The Widening Tech-Savvy Gap

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. It's hard to recall any industry which has so abused, neglected and exploited its customers and survived. But it is interesting to track -- as a brand-new survey does -- just how wide the gap is, and how differently Americans cope with it, by age, ethnicity and geography. Why, for example, would midwesterners grasp technology so much better than northeasterners? We are still, at heart, a fix-it country, given the chance, something much of the tech world seems to have forgotten.

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.

Comments

Singing about Katz: Unpack your Adjectives

[The Turd Report]

Sung to Unpack Your Adjectives by School House Rocks

Unpack Your Adjectives
Came back from the weekend to work
Saw someone being a jerk
I barely had logged in
Katz had posted again
The people on slashdot were starting to moan.
So we unpacked our adjectives.
I unpacked "faggoty" first.
Reached in and found the word "worst."
Then I picked "fucked" and
Next I picked "sucked" and
Then I was ready to rant and rave.
Because I'd unpacked my adjectives.

Adjectives are words you use to really describe things
Handy words to carry around.
posts are old or they're re-hashed
janitors are lame or else they're trashed
Adjectives can show you which way.

Adjectives are often used to help us compare things
To say how gay how fat how short how small.
nerds who are gay can get gayer,
geeks who are queer can get queerer,
Till one is the gayest
And one is the queerest of all.

We read along without a bore.
Then a post from that whore
He was a fucking loon
He was a stupid goon
We beat a hasty retreat from the bufoon
And described him with adjectives.
Sund to 'Unpack Your Adjectives" by School House Rocks!

Next time you get on the web
Remember don't let it ebb
The minute you get back
Tell Katz to shut the fuck up
You can describe people, places and things
Simply unpack your adjectives.
You can do it with adjectives.
Tell them Katz writes on sedatives
You can shout it with adjectives.

Re:Less is more.

[Muad]

Undoubetdly. Bostonians and New Yorkers are all too busy running around and honking at whoever is in front of them to *STOP*, think and troubleshoot a device (an inherently time consuming thing).

The NE needs to calm down a bit, IMHO.

-Muad

Re:The Katz Song

[The Turd Report]

Speaking of. I need to go to the bathroom and take a big 'Katz' right now. BRB.

US Centric and Bollocks anyway...

[MosesJones]

Can't think of a group of people who care less about their customers ?

Here are two Jon

Tobacco and Gun companies, lob in the Defence industry, lawyers etc etc etc.

Maybe the problem is that actually its a fault of education, in the same country that has schools that don't think evolution is an idea you are suprised that technology isn't well taught. Schools censor technology because they are afraid of it, so people don't learn how to use is.

This isn't the result of big corps ignoring people, its a result of an industry that is 30 years old and has exploded in the last 10. How many people knew (or even know) how electric lights work when they came out ? Sure there is a gap between those who know and those who don't, there is that gap in terms of EVERYTHING, and most of the time it comes down to application and education.

And on the first point in the title, mobile phone usage varies across Europe, Finland leading the way. The vast generalisations from Jon apply yet again only to the US.

Tech Corps give users what they want, even if they don't understand it, that is what people want.... always remember...

They don't understand the software, they don't understand the hardware, but they can _see_ the flashing lights.

Understand how capitalism works

[HanzoSan]

Its survival of the fittest, we arent a team, its every man for himself.

If you want everyone to make the same wage i suggest communism.

If we give everyone knowledge fine i'm cool with that as long as we dont keep the current system with have, however if we are going to be capitalist, I'm not going to lose my job and starve so someone lesser than me can have knowledge.