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The Widening Tech-Savvy Gap
When things malfunction, the vast majority of Americans try to fix it themselves. (And no wonder. Tech Support is synonymous with anxiety and indifference). Almost half -- 47 percent -- say the first thing they do when a piece of equipment fails is try to repair it. Another 21 percent have a friend or family member look at it. Only nine percent take a broken purchase back to the place where they bought it. Then there are the 3 percent of Americans who say that when something breaks, they simply buy a new something. This last group may be rich, but it's also smart; its members are most likely tech veterans who've spend years struggling with customer service, poring through complex warranties, waiting on hold for support and assistance, an oxymoron if ever there was one.
The survey of nearly 3000 adults, commissioned by American Demographics magazine and published in its March issue, reveals other intriguing details. Though fewer than half of Americans with computers say they fully understand how to operate them and all their features, there are differences by region. Northeasterners are the most confused, Midwesterners the most computer-confident. When attempting to learn their way around a new purchase, 89 percent consult instruction manuals, poor saps.
Adults under 35 are, not surprisingly, more skilled at confronting tech problems. For example, 77 per cent of those surveyed age 18 to 34 are confident in their ability to operate their VCR, while 54 per cent of adults older than 35 said the same. Young adults are also more proficient, says the survey, when it comes to using cell phones, stereos, remote controls, microwaves and computers. Separated, divorced and widowed Americans are more involved with high-tech than other singles and married people. This may be because they have more time, or are perhaps more focused on using tech to connect with other people.
Television, meanwhile, continues its long reign as Americans' most beloved and comprehensible technology. In fact, for years TV has not gotten its due as one of the monumentally successful technologies of all time -- cheap, reliable, easy to use. More than 80 percent of respondents across the country understood how to work a TV better than a computer, something for the computer industry to ponder long and hard.
Asian-Americans use the Net more than any other group. On any given day, says American Demographics, more than half of all English-speaking Asians (53 percent) go online, compared to a third of all English-speaking whites (33 percent) and a sixth of all English-speaking blacks (17 per cent). On the other hand, 65 percent of African-Americans say they know and understand the features of their mobile phones, compared with only 42 percent of whites and 56 percent of Hispanics. One might have predicted, though, that women are more open to reading directions than men.
The survey is significant for several reasons. It shows that responses to tech are different among different age, geographic and ethnic groups. It confirms the idea that tech industries are peopled by smart geeks still too far removed from the ordinary concerns of average Americans. It reminds us that Tech Support is a scandal. It reinforces the notion of tech elites who alone understand how the new tools of the Info Age really work, while most people struggle to use them. New tech tools from computers to cell phones may seem ubiquitous, but in fact, they are not. Tech triggers different responses in different people, depending on where they live, how old they are, and even their race and ethnic origins.
You can't let some minor equipment failure get in your way. That is why "midwesterners grasp technology so much better than northeasterners?" Many people living in New York and Boston never fix anything in their lives.
This is my Experience with the techno-confused.
UNIX/Linux Consulting
-- Jason
Personally, I'd like a definition of what tech-savvy means. Does it mean knowing how to cope with poorly designed electronic systems?
I work in the IT industry, and I'm responsible for designing all kinds of information flow and so on, and I keep find that the real problem in most systems is actually a lack of knowledge on the part of designers on how to really build good systems.
Personally, when it comes to design tech, I think a lot of "not-so-savvy" users probably know a lot more about how design should be than most of the designers.
</rant>The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
It's hard to recall any industry which has so abused, neglected and exploited its customers and survived.
Yeah, everybody fixes their own cars. Besides, if people keep demanding space-ships instead of simple, one-task machines like in every other field imaginable, they'll continue to get space-ships. That's not arrogance, it's just the way markets work. People are too cheap to buy simple stuff, because they want "full flexibility".
I suspect it has a lot more to do with the societal behaviors associated with the areas. The northeast is very cut-throat and fast paced, where the midwest is more laid back. People in the northeast almost seem ashamed when they admit they actually read the damn manual.. or they pay someone else to set it up, and then get on the phone in the middle of the explanation on how to use it to take an "important" call.
The midwest is historically more self sufficient and better at dealing with things.. (why arent there many militias in NYC?)
Maeryk
As kids grow up and older people die, you can bet people will become more tech saavy. I'm 24, but you can bet people just 5-6 years ago didn't have as much exposure to technology that I had in my formative years of college and HS. This is not to say people who are 30 aren't tech saavy or are not learning, but the exposure is out there, people are using computers more and more, just as 3G cells, email, etc, wasn't there 7-8 years ago for the mass public.
