On Tuesday 11 July 2006 09:32 pm, Alan Dayley kindly wrote:
> I was dumbfounded that two normal people had no concept what a browser
> was. I didn't feel like starting an Internet 101 class at that moment,
> nor did we have the time, so I dropped it.
It's frustrating. I've run up against this myself and I don't even know how to
begin to explain it. Trying to explain what a browser is, or why they should
be concerned about their computer being exploited... or, heck, just trying to
get friends to delete the blasted headers from all the forwarded emails they
send me...
No matter how I try to dumb it down, their eyes just glaze over. I can see
their mind shutting down, then I see the bemused expression on their faces
because, while I'm earnestly explaining, they're busy thinking that I'm silly
to care about this stuff. I wonder- why am I wasting my time trying to help
someone who thinks I'm a fool for caring about them?
I used to think that computer technology was too obtuse, too technical for
many people. But the more I see of this ignorance, the more I think that most
people are simply not motivated to do one iota more than they absolutely have
to to get along. It's like they want to drive, but refuse to learn what the
car, the steering wheel, the traffic signs and street are for.
My pet peeve is people not using the BCC field for group emails, and not
deleting address headers from emails before they forward them to me. I can
explain over and over, but they just don't seem to give a darn.
Teenagers think of cars as toys, while adults, for the most part, think of
cars as tools. Most people using computers today for surfing, shopping and
emails, are still thinking of them as toys, and don't have the respect for
them as the powerful tools that they are. They're intelligent enough to learn
what a browser, a firewall, or the BCC field is, but are they motivated to
learn? Do they justify their ignorance by telling themselves that it's too
hard to learn?
If people want to act like children and treat a powerful tool like a toy, I
might start telling them, as gently as I can, that as grownups they really
ought to try to _make an effort_ to learn the basics or they shouldn't use
the tool! Perhaps they can be embarrassed into doing better.
I'm not talking about the people who genuinely try. They just need something
explained well to them. I'm talking about the people who are deliberately,
willfully ignorant and want to stay that way. Perhaps we need to make this
resistance to learning technology an etiquette issue, rather than a
technology issue. Make it embarrassingly "bad form" to use a computer
stupidly.
Gaaarrrrghhhh! You really got me going on this...
Siri Amrit
--
Tigerflag Natural Perfumery, LLC
www.tigerflag.com
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