My favorite is when someone tells me that they are too old to learn about new technology, or that they can’t use a device because they aren’t very tech-y. No, you just refuse to learn.
The idea that people are available 24/7.
na boy some peoplw be dumb as removed. Some don’t want but somenare incapable…as you can see by the state of the world
My sister works in tech and it’s concerning to me how much she believes all the hype from tech startups. Sometimes i wonder if she is serious and sometimes it is painfully obvious she is.
I remember one time she urging me to use this app that ‘translated cat meows.’ the concept sounded just silly to me but I induldged her by recording and “translating” the meows of her cat that i had been taking care of for a couple of years. The interpreted cat meows according to the app revealed that the cat supposedly loves me, and i’ m her favorite and she is sad when i am not around. (which is standard cat behavior if you treat them well and especially for this cat that is very caring and social.
My sister reacted like she was jealous, not only believing everything the app translated but also feeling like i displaced her as her cat’s favorite human. The whole experience was surreal.
I don’t know, but my view of technology being awesome and wonderful and the way to a better future has died, and that makes me sad
I’ll try to answer the question. How about this worry so many people have that technology facilitating any level of privacy is only going to be used for evil purposes. Even non technology cases. “Why aren’t you putting your real name and hometown?” Because it’s not relevant to this situation and nobody’s business! “Why are you refusing to be in this cute video we’re making for the company social media presence?” Because I don’t want my picture out there for everyone to see, and to be able to extrapolate where I live and who I work for
I think I got our company social media person to actually think I might have been serious when I eventually started saying I was under some kind of witness protection just to get out of it without having the same battle every time
I’m still awaiting the moment someone finally has a reason to legally insist on looking into my background or whatever after the whole “what shady activity or history are you hiding, always wanting your privacy and refusing to volunteer information about yourself” only to find I’m completely clean. No criminal record, no suspicious affiliations (unless Lemmy counts, hah), nothing incriminating. I’ve lived an extremely boring life. I just value my privacy
That any website outside of corpo net is the Evil Dark Web. I can’t stand my tech illiterate friends that refuse to use the fediverse or any non tracking YouTube links. If a site is HTML only they removed their pants.
When did people get so dumb about computers ? Man.
“Computer illiterate” isn’t silly and funny to say anymore. Computers have been around since the 80s. Get with the program. Oh and doing a quick Google search yourself can solve a good 70-80% of issues. Stop calling the help desk immediately.
That every generation of device is going to be the next greatest thing and they should all have huge leaps like in the early 2000’s.
I doubt people switching from the rotary phones to touch tone phones were complaining a year later about not having something better from the phones.
I doubt people switching from the rotary phones to touch tone phones were complaining a year later about not having something better from the phones.
Haha. We were re-installing our rotary phones a year later, because the touch tone ones were designed to fail in a year. I should have kept my rotary phone. I’m sure it would still work.
I’m old and tech-y, and my contemporaries still use the “I’m too old to learn” line on me - and then ask me to sort out their issue. Deeply annoying.
Me too, and I really think we need to be less accepting of it in general. I’ve known lots of people whose job involves using computers, and they can’t use them and refuse to learn and expect others to help them constantly. I don’t mind showing someone how to do something if it’s a new thing that they don’t know, but I’ve known people who get someone else to do the same simple task for them whenever it comes up, sometimes for years. And I don’t mean learning everything there is to know about computers, but like basic removed necessary for your job like where files go when you save them, or how to format text in a Word doc.
Like… if your job is being a delivery driver and you don’t know how to drive and you refuse to learn, people won’t accept it. But for some reason it’s fine with computers. I get that you may not like computers, but again, it’s your job. Learn it.
I’m legit scared of that. Im only in my 30s and my capacity for learning has diminished greatly since I was a child. What if that trajectory continues?
I dont wanna be “too old to learn these newfangled thingamabobs” when we get the next big thing.
I’m 73 and I reckon I’m learning more now than when I was in my 20s. I have a few things I’m interested in and I have a real thirst to know more about them. Not like in school where I was forced to remember a load of names and dates.
I might have hit a wall as far as tech goes though - I see people here on Lemmy talking about servers and I’m interested, but struggle to understand the basics.
I’m at that point but between you and me, it’s pure laziness.
“XYZ company already has all my data so I don’t care that they’re spying on me and selling my data to advertisers”
Fucking makes my blood boil. These people have absolutely zero critical thinking skills, or self respect
I dislike the “privacy fiends” that hang around those subs/forums/instances but try to debate you out of trying. The “akschaully that wouldn’t work because…” people. Who are they helping?
Totally agree. Perfect is the enemy of good. If people would just drop meta, and Microsoft. That would go a long way and would be pretty easily achievable for most people.
Alphabet would be huge but because most phones run android (including my own), that’s a big ask, too big without a good viable alternative ATM
blood boil
I’m the same, but I try to explain the errors of their ways in the most relaxed manner.
Most times it doesn’t make a difference but once in a while someone is receptive and makes a change. and it’s really rewarding.It has been theorized once 25% of the population accepts an opinion the rest tends to follow, so I try to be optimistic and take it one step at a time. Lately I’ve had the impression I’m seeing progress.
The thing is though, that most people don’t know why that’s a problem, and privacy advocates seem to think that ‘you’ve got a door on your bathroom’ is a gotcha.
If someone is giving Google their home address and work address, and planning the route to get traffic data, they’re not going to be concerned when Google Maps suggests their work address as a destination through the week. Same for their shopping data. ‘Of course Amazon knows what I like, I do my shopping there!’