Give it a couple of years, and don't despair over a generational gap. I have sisters younger than me who are quickly learning the ins and outs of AIM and web surfing, something I never had when I was 13. It's a steeper learning curve for older generations, and there's always some nostalgia creeping around the corner there as well. The techno-elite will shift some, and there will always be a few luddites in our society, but I doubt the gap is truly widening.
Katz asks 'why would midwesterners grasp technology so much better than northeasterners?', but in fact, since this is based on an opinion poll in which the respondents evaluated their own expertise, the real question would be 'why do midwesterners think they grasp technology so much better than northeasterners do?'
I don't know how many times I've heard "Just show me what I need to know; I don't want to learn all that other stuff" from any number of technophobes.
science is a religion
Despite the proliferation of tech toys and work devices in people's lives, the gap between the tech-savvy and the techno-confused keeps growing, a monumental failure of our arrogant and elitist tech industries.
Arrogant? You assume that technology == better quality of life. Not true. Did the possibility ever enter your head that maybe some (most?) people don't want anything to do with technology? A significant portion of the population chooses not to embrace cell phones, computers, pdas, etc. because of the hassle. I envy those that don't have to worry about their boss ringing the cell phone at 3am on a saturday to fix some firewall. Sometimes i wish i could pile all of my "tech miracles" into a big pile and set them afire. And move off to a ranch in montana.
More than 80 percent of respondents across the country understood how to work a TV better than a computer, something for the computer industry to ponder long and hard.
Only 80%!? Come on, that's a ludicrous statistic; who is going to answer that they understand how to work a Computer 'better' than a trivially simple device like a TV. I know what _every_ button on my TV remote does, but I'm still suspicious about those "Scroll Lock", "Break", and "SysRq" keys on my PC keyboard.
Then there are the 3 percent of Americans who say that when something breaks, they simply buy a new something. This last group may be rich, but it's also smart.
Why is buying a piece of crap product that broke the first time and came with no warranty/tech support smart?
Last year I bought a ViewSonic monitor, and it failed after 2 months. I phoned their tech support, and they shipped me a new one. If they hadn't done that, I wouldn't have been stupid enough to run out and buy a new one. Shoddy Tech support (from the major manufacturers) is a Dilbert-esque cliché.
Katz asks why the tech industry has continued to trundle along (not entirely prosper, but mostly so) when we 'abuse' our users. Tell me, would he ask the same uestion about a gap between the 'medically savvy' and the 'medically confused'? Modern computer systems (and by systems I mean -everything, hardware and software) are very nearly as complex as biological organisms (at least as we currently understand them. The more we learn about biology, the more there seems to be, but that's another topic). Is it -really- hard to figure out why most folks aren't computer experts?
Let me spell it out then: The problem is too complex for most people to bother spending the required amount of time to learn its answer. Just like medicine, some of the more esoteric bits of automobiles, and other inherently complex topics.
-={(Astynax)}=-
"Darkness beyond Twilight"
I've got more disposable income now than I ever had before...but I've PURCHASED all of the consumer techno-gadgets to be had. I last felt that 'smell of the hunt' feeling when I bought a RUG Shampooer fer chrissakes.
It puts me in a serious funk to walk into Circuit City/Best Buy/Soundtrack and realise that there ARE NO consumer electronics left for me to purchase. My pda's perking along fine, as is my cellphone, Digital Camera, computer, Xbox, home theatre, TV, blender, coffee maker, LAN, lawnmower, car lift, electric toothbrush...you get the point.
At the same time that I've got everything I want, I've got a ton of functionality I don't use. I've got an X10 touchpanel that's programmable, interrupt driven, and can literally control everything in my house. It's technically not beyond my abilities to program it. Why does it only turn on and off the Stereo tuner and control it's volume? Because I can't be _bothered_ to figure it out.
That may be the more telling issure here: Are these people stupid, or is it just not a high enough priority to learn? (OR do us midwesterners just have more dark cold winter to futz with stuff?)
Hey, my phone's a two way pager...it can surf the net, it's got an IR port to connect my pda to the internet. How many people CARE that it does more than 'look cool' and doesn't drop calls?
We've gotten to the point where more features can be crammed into a device than can be used. It it bad that I don't use EVERY feature?
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
it is expanding because of the dummies series.
Actually it is expanding due to the Dummies series, and due to things like educational feel good agendas. Shear speculation, but most likely in the midwest the basics of education, especially in rural areas, are still being used, while in the cities all of the latest theories are being used, changing from year to year. or you have a system where the city with the most money per student has the worst scores in the State (*cough*Boston*cough*)
Money is not the answer, but methodology is.
As far as throwing money at the problem, check this out.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
The only way that anyone from a vending machine cleaner to a managing director stays current is through re-training. Re-training doesn't always mean college or university, often people don't pop to their local library and pick up a 'Windows for Dummies' or even learn the basics of what a computer actually is. I'm not saying that there are not mitigating factors and I'm not saying that there isn't an excuse. But the fact is from the industrial revolution to today people have had to shift skill sets and move with the market.
