5 ms·

They are computer illiterate (or internet illiterate to be more precise), but not stupid.

by pavs 17y ago

jrockway 17y ago
Or just plain illiterate.
- pavs 17y ago
  How did you come to that conclusion? There are a lot of things I don't know and some things I am very new to. If I were to sit down with Brian cox and argue about the nuances of quantum physics I will come off as someone who is Quantum Physics illiterate, not stupid. To some people the internet is new, mysterious and complicated like quantum physics, simply because they are not very familiar with it or interested in the technical aspects of the internet doesn't make them stupid.
  - jrockway 17y ago
    How can you confuse a newspaper article with a login form if you have any ability to read and understand what you read? Yeah, the word facebook is used, and the facebook logo is on the page. But if you RTFA... Anyway, acting stupid is as bad as being stupid. Worse, even.
    - pavs 17y ago
      I used to be arrogant like that (still to some extend) and I absolutely understand where you are coming from. Seeing other people screwing up on things that seems extremely obvious and no-brainer can be annoying and can be confused as being stupid.
    - ezy 17y ago
      I don't understand this. Why is it so hard to give someone the benefit of the doubt? The whole piece boils down to that. And it's very useful advice for arrogant computer dweebs. You can't just write people off like that successfully. And you certainly can't do it because 100 out of N misdirected users of one of the most popular sites on the internet don't have the correct mental model for what's going on or complete confidence in that model.
      - mistermann 17y ago
        "100 out of N misdirected users" Good point....I agree with the idea that whoever got confused by that article is stupid (I mean, if you can't figure out you are reading an article, then is the state of stupid even possible), but it was a fairly small sample of people, considering how many people log in to facebook per minute. But then, I guess we're back to the question of why they navigate to facebook via google....sigh.
    - sireat 17y ago
      Actually the facebook login case was one of people using computers using a limited skillset(ie using search bar for everything), not necessarily being stupid. Well, that plus being impatient. I wanted to write a longer reply, but this article covers it pretty well: http://www.osnews.com/story/22884/The_Facebook_Login_Thing_Blown_Out_of_Proportion http://www.osnews.com/story/22884/The_Facebook_Login_Thing_B... On a personal note: my mother in law used to only use browsers history (down arrow) to access her sites. Since she only uses about 10 sites this worked very well for her. One day, she was very upset, when my browsing on her computer "broke" her computer. She is not stupid, and once I showed her how to set up shortcuts on toolbar, her computer was "fixed".
  - Confusion 17y ago
    He may simple be relying on statistics. Even in Western Europe, an estimated 10% of people is functionally illiterate.
- andrewf 17y ago
  I think people reading slowly has a lot to do with it; people just jump onto the first relevant-looking item they see. They saw the Facebook button and didn't read the stuff that was obviously a written article. Something else I often see, which I think has the same cause: people blindly clicking on the first item returned by a search, when the second or third result is clearly what they're looking for.
chc 17y ago
Not just Internet-illiterate — incapable of logic or rudimentary problem solving. I've been in situations where I was much less at home than these people were, but because I was willing to use my brain I was not as helpless.
- eru 17y ago
  That doesn't explain it. Suppose you or I act stupidly in 1% of those situations, and suppose only 1% of the people who came to fakebook (pardon the pun) couldn't find the login and complained. Than we could very well be all equally stupid.

They are computer illiterate (or internet illiterate to be more precise), but not stupid.

by pavs 17y ago

They are computer illiterate (or internet illiterate to be more precise), but not stupid.

jrockway 17y ago

Or just plain illiterate.

pavs 17y ago
How did you come to that conclusion? There are a lot of things I don't know and some things I am very new to. If I were to sit down with Brian cox and argue about the nuances of quantum physics I will come off as someone who is Quantum Physics illiterate, not stupid. To some people the internet is new, mysterious and complicated like quantum physics, simply because they are not very familiar with it or interested in the technical aspects of the internet doesn't make them stupid.
- jrockway 17y ago
  How can you confuse a newspaper article with a login form if you have any ability to read and understand what you read? Yeah, the word facebook is used, and the facebook logo is on the page. But if you RTFA... Anyway, acting stupid is as bad as being stupid. Worse, even.
  - pavs 17y ago
    I used to be arrogant like that (still to some extend) and I absolutely understand where you are coming from. Seeing other people screwing up on things that seems extremely obvious and no-brainer can be annoying and can be confused as being stupid.
  - ezy 17y ago
    I don't understand this. Why is it so hard to give someone the benefit of the doubt? The whole piece boils down to that. And it's very useful advice for arrogant computer dweebs. You can't just write people off like that successfully. And you certainly can't do it because 100 out of N misdirected users of one of the most popular sites on the internet don't have the correct mental model for what's going on or complete confidence in that model.
    - mistermann 17y ago
      "100 out of N misdirected users" Good point....I agree with the idea that whoever got confused by that article is stupid (I mean, if you can't figure out you are reading an article, then is the state of stupid even possible), but it was a fairly small sample of people, considering how many people log in to facebook per minute. But then, I guess we're back to the question of why they navigate to facebook via google....sigh.
  - sireat 17y ago
    Actually the facebook login case was one of people using computers using a limited skillset(ie using search bar for everything), not necessarily being stupid. Well, that plus being impatient. I wanted to write a longer reply, but this article covers it pretty well: http://www.osnews.com/story/22884/The_Facebook_Login_Thing_Blown_Out_of_Proportion http://www.osnews.com/story/22884/The_Facebook_Login_Thing_B... On a personal note: my mother in law used to only use browsers history (down arrow) to access her sites. Since she only uses about 10 sites this worked very well for her. One day, she was very upset, when my browsing on her computer "broke" her computer. She is not stupid, and once I showed her how to set up shortcuts on toolbar, her computer was "fixed".
- Confusion 17y ago
  He may simple be relying on statistics. Even in Western Europe, an estimated 10% of people is functionally illiterate.
andrewf 17y ago
I think people reading slowly has a lot to do with it; people just jump onto the first relevant-looking item they see. They saw the Facebook button and didn't read the stuff that was obviously a written article. Something else I often see, which I think has the same cause: people blindly clicking on the first item returned by a search, when the second or third result is clearly what they're looking for.

chc 17y ago

Not just Internet-illiterate — incapable of logic or rudimentary problem solving. I've been in situations where I was much less at home than these people were, but because I was willing to use my brain I was not as helpless.

eru 17y ago
That doesn't explain it. Suppose you or I act stupidly in 1% of those situations, and suppose only 1% of the people who came to fakebook (pardon the pun) couldn't find the login and complained. Than we could very well be all equally stupid.