Are you one of the computer illiterate?
I’m going to let you into a secret. Computers are very easy to use. And unless you toss them out of second storey windows they’re also fairly difficult to break. However there are people who are fearful of these benign and useful pieces of equipment that sit on all our desks.
Have you ever been with a colleague who struggles with their computer? And I don’t just mean that they use one finger on each hand as they pick their way around the keyboard… but that they really don’t quite grasp the very basics of the main programs they use on a daily basis… Outlook, Word and Internet Explorer.
Apologetically they’ll say ‘I’m not very computer literate’ as if this admission of ineptitude with a tool which plays such a central role in our everyday life somehow makes it all OK. It’s almost said with a sense of pride, as if it’s a badge of honour and appears to imply that they don’t ever intend to get to grips with it!
There’s worse… people who don’t and won’t use a computer, relying on faxes and the post. I can’t recall the last time I sent a business letter on headed paper to be delivered by the Royal Mail.
A better way for these people to express their situation would be to say ‘I am computer illiterate’.
In the same way as I wouldn’t expect a car driver to understand the complexities of a modern internal combustion engine, I don’t think everyone should be an expert programmer or know about how a processor operates. But computers have been sitting on our desks for 20 years, which makes it all the more difficult to comprehend how, after so long, someone can still say ’I'm not very computer literate’.
During the US presidential elections John McCain was righty lambasted for not knowing the basics of computing… and the Silver Surfer events show that age is no barrier. You’re likely to check whether computer skills are on the CV of anyone you going to appoint to almost any job these days.
Hantsnet has a huge amount of self help training on using the computer on your desk . There are evening classes… there’s no excuse to use the excuse ’I'm not very computer literate’… or you can get the word ‘Luddite’ tatooed on your forehead!
By far, the best way to become computer literate is to simply experiment with a computer and learn from your mistakes. Try building yourself an inexpensive computer (it’s incredibly easy and can be done for less than $500) and just fooling around with it once it’s built. As long as you have the installation CD or DVD for the operating system and you know how to put it into the CD tray, there’s nothing wrong with looking under the hood and exploring those system files that the operating system hides from you. It’s not as if it will blow up in your face. As long as you have a backup computer, it’s not as if you’ll ruin your chances of using a computer either. Seriously, fear of mistakes is one of the leading factors (if not the single leading causes) that inhibit learning, since the best kind of learning comes from trial and error. It would be naive to expect to learn things without making mistakes. Seriously, I’ve had to help my dad at least 7 times to transfer photos from his (extremely foolproof) camera to his (also extremely foolproof) computer, just because he hasn’t been willing to try it for himself. I think he’s afraid of accidentally losing his photos, which is a rather dumb reason not to learn how to use his own camera.
And don’t delude yourself into thinking that it takes some kind of whiz kid to do all of this. Don’t give the old “but I don’t have the time for this kind of thing” excuse. Also, if you’re old, don’t believe the nonsense that you can’t learn new tricks because of your age.
Also, remember this fact: the internet is your friend. The internet is sadly shrouded by a stigma of viruses and predators, since the news media covers the ways people abuse the internet more than anything else. But really, now that Google has become the most intuitive and idiot-friendly website on the entire planet, there’s just no excuse for getting frustrated over a simple software (or hardware) problem when help already requested by hundreds of people like you is just a few clicks and keystrokes away. You’d have to be pretty dumb to suffer from internet abuse (i.e. NEVER GIVE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION OUT ON THE INTERNET unless it’s to people you know or to a place like an online store that you can verify is actually real).
So, are you ready to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty? (You know you need to…)