Page 1 of 2

The non-computer literate generations

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:39 pm
by Chris Corbyn
I had a call with my mum an hour or two ago and when I told her I was getting a Mac soon her (serious) response was "Ohh right, what, you mean for the rain?". :lol: Bless.

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:44 pm
by Luke
:lol: that's fantastic! My mom is just like that.

Me: "mom, click the link"
Mom: "Link? What like a chain link? I don't see a chain link!"

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:55 pm
by jayshields
I've had my Dad on the phone before and I'm trying to get him into his online banking. I said press the start button and then internet explorer and after about 2 minutes he asked me where abouts on the keyboard the start button was... I ended up telling him it was the one that's one in from the bottom left and he didn't question me, :lol:

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:02 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Dude, I don't even try to explain any more. I just go to there house, fix it, charge them three tacos and call it a night. Except when it's a blue screen of death. Then I tease them, then charge them three tacos, then tell them it can't be fixed while I lick my fingers clean.

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:03 pm
by Chris Corbyn
jayshields wrote:I ended up telling him it was the one that's one in from the bottom left and he didn't question me, :lol:
You may have been right on some keyboards ;) Or is it two in from bottom left?

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:10 pm
by Luke
If you really think about it, (not to insult anybody's mom or dad, but this is true) computers are an insanely complicated machine for most people. It's not so much that our generation is good with technology, because not a single one of my friends can even spell computer. The problem is that average people expect to be able to operate technology that requires a little intuitiveness (is that a word?) and general intelligence. I don't want to sound like a jerk, but honestly let's face it... most people just really aren't very intelligent.

EDIT: After reading that I decided it needed this:

That isn't always the case, because I've seen doctors who were perplexed by computers as well, but it's possible to be very intelligent when it comes to certain types of problems and not so intelligent when it comes to others. My friends can run circles around me in a garage.

One more thing...

It also has a lot to do with the fact that people just really don't care to learn. My mom is a good example. I've shown her how to get pictures off of her digital camera on to her computer like 50 times, but she doesn't care... why should she? All she has to do is ask me to do it. Ya know?

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:54 pm
by daedalus__
\amen

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 7:04 pm
by RobertGonzalez
intelligent != knowledgeable != sensible.

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 3:49 am
by Jenk
On the flipside.. I can see us all being in a similar boat when we reach our parents age..

Why? My cousin. 4 years old.

Me. 24years old, have played computer games competitively since ~16.

Guess who got whipped in a Tekken match over and over? Then at Beach Volleyball..

That's where it all starts :|

In 20years he'll be trying to explain to me how a Quantum processor is able to power up the flux capacitor and inflict wanton damage to the reflector dish array, if it is using 1 quark particle too many over the recommended AAJGE amount, and that I'll need to perform the magajungalo procedure to fix it, you know.. the magajungalo procedure.. duh!

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 4:33 am
by Chris Corbyn
Jenk wrote:I'll need to perform the magajungalo procedure to fix it
Yeah, it's one of those procedures that just comes with practise. We have to do it at work all the time but you get used to it after you've done it a handful of times.

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 4:47 am
by Ollie Saunders
The Ninja Space Goat wrote:If you really think about it, (not to insult anybody's mom or dad, but this is true) computers are an insanely complicated machine for most people. It's not so much that our generation is good with technology, because not a single one of my friends can even spell computer. The problem is that average people expect to be able to operate technology that requires a little intuitiveness (is that a word?) and general intelligence. I don't want to sound like a jerk, but honestly let's face it... most people just really aren't very intelligent.

EDIT: After reading that I decided it needed this:

That isn't always the case, because I've seen doctors who were perplexed by computers as well, but it's possible to be very intelligent when it comes to certain types of problems and not so intelligent when it comes to others. My friends can run circles around me in a garage.

One more thing...

It also has a lot to do with the fact that people just really don't care to learn. My mom is a good example. I've shown her how to get pictures off of her digital camera on to her computer like 50 times, but she doesn't care... why should she? All she has to do is ask me to do it. Ya know?
Intelligence isn't a single value. The scientific community behind the IQ have done a great job of really screwing up the way people understand intelligence. Fact is, there are lots of different kinds of intelligences, there are times when it seems right to label a person as stupid or intelligent but most of the time its a lot more complex than that.

When I was doing a part-time retail job about a year ago one of the things I hated most about it was how stupid it made me feel. Something about the nature of that job made it a challenge to me and I frequently looked stupid. I seem to misunderstand or get confused by instructions more than others and I really had to work hard at actually being able to remember what I was doing and return to it after a distraction; that didn't come naturally to me at all. I could, however, easily analyse the decisions from upper management and predict the results of their directives. When I attempted to converse with my colleagues over such things they were often unable to form an opinion.

I found that particularly interesting. The kinds of intelligences required to run a shop day to day are not at all the kinds required to decide the long term techniques and approaches that should be used to govern it.

Anyway, I think you get my point.

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:14 am
by Jenk
Intelligence is subjective, whilst I am the one in the family who deals with computer problems everyone gets themselves into.. I have trouble boiling a kettle without setting the house on fire, yet my mother is able to concoct delicacies that would be pleasure to the taste buds of the angels. Likewise my Sister is just finishing up her degree is aerospace engineering, where her final project is to design and plan an entire space mission, from planning trajectory, to designing the rocket and sattelite, to predicting within 50 square miles of where the return vessel will splash down, yet she doesn't understand the difference between MS Word .doc's and Open Office Documents.

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:23 am
by Ollie Saunders
Jenk wrote:Intelligence is subjective, whilst I am the one in the family who deals with computer problems everyone gets themselves into.. I have trouble boiling a kettle without setting the house on fire, yet my mother is able to concoct delicacies that would be pleasure to the taste buds of the angels. Likewise my Sister is just finishing up her degree is aerospace engineering, where her final project is to design and plan an entire space mission, from planning trajectory, to designing the rocket and sattelite, to predicting within 50 square miles of where the return vessel will splash down, yet she doesn't understand the difference between MS Word .doc's and Open Office Documents.
My point exactly

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:22 am
by MrPotatoes
i hate computers but i love it when they work.

it's a terribly disgusting situation that i am in with it. and i'm going back to school for Comp Sci. am i a masochist? i guess so. *so sad*

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:29 am
by Obadiah
Everah wrote:Dude, I don't even try to explain any more. I just go to there house, fix it, charge them three tacos and call it a night. Except when it's a blue screen of death. Then I tease them, then charge them three tacos, then tell them it can't be fixed while I lick my fingers clean.
thats good stuff :lol:

i have just enough knowledge about hardware to get me by as a techie with a little help and luck from troubleshooting...when i dont know the answer i give my brother a call....but then he just laughs at me...calls me a lazy programmer and later on he comes over and cons me for the loot and to take him for 3 tacos and a drink and burps on his way out the door...its a vicious cycle :)