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I’ve been doing personal computer support for family and friends since the 90s. My views derive from my experiences supporting them. I spent forty-five minutes
by floatingatoll 8y ago
I’ve been doing personal computer support for family and friends since the 90s. My views derive from my experiences supporting them. I spent forty-five minutes teaching someone to press the home button on an iPad last year. You greatly overestimate the lower bounds of competence of unskilled folks.
- bloopernova 8y agoAnd the lower bounds of confidence too. A lot of people I've encountered are quite scared of computers, and experience a significant amount of anxiety when asked to use a computer in front of someone. What to us is as natural as reaching for something, is to them a task to be feared, anticipated with dread, embarrassment and shame. All IT related people should spend time with such folks, as you did. It would definitely help the industry if we were all a lot more open and sympathetic to people who are mystified, scared, or angered by computers and software.
- the_duke 8y agoYou do bring up an interesting point. I could never teach my grandmother what an ad blocker is and how to disable it if a site is not working. That would be far beyond her reach. Some basic Youtube browsing and email reading/writing is the peak for her. I was mostly commenting on the <=45 crowd where some basic computer literacy is usually there and can be beefed up, in my experience. Yet our older generations are probably the ones that would need an ad blocker the most to prevent them from ending up on fishing/scamming sites etc.