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> We're never going to have average users fully technically aware. OP is establishing that there are different types of users with different usage requirements
by eunoia 8y ago
> We're never going to have average users fully technically aware.
OP is establishing that there are different types of users with different usage requirements.
You and Grandma are very different users. Grandma is probably much better served by an iPad and App Store than a true general computing device. Grandma is also not going to invent the next internet.
Maybe we should embrace this dichotomy instead of pretending one size fits all.
Interesting aside: How much innovation does the world miss out on if we raise the next generation of users on locked down "Grandma" interfaces?
- njarboe 8y agoAt this point in time "Grandma" could have been involved in the creation of the internet and working on the next big thing. Maybe use the word expert or techie or something. Edit: :)
- eunoia 8y agoTrue. I just wanted a nice folksy metaphor.
- njarboe 8y agoShould have added a smiley or something to my comment. I meant it more as a history remimder then social commentary.
- freehunter 8y agoThat claim could be made at literally any point in history. Even in 1983, any employee at ARPA could have been a grandparent. Old people have been involved in technology since the very beginning. I'm not seeing your point.
- njarboe 8y agoI was thinking the internet was started around 1970. Your point is correct, but any Grandma working on it then is very likely dead, so unlikely to be working on the next internet.
- threeseed 8y agoYou have completely twisted that point to mean something else. The point is that certain parts of our society are not technical and will never be technical. Despite the expectations and wishes of a tiny minority of technical people.
- wvenable 8y agoThere are two problems with this: Both these types of users can't co-exist on the same device type or ecosystem. Grandma might not invent the next internet on an iPad but your kid is also never going to get that opportunity. And secondly, since you can't install the next internet on the iPad, Grandma is never going to get to use it.
- shuntress 8y ago>Both these types of users can't co-exist on the same device type or ecosystem. This is false. An eco system can easily contain a locked down channel for installing programs as well as an open channel to side-load.
- wvenable 8y agoThe context here is that we're discussing fully locked down platforms.
- solarkraft 8y agoBut that's with the content ofthe argument that a functioning eco system needs to be locked down. It doesn't really.
- eunoia 8y ago> Both these types of users can't co-exist on the same device type or ecosystem. That's my point though. One size fits all doesn't work all that well in practice. As a technologist you seem to prefer the freedom of general compute. As a fellow technologist, I agree. We are a minority though. The vast majority of people don't seem to want much more from their devices than a working browser. (and maybe Instagram). To them things like root access are more a liability than asset. > Grandma might not invent the next internet on an iPad but your kid is also never going to get that opportunity. This is a real concern to me. What happens when whole generations view computers as black boxes of consumption rather than tools of creation / something to tinker with? Probably nothing good.
- solarkraft 8y agoQuite a lot, if there's no easy way to step outside of the walled garden. You could argue that Apple does provide one with their developer efforts, but I'm not sure if that quite cuts it.
- scarface74 8y agoAnd how many unnecessary toolbar installs in IE, viruses, and ransomware do we avoid?