Computer literacy is still a huge problem
- Thread starter mrochester
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But how will I kill zombies, the computer had trained me on this skill
Watch a few movies. I keep up to date on the most effective zombie killing tactics.
Maybe I've misunderstood it but I've always seen ITs role as keeping things simpler/quicker for the rest of the company 90% of it could be done by a monkey(and normally is
) it's only the 10% that requires any real skill and very few seem to have that.Then again IT encompasses everything from the person designing the network/software/website to the person taking phone calls.
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I'm 25. Didn't have internet until I was 13, and no broadband until I was 17. There's no reason for people older than me, in their 30s and 40s, to be any worse than me with computers (and I'm the best out of anyone I know excluding 2 of my friends who are software devs).
People just can't be assed to learn.
TBH I'm probably warped from working in a environment which is a bit of an exception (military base). We have a team of about 8 people to run the infrastructure of an entire base, including the phones (and the phone exchange itself, because it's a secure one), CCTV, on top of all the PCs and servers. We all have to be multi-talented. If someone wants something remotely technical they come to us and we build it 
Surprised at some responses in this thread. My mum who is 63 only started using an ipad about 3 years ago and regularly asks me how to do things I have shown her before. I don't mind as for one is my mum but also she was in the care industry for 40 years where she never had to use a computer, no need, she dealt with people. And since being retired has no real desire to learn more than basic browsing and email and I can't blame her. Upon first trying to teach her about computers and using the word 'desktop' it became quite apparent that even 'basic' computer things are completely foreign as it has never been needed. Frankly although computers are important nowadays I certainly don't blame an elderley person for not understanding. My mum has learned/done far more important useful things than learning an excel document. Just because this is a computer forum I think a lot forget there is a huge world out there that has nothing to do with computers in day to day living. My mum would certainly rather see 2-3 friends a week than spend 2-3 hours learning how to use something she doesnt actually NEED. Fair enough if aimed at young people but as schools do basic IT now I believe it will phase out soon enough.
I have to say my mum has more tech than most 20 year olds and she is 77. However I have the patience of someone with no patience. I hate myself for it, but she has lost the same passwords 1039403243284 times, and the 4423492384382 books she has put the passwords in to remember them 49394082390320948 times. There is only so much you can do.
I sense you have all the answers already, you have the meaning of life, know how business works, see it's all against you and just for the slimy guy with the Ford Probe who's a tiger, yes? You are 29, I argue you've never sat in a board room, made a decision about the direction of a business but hey, you can make a computer sing and the world needs that more than the next bloke who can also do that....or the scientist, doctor, airline pilot, account exec who all get paid vastly more but only because they are slimy and lick arses?
If I had a pound for each time I've seen this I'd have many pounds, just need a spreadsheet to work out how many but WordPerfect isn't adding it up right at the moment so I've moved to Coral Draw. Back in a minute, just on hold to Andrew in first line support, though not sure that's his real name as he sounds Indian.
My point was that IT people often (not always) have a completely misaligned view as to their real value to a business. All you have done is evidence that, to my point with your simplistic comment to my point.
Eh?
I'm the guy in charge of the current charging model at the boardroom meeting, I'm not first or second line. However I remember my roots. It's my ideas that ensure the money flows our way, but hey, next time you can't pay for food/petrol etc because the shop's till system is down, just remember what it was that makes it all tick these days.
Whatever way you look at it, automation is a pillar core to most profitable businesses, and you don't get automation without competent IT from the those on phones to those at the very back end tweaking and developing.
Doctors are an unfair comparison, without people you don't need/have IT anyway however they need someone to do their appointment system.
Scientists err, don't get paid that much unless it's a drugs company and even then the sales exec is still probably raking it in?
Airline pilots make money?
Honestly your examples aren't for based on for profit businesses so I'm not sure how they prove your point?
Any profitable business needs good IT as they most likely do payroll electronicly, sales/stock electronicly, forecasts electronicly, and so on.
So you got the internet at the age of 13, younger than many when you are still in full time education, in 'learning mode' and probably using it as part of study and such. Someone in their 40s might not have got online until say their mid-20s or even later by which point they probably were in full-time employment potentially in an industry/job which doesn't heavily use computers so will have just dabbled in it for emails, basic surfing and such.
