo are trademarks of the soulless and frequently litigated Apple Corporation. All rights reserved.)
“I see where you’re going with this, Jake. Maybe these problems are difficult!” All two of you cry. No such luck chums, we’re talking about problems such as the inability to understand that liquids are bad for the inside of your laptop, or that software requires a serial (or hell, even a CD in some cases,) or that you might get a virus from downloading something off of Limewire that would make Hugh Hefner flinch. None of these are incredibly complex, and you’d think that people would grasp these concepts after, oh, let’s say a decade of constantly using a computer.
My last refuge, my sole beacon of hope in this desperately geeky mind is that I’m wrong. And I mean flagrantly, blatantly wrong. Like Hitler, when he said that regular Cheerios were better than Honey Nut Cheerios. Maybe I’m just dealing with an abnormally un-technical group of people. Maybe the rest of the world is just fine with the shiny blinky boxes around them, and has no problem figuring out how to attach a set of speakers, or how to Google something before you ask.
However, I’ve made preparations in case I’m right. Aside from a bomb shelter that I’ve dug out, since one of these “It stopped working after I ran it over with my car” dipshits is going to be in charge of a nuclear silo, I’ve also made some suggestions to our current generation that I’m a member of, Generation “fuck off” or whatever we are, to get us up to speed for the next few decades. We’re going to be far more electronically dependent then we are now, so you might as well listen up.
First! And Last! Seriously, just learn to use a computer. I’m not advocating that everyone should bust out a list of certifications a mile long from Red Hat, Cisco, etc. within the next few years, but knowing the basics of how computers work, and how you should use them will go a long way. Hell, it’ll even keep your computer (and all of the porn you inevitably store on it) from getting a beer shower or some other gruesome death. Learn how to make an actually strong password, figure out that it has fans and needs air, practice something like actually installing an antivirus program. Anything.
Anyways, I want discussion on this one. Are we members of a technically inept generation, despite our attachment to it?
You know, you’d be surprised how bad people are. A lot of people don’t know beyond the whole “this is the internet, this is Word, here are games.” They let the computer take care of itself. Programs are installed in their default directories, everything they need is on the start menu. If you wanted them to go beyond that, they are pretty screwed. And they don’t actually teach a lot of that in school.
Some things are common sense, like don’t go on a downloading binge or have virus protection, but people just always assume ‘it can’t happen to me.’
I’d say we’re simultaneously the most and least technologically able generation yet. On the one hand, we grew up with computers, so you’d think alot of people would be able to understand things, but on the other hand, people still buy Apple.
Go figure.
Anyway, I just wanted to suggest something to you: if you work in a tech support kind of gig, you’ll only ever have stupid people. Why? ‘Cuz stupid people are the only ones that fuck up. The rest of us, if something goes wrong, hop on Google, call up our nerd friends, figure it the fuck out, and fix it.
Just imagine if everybody out there brought you their problems, as opposed to just the stupid people. It’d be madness!
Yeah, I kinda figured that my own experience would be skewed. I was worried though, since I see this a lot even outside of my job. When talking to other students on campus, or just walking through any random electronics store, it’s easy to see people who are completely lost and end up buying a progressive scan DVD player even though they don’t have a clue what it means.
I think if we combine the two theories so far, we might have it. People might be idiots in the sense that they always think things will be fine. Dunno though, technology will just get more complex, and they’ll just get left further behind. The situation I described above will probably only become more relevant as time passes.
Technically inept generation? Possibly. I’d like to think that a lot of people know how to use them and even are capable of fixing them to some degree and that they use, “I don’t know about these computery things…” as a scapegoat. A way to claim ignorance and get someone else to solve the problem.
Technically inept… I’d say lazy and I think we have an even more solid case for lazy.
Yeah that’s an interesting point. “I don’t know about these computery things…” seems like a nice excuse. I think perhaps in some cases people think they know more then they do. And than they make things worse by “fixing” them. They claim ignorance so they don’t look as stupid.
I also find that people are just scared of computers. I learned more from breaking my computer and figuring out how to fix it than I ever learned in computer tech classes. Anyone with the average amount of common sense, logic, and patience to actually sit down and THINK about it can probably fix whatever they got themselves into. There are definitely times where experience is a major help, but more often than not it’s just a conscious decision NOT to try to think it through.