What is it with computers, anyway, that makes people not only unwilling to learn how to use their tools, but proud of doing so?
I've never heard anyone brag that telephones, dishwashers, wood chippers, or especially cars are "too hard" for them to use, nor that they intentionally don't bother to learn how to use them (though the way some people drive, I wonder sometimes). I set up and installed a new cuckoo clock yesterday and I'll tell you, it was more complicated than building a new computer! But I can't imagine someone acting other than ashamed that they couldn't figure out what to do with those parts, or how to unhook the shipping tie-downs or follow the instructions. Why is it with computers, and apparently computers alone, that people seem to expect admiration for not knowing how to use their tools?
We now have computers that are far more powerful than the supercomputers of the Cray-1 era. But the average user can't tell. They're not doing more than computers did a decade or two ago, because all of that power goes to making their screens prettier, like Romper Room, and catering to the deliberately ignorant among their users. We have dumbed down computers so much that most of their potential is wasted.
I've never thought I was outstandingly smart. People act as though I am, though, because I can identify things (birds, flowers, cars, etc.), because I have a wider vocabulary than comes from "Jersey Shore", and because I know how to use the tools I deal with on a regular basis -- including computers. This is sad. We should be smartening up people, not dumbing down the world they live in.
Really, when we get to the "ideal" level where everyone is reading only picture books and using tools made like Busy Boxes ... then what? I haven't heard of any great scientific advances made by the ignorant, the complacent, nor kindergartners. Why should we want to turn ourselves into them -- and do so at the cost of the power and flexibility of the tools we use?
Mind you, I'm not saying that tools should be made deliberately user-hostile. But their focus should be on doing what they do as well as possible, not on making it easy for people to use them without any mental activity whatsoever. Ignorance is not a virtue. Not even where computers are involved. And the sooner we remember that, instead of acting as though it is, the better the chance to save our entire society from the encroaching flood of voluntary stupidity.
Go read the "
The Amazon Kindle is a type of what?" thread if you want to be thoroughly scared. The Marching Morons are among us.