When you say the can't be assed to learn, the likelihood is until fairly recently they may not have seen a great need to learn, by which time they were well beyond fulltime education.
The internet isn't the be-all and end-all of computer literacy either. How old were you when got regular access to a computer?
We all have to be multi-talented. If someone wants something remotely technical they come to us and we build it
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Some people just dont get it and never will, regardless of education, its a complete mystery to them.
These people will leech from the IT literate for years on end.
You will end up fixing their computers, for free, in your spare time, forever.
These people will leech from the IT literate for years on end.
You will end up fixing their computers, for free, in your spare time, forever.
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Computer illiteracy is of less annoyance than the inward-looking autists who populate most IT roles, Rainman-ing their way through their day in that socially maladjusted and broken robot fashion which anyone outside of IT knows probably all too well. Their insistence on how 'special' and 'important' they are is terrifyingly obtuse and reflects the Dunning-Kruger effect to alarming, if slightly amusing, levels.
We even had a van for moving kit around the site. But they sent it to the scrap yard because of "health and safety" or some rubbish. Who cares if the passenger door didn't close and fumes leaked in to the cabin. That's what internal door handles and roll down windows are for
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I still remember my first day as a trainee in IT support. Some client I was dealing with for the first time ever called up with a very simple query. I knew exactly what he needed to do and it took several mouse clicks and remote control wasn't necessary, but in order to guide him I needed to know something and sheer instinct caused me to ask the most retarded question I could possibly have asked;
"What version of Windows do you have?"
His reply: "Uhmmmm..... You tell me, I don't have a clue mate", and you know what, he was absolutely right and I felt far more stupider than him.
"What version of Windows do you have?"
His reply: "Uhmmmm..... You tell me, I don't have a clue mate", and you know what, he was absolutely right and I felt far more stupider than him.
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As the OP, I'd just like to add that I do not work in IT! I work in an Information Services team and my issues stem from speaking to people externally who utilise the data we provide. But when I say 'just filter on that column' and the reply is 'how do I do that?' is when I start to get mad!
It's funny this thread was started. I read an email request yesterday that was basically asking for an absolutely simple Excel diary for people to log tasks in each day, the request was from a department manager. I just think if you're a department manager at a bank, you should have some basic Excel skills. I'm not making her the diary.
your attitude is totally wrong,
If everyone in the world lost there skills and gain yours the world would end in famine and disease within months - (no war because no one would be able to operate anything or even have the will to fight or organise)
You only know a tiny bit of IT (compared to the hole field) you must realise it takes more than knowing a little about excel to keep our society running?
If everyone in the world lost there skills and gain yours the world would end in famine and disease within months - (no war because no one would be able to operate anything or even have the will to fight or organise)
You only know a tiny bit of IT (compared to the hole field) you must realise it takes more than knowing a little about excel to keep our society running?
True story. My uncle had a call from a 'Microsoft Expert' a few years ago about a 'virus' on his computer. He freaked the **** out after the call and decided not to call me who is relatively IT savvy and discuss options ( like the fact he had been scam called)but instead decided that the only course of action to protect his data and bank account details etc was to take his tower into the garage and dismantle it with a sledge hammer.
Stupidity? Check
Ignorance? Check
Hilarious? Also check
He now uses a Macbook...../facepalm
Stupidity? Check
Ignorance? Check
Hilarious? Also check
He now uses a Macbook...../facepalm
She's a manager who works for a bank, we deal with numbers quite a bit. If you haven't gained basic Excel skills at her pay grade you don't deserve the job. This is something that can be self taught in 15-20 minutes on Google.
still missing my point
I work in a school and it never ceases to amaze me how many new teachers (we're talking people in their 20s) have no grasp of simple IT concepts or cannot do something simple like operate Excel.
The main issue is that IT (sorry ICT in education) teaching is entirely based around programming. There is no teaching around infrastructure or how networks work or how applications are installed or what drivers do. It's all coding.
It makes me really sad to be honest.
The main issue is that IT (sorry ICT in education) teaching is entirely based around programming. There is no teaching around infrastructure or how networks work or how applications are installed or what drivers do. It's all coding.
It makes me really sad to be honest.