It's the nature of things, one door closes and another opens. My 83 year old grandmother has learnt how to email and use the net so its possible up to a quite considerable age. Who is the oldest computer/internet/slashdot user?
e4 e5
Then there are the 3 percent of Americans who say that when something breaks, they simply buy a new something. This last group may be rich, but it's also smart; its members are most likely tech veterans who've spend years struggling with customer service, poring through complex warranties, waiting on hold for support and assistance, an oxymoron if ever there was one.
...and even their race and ethnic origins.') is just plain ignorance.
um no. those people tend to know the least amount about technology. a seasoned person would be able to work their way around the tech support lines and cluessless middlemen to get a fix. Smart people fix things they dont go out and contribute to the throw away society that we have developed.
The survey is significant for several reasons
god i hate when ppl try and come to conclusions abotu society from a survey or using statistics. it is impossible to do a fair survey unless you have a seperate objective view. this is why studies will never be able to predict the future and will never be able to even analyze current trends properly. yes i do believe that they are a good base for more research, but to draw conclusions from it and base an argument on purely statistical evidence and a few misplaced ideals of society ('Tech Support is synonymous with anxiety and indifference', Tech triggers different responses in different people...
sortof abotu the last point, i am so fucking tired of people doing surveys on ethnicity. this must be an american thing because up in canada i have never had to fill out my ethnicity on anything. why? because IT DOESNT FUCKING MATTER. im a white male mostly german in decent but i cannot stand when people try and match peoples behaviour to where their parents or their parents's parents came from. they american citizens, and once your government starts treating them as such instead of as an ethnic group maybe other cultures will start to like you.
-
You bring up a good point. Even if welding, fixing cars, etc, is quite different than troubleshooting hardware, the mentality is still there of "do/fix it yourself".
I think when people are in more urban areas, with everything close together, it is much easier for most people to let someone else handle it. However, when you are farther removed from these urban areas that have a "repair shop" for everything, you become more dependant upon yourself. This can then lead to different areas (first mechanic, then PC technician) out of principle, mentality, convienance and the like.
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
"Why, for example, would midwesterners grasp technology so much better than northeasterners?"
It doesn't even seem to say that. It says that midwesterners are more CONFIDENT in their abilities with technologies. Their confidence may be totally unfounded.
-- your Web browser is Ronald Reagan
- The knowledge required for a high paying job is not static. Its constantly increasing. But hey, Thats ok - that fits well with what I do. I constantly learn/adapt/study and this is the reason for me making good money. I dont think that the it industry is bad just because users are incompetent - this is usually a result of most people being too lazy to learn. I think that we're far too tolerant with complete idiot-users who demand to be taken seriously without actually wanting to understand anything. The average person is today completely dependent on computers - more so than a person is dependent on his or her car. How much time do we spend learning how a car works compared to the time we spend learning how the computer works? To drive a car - you have to go to training, tests, theory etc. To work in front of a computer - you just have to be an idiot who always blame the computer/support etc. for any idiotic mistake that you yourself managed to make due to your incompetence.
"It's hard to recall any industry which has so abused, neglected and exploited its customers and survived."
This assertion is unfounded. There are other industries where there are widespread examples of similar attitudes. "You need a new frob... No, trust me. You don't want to understand, but it won't work without it." However, there are many honest mechanics and there are many honest tech service engineers. A better example of another industry which exploits and abuses its customers is the entertainment industry. While there are some examples of inexcusable behavior in the tech business, the RIAA and MPAA want to strip people everywhere of their rights to use material. In the US, this right is presently guaranteed by law. There exist other countries where this right is not presently obstructed. These member companies want to repeal or otherwise invalidate the US law and impose or strengthen obstructions of this right in other countries. It is a monumental mistake to categorically dismiss an example of more prominent and funcdamental abuse which appears weekly or even daily on Slashdot.
Yeah...I'm pretty suprised that 20% of the population knows how to operate a computer better than a TV.
"Yeah, I've got a (insert favorite HW+SW flavor here) in the den that I use all the time. There's something in my living room that my mom gave me for my birthday last year - it looks kind of like a computer, but the input device is too limited. I've figured out how to turn it on, but for two months I just couldn't figure out how to get anything but this black and white static. A friend came over and hooked up something he called an "antenna" but it was way bigger than the one on my cell phone. He just sat down and was getting all sorts of different stuff by pressing the buttons. Once he was gone, I tried it, but the sound was always too loud and there was no knob to turn it down. Not that it mattered 'cause I never figured out how to make all the different shows come up. I guess you have to be an expert user to get anything other than this PBS that seems to be on. I've given up and I just download the DiVX shows I like over my DSL line and burn 'em to disc so I can watch 'em whenever I want."
