Quote:
Originally Posted by BWinmill
Can we get rid of these young/old stereotypes? The Internet has been popular for almost 20 years. Personal computers have been around for almost 40 years. We are well past the point where we can claim that the old folk "are not comfortable with this new-fangled technology" because the executives who make the decisions have had decades to adapt. If age is a factor at all, it is because those "boardroom seat-warmers" have been in industry long enough to know that businesses can only operate if they have a revenue stream. Pirates don't provide that revenue stream, so something needs to be done about it.
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Believe it or not, but even being around since 1975 or so, the (personal) computer is still as big a mystery as it ever was, to the normal people.
You won't *believe* the number of people between the age of 20 and 30 that I encounter who haven't got the faintest idea of how a computer works.
I'm no car mechanic. Heck, I even don't have a driver's license because of my poor eyesight. Still, I know that you need gas in the car to make it run, need to refresh the oil, turn the key to start it, press the pedal to make it go (or another pedal to make it stop), and turn the wheel to make it turn. If you understand this, along with some other basics, you can drive any car.
When dealing with computers, many people don't know even such basics. Copy/Paste files? It takes ages to learn. And when the concept is finally understood, they gleefully paste 25 GB of baby pictures onto a 1GB SD-card... and of course, they don't understand why it doesn't work. I can cite many more examples.
"Using a computer" is no more than following a list of directions or actions for many people. They actually don't *understand* what they are doing; they're like dogs: "If I do this, then I get a cookie (i.e., the e-mail is sent).
This is the reason why they are so upset if there is even the slightest of changes: their action lists such as "Click the third button from the left" are messed up and they can't use the computer anymore.
It hasn't got anything to do with age; I also encounter quite some old people who are very adept at using computers. They don't use lists, they don't write anything down. Without exception, these people just *understand*.
Imagine someone driving a car like that, having to consult a list of actions each time someone wants to do something, such as "turning left", because they actually don't understand the car...