We need better ways to explain it to people who don’t understand it, and who are not interested in it or the tech behind it. We have a big problem on Lemmy where we tend to assume that everyone understands the same issues as us, just not as well.
If someone is giving Google their home address and work address, and planning the route to get traffic data, they’re not going to be concerned when Google Maps suggests their work address as a destination through the week.
It isn’t that they aren’t concerned, that is actually something many people see as a benefit. Yes, I still use google maps because it remembers destinations and has traffic density alerts and a bunch of other stuff that require tracking but those are a separate thing from google selling that tracking data to third parties. The former is a benefit and the latter is a problem.
That’s part of my point. For most people, giving Google their data means things like their travel info. The majority of people don’t understand that tracking data is different, or what it means. When you tell them not to give their data to big corporations, they think you mean any data, and don’t know that they can get data that you might not want shared
I fucking hate that word ‘Innovation’. It is spammed by corporatebros who think their removed doesn’t smell.
What’s your opinion on the word “entrepreneur”?
this post reads like an entitled youth complaining about old people.
you know that video of the kids that can’t figure out how to use a rotary dial telephone? yeah, that’s exactly what happens to old folks who can’t figure out how to use a smart phone, or computer, or a smart TV, or a, or a, or a…
technological context is important. you can’t just pick up a piece of technology and immediately understand how to use it. you have to understand not just how it works, but why it works the way it does. knowing the why takes a history of the whole feature.
it’d be like if I posted a meme you have zero context about and I make fun of you for not understanding it and call you an old dumb removed for not grasping on the basic understandings of why it’s funny.
The issue as I have presented isn’t one of “Old People Dumb”, but one of the idea that older people shouldn’t refuse to learn about something because they are “too old”. Or enabling that line of thinking. I recently had a customer buy a new computer for me and paid for a setup. I needed account details, and he had no idea what his accounts were, his passwords, just that he wanted his computer setup. When I asked for any passwords to get the setup done, he didn’t know because his kids set all that up. If the kids took a moment to show him what was going on, how things worked, maybe he would have had an idea when he needed it.
For people still in their working days, I’d agree with you. Every 30 year old really should know how to use a computer at an at least basic level.
My grandparents, however, have had a life full of working for a world that wanted to give them as little as possible. My grandmother wants to relax, and my grandfather wants to keep busy how he wants to work. I think they’ve earned however they want to live, whether that’s with or without learning how to use a computer well. It’s really not harming anyone.
I will give my grandma credit, though. She’s not resistant to learning how to use her phone—she just doesn’t need all of it, and she’s not gonna fully understand that which she doesn’t need. My grandfather is pretty resistant, though. That’s just how he is. The phone is the least of our worries.
to riff off your example, what’s an account? is there a bank involved or should I get in contact with my financial advisor? Did I get mail about the accounts? perhaps some kind of ID card came for me in the mail?
what’s an account?
my point still remains. not only were you asking him to understand what an account is, but also the nuances between different accounts and what they do. like knowing what the difference is between a Facebook and email account is.
you take your historical knowledge of technology for granted. one day, sooner than you think, you’re going to be that old man ranting about how nothing works and technology sucks.
To clarify, I was asking for his M$ account details. And when I needed to get the verification codes out of his email, he kept giving me a password for what he thought was a working account.
People with no technical background insisting that “AI” is taking over and is sentient, even when I try to explain how it actually works. They refuse to believe that maybe all of those breathless “news” articles are clickbait hype-mongering.
“You just don’t like it because it’s gonna take your job!” Keep believing that, imbeciles.
I hear a lot of people worrying about this being the case in the future but I don’t remember hearing anyone claiming that about our current LLMs.
Clicking OK without reading the box.
It won’t work, I get an error.
What’s the error say?
Let me try again. Ok it says enter a time.
Did you enter a time?
No.
dear god, if people actually read the screen, most Helpdesk jobs would be gone. read the damn screen, put that into your favourite search engine. bam. profit.
And an actual search engine… Not an LLM prompt. A plain regular search engine!
Put the error wording in quotes. Scroll past the AI LLM response they force at the top. That first result under there almost certainly gives you the answer.
Or someone on Reddit with the ever-useless, “That never happens to me”.
Except that there are about 100 questions on the page and there is no prompt to go to the question you missed.
Many sites are just poorly designed.
You’ve met my mother in law, I see. And my dad. Why do they do that? It must be an age thing.
Windows upbringing.
That transcends all ages, it has to be related to the irresistibility of big red buttons.
It’s a “can’t be bothered” thing: age is irrelevant.
Not exploring the Settings menu of a new device. That should be the first thing you do when you first power on a new device. Most people just go with whatever the default settings are. Hell, some have never even seen their settings menu beyond the wifi connection.
I think we are just tinkerers, learners. I have been taking removed apart since I was 5, because I wanted to know how it worked and how to fix it.
Many (majority of humans?) people have zero desire to learn or do anything new/different. I thought everyone was like me early on, boy was I wrong.
I’m weird with this. Usually when I get a new phone, laptop or whatever, I like to use it exactly as is for at least a day or so. I like knowing what the “default” user experience is without me having to change or “fix” things first. Like playing a game without mods for a playthrough before adding big tiddie dragons.
I get that! Or maybe default settings are perfect. That’s rare though especially nowadays.
Its like using your moms phone (or PC) with chrome, no adblock, 6789764 windows open, and brightness all the way up (what’s dark mode?).
Meanwhile, i look for community fixes and hacks the moment i get a game shared. More of a here-for-the-story player.
People need to learn innovation is not always progress, and that some paths forward are dead ends.
“Innovation” under late stage crony capitalism is just newspeak for “further surveillance for poors and enrichment for billionaires”