I'm guessing that the poll has a 20% margin of error, and it was all the way to the stops on that question.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
About a month ago I bought a $700 (CDN) HP printer/copier/fax/whatever. It took me HOURS to get this pile working. After fighting with it for a while, I checked their support site and found a patch to supposedly fix a problem with the OS I was using. Good I thought, this ought to do it. Several more hours later, I finally got it to work. To add insult to injury, when I broke down and phoned their support line (which was not prominently advertised in the package anywhere), they seemed to want to charge me to help me install a brand new product that obviously wouldn't work due to the terrible software shipped with it.
A couple weeks later, I had the pleasure of helping a friend try and install an HP external CD writer. Once again hours past and everything in both of our technical arsenals was brought out, but in this case it never did function properly.
In my experience, it is not uncommon for specific manufacturers to be notoriously bad in similar ways. Some you know are going to be a joy to install, and others you get a bad feeling about just looking at on the shelf.
My point is, if technical computer professionals can't get this crap to work, what is the general public's experience like. It must be an unimaginable nightmare. No wonder the gap is widening.
Take a load of not so bright people ask them to evaluate themselves
Take a load of brigh people ask them to evaluate themselves.
The average rating for the not so bright will be from above average to excellent
The average rating for the bright people will be from average to above average
Put them together in a room to talk about the ratings...
Not so bright group don't change their opinions, bright group now average Excellent.
A common study on perception on reality that most psyhc students have looked at.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
This seems to me to be a modern trend in business. Businesses in all sectors have discovered that you don't have to be good or provide a good product or service, you just have to be good enough. In fact it seems that businesses can maximize profits by being subpar. Consumers will often buy a cheap product that does 90% of what they want rather than an expensive product that does 100%.
This seems to be especially true with customer service. Providing the level of customer service to help the average user (oh, I have to plug it in?) and not providing the level of service desired by the "tech savvy" saves a lot of money for these companies.
It comes down to cheap, fast, good, chose any two. The population typcially goes for cheap and fast, and not good.
The Economics of Website Security
Keep in mind that the first person to successfully teach computer stuff to Joe Blow will likely make a giant amount of money. So this is a classic instance of the Prisoner's Dilemma, where the reward for defecting (i.e., giving our skills to the common man) is much greater than for cooperating and keeping computer knowledge secret. I would submit that we can't keep the gap wide by simply not teaching our skills to anyone.
However, I would also submit that the gap will always be widening, even if we try to stop it. Many people look at computer software that is designed to "dumb down" the machine for the average user, and say that computers are getting simpler every day. Really, of course, this simplicity is only a sandbox, and the back end is getting more and more complex. This, not a conspiracy of technocrats, is what will keep computer gurus in their jobs. Not to worry.
Your statistics and analysis are extremely superficial. Maybe more blacks than whites know how to use cell phones because more blacks than whites own them? Maybe people know how to use TVs more than computers because TVs are 100 times less complex? Maybe divorced people are more tech savvy because the unsocializing effect of long hours dealing with computers leads to divorce? How did these things escape you.
By giving the common man your knowledge, all they have to do is have skill and apply it, this means you'll be without a job when you are fired and replaced by joe blow.
- No one has ever been "given" knowledge. Knowledge is gained through the laborious process of studying. - That someone is "given" knowledge implies that there is no effort whatsoever involved and, furthermore, that it is to be regarded as an activity that requires a healthy brain.
- I will never be scared of the "common man" taking my job. However, I'll always be scared of "the common man" suddenly demanding me to handover the fruits of my labour (through taxes). This is a solvable problem though - just move to whatever country appreciates people who are educated and productive.
They are almost exclusively made by Microsoft.
It's true that the overwhelming majority of Americans prefer to fix their computers than to buy new. If I made computers I would empower users to do just that. But I'm don't and Microsoft does...
When my friends have computer problems I'm powerless to help them. How do I get rid of lurking programs that pop up advertisements? How do fix there computer if something screwed up their registry? Sometimes I am able to find help online but most of the time I'm not.
Microsoft software is fragile, undocumented, unpredictable and unfixable. It's not just end users who are frustrated using Microsoft products; techincal people get frustrated and angry too.
Can't think of a group of people who care less about their customers ?
Tobacco and Gun companies, lob in the Defence industry, lawyers etc etc etc.
What a troll. Though I'm not going to try to defend the tobacco companies here, the gun, defense and legal industries do not set out specifically to harm their customers.
This is flawed logic at it's worst. Are you telling me the defense industry doesn't care about the American people? That's it whole fucking purpose, is to defend morons like you.
