This New York Times article on the growing resentment that techno-savvy people feel about helping the techno-ignorant - and the irritation they feel when worms like MyDoom spread because people are still clicking on attachments from strangers - made me feel bad about asking my friend I-ROCK for help whenever my wireless networking arrangement goes bonk.
However, their examples of the true techno-ignorant made me feel a little better:
...Miriam Tauber, 24, makes no apologies for her lack of computer knowledge. To her, computers are like "moody people" who behave illogically. If people like Mr. Rubenstein expect her to understand them, she suggests, perhaps they should learn to speak in a language she can understand, rather than ridiculous acronyms and suffixes.
"There are these MP3's and PDF's and a million other things that you don't even know what they are," Ms. Tauber said. "I don't feel like I need to figure out computers, because my instinct is there's just no way."
[...]
David Hale, 25, a lawyer in St. Louis, said he had rebuilt his parents' virus-ridden computer from scratch several times in recent months before he learned that his father, Dale, was replying to every piece of his spam e-mail, asking to be taken off the spammers' mailing lists. Dale Hale, 47, also frequently clicked on pop-up ads that appeared to be messages from Microsoft telling him to upgrade his computer."It would cause fights between my parents because they would argue about whether a particular one was legitimate and I'm like, 'It is NEVER legitimate,'" said Mr. Hale, who explained as patiently as he could that answering spam and clicking on pop-ups only invite more of the same.
How can these examples not lead you to the conclusion that the geeks are right to be mad? ;) Even my boss makes more of an effort than this to understand the rules and learn from her mistakes - when I answer a question for her, she accepts the information, then makes a serious effort to remember the answer and apply the knowledge in future interactions with the dread machine.
Comments (3)
You're totally freaking out. I'm happy to help :).
Posted by Eric Tilton | February 13, 2004 11:41 AM
I think the geeks to whom you refer are getting paid, but no, that's not great. Didn't you ceremonially kill your evil corporate oppressor alter ego?
Posted by The Princess | February 14, 2004 6:22 PM
The phrase "never happen again" is to repairs as the phrase "you can't miss it" is to directions: maybe it should be true, but it never is. It ALWAYS happens again and I ALWAYS miss the bright yellow barn at the bottom of the hill. But that's another story.
Posted by JPed | February 16, 2004 1:27 PM