Leaving the decisions of politcal leaders out of it, without Colt firearms and Beoing bomber aircraft, you'd be tossing Hitlers salad along with everybody else. Every war or military action may not be justified, but there are certainly times when they are.
Also, although society has become a bit litigious, don't forgot those downtrodden defense lawyers who got your sorry ass Miranda rights. Lawyers for big companies do try to take away alot of rights from people, but other lawyers got you a lot of rights to begin with. It's a give and take... good and bad.
Anyways, you're allowed to be a dirty hippie pinko if you want, but I'm still gonna eat steak, smoke Marlboros, drink Jack Daniels, own a Glock, and live in a troubled but still free fucking country.
The computer is the most flexible and powerful tool man has yet invented. The TV, as Mr. Katz points out, is easy to use. A station boradcasts a signal, you receive it on your TV, and the picture shows up. What's there to understand about it? You turn a dial (push a button), the channel changes. You turn another and the volume changes.
Any device with a very limited scope of work is also easily understood. Toaster, microwave, VCR (minus programming of course), car, stereo, camera...
Compare this to the computer, which is doing work not even dreamed up just 20 years ago, and doing dozens or even hundreds of different tasks, all with the same piece of equipment.
If we asked people instead if they knew how the electron gun in the TV operated, how the TV camera converted images into TV waves, how these are beamed to space and back, converted again and thrown on a wire to your house...or for that matter, how the cable company can make sure that you have HBO and your neighbor doesn't...would people still say they understood their TV?
If we were to break the computer back into its functions, we would need dozens of devices hanging around our house. Starting with a typewriter. But most people threw those away, didn't they, because the computer, oft misunderstood, is still far more useful than a simple typewriter, and obviously people know it.
So, it seems to me computers are held to a higher standard of "understanding" than do other devices.
I'm a midwesterner, I consider myself above-average tech-savvy (I have 3 computers running Linux that I use every day), I'm male, and I READ MANUALS. Yes, you read that right. When I was in the sixth grade, I got Sim City 2000 as a gift, I played for hours, and couldn't figure out how to make a city work, until I read the manual. When I understood the basics of the game, it was a lot more fun. Ever since, I read the manual for anything I buy more complex than my television. Why do I do this? Simple. The manual covers the basics of operation. By reading it, I can learn in fifteen minutes what might take me two hours to discover by trial and error. I can use the other hour and 45 minutes to figure out more advanced features and applications. Don't bash those of us who choose to read manuals. Our goal is the same--to understand our technology--we just take a different route.
Certainly the preceeding sentence was a bit of a no-brainer (the real mystery is who the 20% are who DON'T understand better how to operate a TV). But looking a little deeper, there may be something we could take from the ol' tube.
TVs have gotten more complex without getting more difficult to operate at a basic level. Newer TVs have a lot more than 5 options. It's just that you can get by fine without ever touching most of them. (adjusting the tone, balance, antenna type, programming which channels to skip, turning the internal speakers on or off, selecting which type of closed captioning to use, etc.)
But the basic operation of TVs used to be more complex--the fine tuning dial, switching manually from VHF to UHF, horizontal hold (getting that baby set right was sure a pain on my fam's old TV), manual color adjustment, having to pick your butt up off the couch or exploit the labor of your chilluns to change the channel, etc. (though I suppose you could argue that the remote control makes it more of a mental exercise).
Perhaps computers ought to have the equivalent of automatic fine tuning ("plug-and-play" i/o "plug-and-pray"), horizontal hold without having to fiddle with the dial (no crashes without having to remember not to click the mouse or yawn too loud during a file download or whatever), ...can't think of a TV anology for this one, but I have to mention it (apt-get i/o downloading a service pack and hoping it installs and leaves your computer bootable) etc.
Convert RSS to HTML - integrate webfeeds into your website
One of my favorite examples of a poor grasp of technology was observed when I was in a cell phone store. The sales guy was setting up an account for me when this lady walks in. She told the guy her phone wasn't working, and she thought it was because she had left it on the dashboard in the sun (not a totally unreasonable idea). The guy looks at the phone and pushes the power button. When the phone comes on, the lady is quite surprised and asks how he did it. He then explains to her all about the power button, and how it works. She was surprised and hadn't realized that you could turn the phone on and off. Apparently, she had let the battery fully discharge and then when she plugged it in and charged it up, it didn't turn on automatically and she didn't know what to do.
It's funny how people's brains seem to turn off when they get near something high-tech, or really even something unfamiliar (e.g. people are constantly confused as to where they parked at ski resorts, yet they have no problems finding their parking spot at the mall/stadium/wherever).
Should you blame the tech elites for this? No. Should you blame average Joe for this? No. Until such time as the user interface is as intuitive as talking to someone, or the tech change curve levels out and Joe can catch up, we need to just accept that there will be a gap between those who know about technology and those who know about other things. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to improve UI's, but it's not unnatural that this gap exists.
This only becomes a problem (if you consider it a problem) when the elites stick it to everybody else because they can. But tech people aren't the only ones who do this: look at lawyers and doctors. There is a similar knowledge gap in their fields; but there's no expectation that average Joe should be able to do his own dentistry, for example.
Read my keyboard review.
I can't help but notice how your argument to keep knowledge and skills out of the hands of lesser folk than yourself is along similar lines of thought in the days of slavery.
It went something like: Don't let them learn to read or write and they will have to stay subserviant to us forever [insert manical laughter]
If you want to be exhaulted for your knowledge, then you should teach those who come to you instead of kicking them away - you'll be revered as a very learned teacher instead of a self-centered programmer who needs to be toppled off his pedestal.
Food for thought. Mmmmmm foood....
...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
..The gap between the tech-savvy and the techno-confused keeps growing, a monumental failure of our arrogant and elitist tech industries. It's hard to recall any industry which has so abused, neglected and exploited its customers and survived.
Open Source software is often lambasted for being harder to use than its proprietary Windows equivalents. On the other hand, it simultaneously has far better user support available. Proprietary software, being a product-based industry, cares more about shipping out new products than it does supporting what already exists. This comes naturally with the business model. They don't make money on support so it's very tempting to slack off. Open Source based business, in contrast, is purely a service industry. By very nature it results in far closer communication between users and developers. Open Source breaks down arrogance and elitism quickly as the development community expands. A customer cannot be neglected if it is also a co-developer. As the use of OSS continues to spread and more consulting firms spring up to meet the service need, I believe we'll see a flourishing of consumer friendly technology both on and off the desktop PC.
If your only asset to your employer is your knowledge, you deserve to be replaced. Try learning to spell, then learning to document, so others can follow your work.
"Why, for example, would midwesterners grasp technology so much better than northeasterners?"
I think it has more to do with the fact that all midwesterners share something of a common farming heritage. When tractors broke down or fences needed mending, the farmer would just have to fix it or develop a work-around. The wealthier people on either coast would just call triple-A. I think midwesterners have a more fix-it, self-taught attitude toward life whereas the coasts rely on others to educate them or do it for them.
"How did you learn to do all this?" is the most common question.
"Um, well, I know how to read and can use a mouse..."
I mean, c'mon, it's no more difficult than operating your VCR... er, bad example.
Tech know-nots have nobody to blame but their own ignornace and unwillingness to pickup a book and read. Here's a hint: BIG yellow book that says "Dummies" on it. Trust me, I own a couple myself.
Sapere Aude - Homer
You can't simply blame the users for not knowing how things work. You also have to blame the people creating the technology for not encouraging them to understand the stuff in the first place (M$ constantly trying to hide the file system from users is a good example of this). Any piece of equipment that could be tweaked, configured, or modified SHOULD come with books on how to do so.
Another excellent example that just sprang to mind is printers. When I purchased my first printer (A radio shack dmp130 dot matrix) it came with a book describing EXACTLY how to talk to it to use fonts, or address graphics. In other words, everything needed to write a printer driver (not really such a thing back then, but) came with the printer. You simply don't see these manuals and specs being shipped with modern day stuff, so even those who are curious about things don't have their curiosity encouraged by the manufacturers.
How valuable is an astronaut? Because they took a ride in a particular vehicle to a particular place you think we shower them with fame and fortune? Not even close, not anymore. In truth, you are as valuable and replaceable as an astronaut.
The more able people are to solve their own problems and do their own jobs, the more *you* yourself will be able to push the envelope. You're arguing for the least possible challenge to yourself, resting on your laurels. Learn your lessons now, there are some of us who will just as easily replace you and furthermore make you obsolete. This mode of thinking is the worst form of elitism and I will be glad to see it die.
Not all the schools are at fault, and even those that are, aren't entirely at fault.
While I admit schools are certainly a prime source of censorship (even public schools), they can't be blamed entirely for not teaching the latest technologies.
The most affluent (and I use that term loosely) schools are still on a budget and usually in the minority as far as number of students "processed". Many poorer schools and school districts simply cannot afford to keep up with the rate of technological change - so how can they be expected to teach new technologies?
At the same time there have been cases where corporations (most noteably Microsoft and the BSA) have imposed stiff penalties against schools who attempt to use technologies "creatively" due to a limited budget. Instead of granting these stressed schools reduced-price or free software/hardware for educational purposes, the mega-corps drag them to court for copyright infringement.
Elitism occurs all to often in both developers, "technologists", and technology corporations all in the name of trade secrets and copyrightedness.
Please lay off the little guy who isn't as rich as you; doesn't live in your country; is not as smart as you; doesn't own as fancy a bike as you.
...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Be careful in attaching too much meaning to opinion surveys. All this survey tells us is how _comfortable_ these users are with technology, not how proficient they really are. This survey could tell us as much about demographic attitudes as it does about capabilities. For instance, your average user in a high-tech area might actually feel less capable than a user in a more agricultural or industrial area, simply because they are constantly surrounded by evidence of the the technology elite. Unless a study is done rigorously, preferably using double-blind testing, I'm going to be skeptical about its interpretation.
Actually, I was trying to be Insightful, not Funny.
Poor people. Damn elite. Let's hate them because they are smarter or richer. Because being smarter and richer is bad. Everyone should be as dumb and poor as us, that will make us feel better about ourselves. The sentiments in this article may be relevant, but the way it is phrased makes me sick.
I am sorry.. i can't understand this whine. People can and should help themselves. It matters not the color of your skin, your income group, etc. There are enough opportunities that if you want to, you can learn. However some people prefer to go frog gigging or play basketball to learn about technology. It is their choice, and I am not going to shed a tear for them. In the end, who is to say they are not happier than me?
I am neither foe nor friend to my brothers, but such as each of them shall deserve of me. And to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be earned.
-Ayn Rand, "Anthem"
A lot of the blame here seems to be aimed at the tech. industry.... People seem to think that the tech. industry isn't doing enough to explain things to your average user, or make them simple enough, or produce products that fit the average user's needs. Well, I'll certainly agree that this is all true to a certain degree, but I don't think that is where the majority of the problem lies. The majority of the problem lies not with the tech. industry for failing to educate the masses, but with the masses for failing to do anything to educate themselves.
I work at the local EB, and you'd be amazed at some of the customers we have in here. There are people who know absolutely nothing about the computer that they just purchased - don't know the RAM, speed, HDD space, nothing! This is on a machine that was just purchased a day ago...and all that information is available right on the box! Most people, when they go out to purchase a car, take a look at some basic information...type of transmission, MPG, airbags, ABS, number of seats...you get the idea. Most people (from what I've seen at EB) do not do the same thing with technology.
How much can you expect the tech. industry to educate/provide for the masses when they're not even willing to read the label on a package?
yrs,
Ephemeriis
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
I agree with you 100%. Usually I find at least a couple nuggets of "good stuff" in what Jon writes, but I feel he's way off the mark on this one.
It's hard to recall any industry which has so abused, neglected and exploited its customers and survived.
This problem is hardly attributable to the Tech industry alone. The problem is one common to most companies today. Any kind of customer support is lousy. It's an afterthought. Look at the amount of money companies spend on sales vs what they allocate to keeping the customer happy. It's pretty clear that if companies weren't forced to offer some kind of support in order to sell their products, they wouldn't bother.
Jon also describes TV as the one technology that almost everybody seems to be able to use, and then compares that to people's comfort level with newer technologies. Duh. An overwhelming majority of today's population grew up with TV. I don't have numbers to argue with, but I suspect the trend is that the longer technology is in society, the more understood and accepted it is. And if you grew up with something, you're more likely to be comfortable using it than somebody who didn't grow up with it.
Despite the proliferation of tech toys and work devices in people's lives, the gap between the tech-savvy and the techno-confused keeps growing, a monumental failure of our arrogant and elitist tech industries.
This is just pure hogwash. There are plenty of self-study materials available, not to mention adult education courses. The big problem is that as adults, we don't have time to spend learning these things. We're too busy doing a job that will ultimately be obsolete. The reason that gap keeps widening is because technology keeps advancing. Today's youth is fully immersed in all of the latest technology. They have the time to play with and learn all of the new stuff. For crying out loud, they even study it in school. Older adults, on the other hand, have spent the last thirty-some years of their life raising their children and working to put food on the table. They get about an hour of free time per evening. And guess where they'd rather be spending it? In front of the TV. They haven't had the gobs of time to spend on learning technology. Most likely, they weren't using new technology at work, so it's not likely that the knowledge to use it is just going to pop itself into their heads.
Young adults are also more proficient, says the survey, when it comes to using cell phones, stereos, remote controls, microwaves and computers.
These are all things that young adults have grown up with. Why would their proficiency be so surprising?
Separated, divorced and widowed Americans are more involved with high-tech than other singles and married people. This may be because they have more time, or are perhaps more focused on using tech to connect with other people.
This just goes to prove what I was saying. The time factor. I'd like to see the study narrow down a bit to take into account the "child" factor. My guess is that single people with children fared far worse in the study because they have even less time than a married person to spend with technology, unless they use it at work.
It confirms the idea that tech industries are peopled by smart geeks still too far removed from the ordinary concerns of average Americans.
I'd like to see the survey. Did anybody find a reference to it on the link Jon provided? I really want to see where he pulls this idea from. Sure, technology is developed by the "smart" people. But don't forget that product development, marketing and sales aren't made up of the same breed of people. They are smart in their own ways, but not normally as technology savvy.
It reminds us that Tech Support is a scandal.
I agree with this, but as I said before, this applies to other customer service areas, too. Did you ever have a problem with a vacuum cleaner and try calling their support line? It's every bit as bad as a Tech support line. And they pull the same crap, like charging more to fix a simple problem than it would cost to just buy a new vacuum cleaner.
I'm sorry, but I don't think this survey was very well thought out. Maybe it's just Jon's take on it, but it appears that the survey was written specifically to support a theory. I'm sure there are some interesting things in there. For example, the ethnic differences are interesting. One might wonder, for example, what the family background of different ethnic groups are. For example, how many generations in the US. What their education levels are. What their family is interested in. Whether they have relatives in other countries that they still need to communicate with.
GreyPoopon
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Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
I disagree with mostly all of it but whatever. Surveying 3000 adults for a study like this isn't enough. A more comprehensive study needs to be done. For instance, I'm African-American, Black or whatever the fucking PC term is. I'm 22 and tend to think I know a little about computers at least enough to not be totally ignorant. That said blackplanet.com has a shit load of African-American's online every single day. I've never seen it go under the 20,000 mark and mind you this is just one website. I don't use it everyday or even every month but everytime I do go there (maybe every 2 months) there is always a large number of people on. As for others i'd be hard pressed to know anything but from my view of the world conducting a study/survey like this tends to be futile. Technology is just the modern day equivalent of the cavemans sharpened rock for an axe. They are just tools, except these aren't for survival; better communication, yes. Some will know how to use them and others won't. However if a study/survey is to be done 3,000 people isn't enough, if you could get at least 5,000 from every state you'd probably get better numbers.
Ok lemme stop rambling.
As a Californian who's worked with IT folks in New York City, I can verify the patience issue. Some of the NYC folks were quite bright, but their lack of patience with computers and with themselves really handicapped them. Some of this stuff is just hard, and one has to take time to learn it well.
I do tech support for cable modem access in the midwest. About a third of the time someone needs help, they are actually smart enough to figure things out. They don't need me to hold their hand setting up mail in Outlook Express, they just want the mail server info. They usually have a pretty good idea of whats wrong before they even call me. The rest of my calls are idiots. Most don't understand "Internet Explorer is not your default browser. Would you like to make it your default browser?" Some people come from AOL, and don't understand anything thats happening after they switch to cable modem. Most often though, I find that many people have problems understanding who supports what. I'm always getting calls about monitor problems, hard disk problems or scan disk errors. Sorry dude, your ISP don't cover that. Or they buy an ethernet card from a shady company from Tiawan and they want me to help.
Lets not take things too seriously. After all, its just a game...
forget about VCR's and digital cameras, the tech gap is EVERYWHERE!
I believe one of the most fundamental differences between a tech-savvy person and a non-techie (all other things being equal) is that at the core the tech-savvy person isn't afraid of the technology.
Put a 10 year-old in front of a computer and watch them go wild, trying everything out, then put a 50 year-old in front of the same computer and marvel at their fear of breaking the thing by pressing a mouse button.
To address the gap specifically, look at cars. 30 years ago, new cars could all be worked on by most auto-savvy people. now we look around and find that there are more than a couple makers that won't allow you to turn off the check-engine light until you come in for your $5000 dealer oil change (exageration intended).
Most people accept this because cars of today have engines half the size producing twice the power and a fraction of the emissions as those from 30 years ago. It's a compromise.
Now let's apply this to the computer industry, and we can see the parallel is indeed there. The compromise lies in the fact that computers today can do quiteliterally THOUSANDS of things the Apple II could not. 40 years ago, it truly was possible for someone with motivation to be a master in the realm of computing -- now a person considers himself lucky to truly master one tiny specialised field in 5 years.
It's not abusing the consumer, it's giving people more of what they want at the expense of them not understanding *everything*.
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
I learned everything I know about computers, math, science, technology, etc. by having the motivation and intelligence to teach MYSELF.
If you're too lazy or stupid to educate yourself, it's not my problem or anyone else's. It's yours.
I mean, we still have millions of people in this country who believe the world was created in 6 days 6,000 years ago. These same people also believe in the powers of John Edwards and Miss Cleo. I have no sympathy, nor do I have a problem getting wealthy off of these people's willful ignorance.
- end of rant -
I'm still amazed by the fact that most american think that they have more freedom because they can own a gun...