Do you know anyone your age who doesn't know how to use a computer

Probably older folks who are retired and on a pension or social security either can't afford a computer and service provider, or just don't want to spend the money on it.

My youngest son is 46, and he's never owned a computer. He can use one ok because he had to get an iphone for work and his wife (who's actually married to her phone :mad:) taught him all about intraweb voodoo. But whenever he needs to print out a form or theater tickets or something, he comes over here and uses my computer+printer. His kids have laptops, but they were provided by their schools and have a few restrictions. The kids probly won't ever own a real computer until they buy their own. Unless one or both of them goes to college. Liam will buy a computer then, for sure.

Also, his kids don't have phones. He promised Kirk, who'll be 15 in Oct, he'll buy him an iphone if he does well in school this year and plays a sport for his school. This is Kirk's first year of high school. (You can do it, buddy-boy!!)
 

horseless carriage said:
How was I born? Same way as most, but I guess you mean how as in mother being deceased. What I actually said was "Their only child, my mother, passed away young, so they were like a childless couple for much of their life." They lived hundreds of miles from where we lived, so we hardly ever saw them and as I also said, they had no phone. But I did correspond by letter, something I still do, only not to their place beyond the grave. Even though email is available, if I could just get the hang of it, I don't feel bereft for not using it. My phone is forever ringing, friends just give up and know that they can either speak to me or I will call them back.
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yes I'm still confused HC..sorry.. but if it left them childless when their only child died young.. we can presume that she wasn't an adult when she died.. so how were you born.. and who raised you ?
 
Murrmurr said:
Probably older folks who are retired and on a pension or social security either can't afford a computer and service provider, or just don't want to spend the money on it.

My youngest son is 46, and he's never owned a computer. He can use one ok because he had to get an iphone for work and his wife (who's actually married to her phone :mad:) taught him all about intraweb voodoo. But whenever he needs to print out a form or theater tickets or something, he comes over here and uses my computer+printer. His kids have laptops, but they were provided by their schools and have a few restrictions. The kids probly won't ever own a real computer until they buy their own. Unless one or both of them goes to college. Liam will buy a computer then, for sure.

Also, his kids don't have phones. He promised Kirk, who'll be 15 in Oct, he'll buy him an iphone if he does well in school this year and plays a sport for his school. This is Kirk's first year of high school. (You can do it, buddy-boy!!)
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..as I said earlier.. people can use public computers for very little cost and sometimes free in public libraries internet cafes' etc.. not being able to afford a computer or Iphone isn't an excuse..

My daughter is the same age as your son , Frank... and she's a computer whizzkid, having learned at school back in the late 80's and 90's.. I think they were the first school children to use Computers as part of their curriculum, so no-one under 46 has any reason ( unless mentally challenged in some way).. has any reason to not know how to use a computer..:D
 

caroln said:
My sister is one of those proud computer illiterates. You can almost see her chest puff out while claiming not to be bothered by learning anything related to computers. That's why I said she's a lost cause in an earlier post. However, and this will probably get some people's backs up, I think it's odd that some people seem proud to say they don't watch TV. Is that supposed to be some badge of honor or something?
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It's probly more like they're saying they have much better or more important things to do. Like actually interacting with people, or maybe just being industrious.
 
hollydolly said:
..as I said earlier.. people can use public computers for very little cost and sometimes free in public libraries internet cafes' etc.. not being able to afford a computer or Iphone isn't an excuse..

My daughter is the same age as your son , Frank... and she's a computer whizzkid, having learned at school back in the late 80's and 90's.. I think they were the first school children to use Computers as part of their curriculum, so no-one under 46 has any reason ( unless mentally challenged in some way).. has any reason to not know how to use a computer..:D
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No one needs an excuse for not owning or knowing how to use a computer (imo). Sometimes it's a choice.

And seeing as how online scamming is a billion dollar a year industry, sometimes it's the better choice.
 
Murrmurr said:
No one needs an excuse for not owning or knowing how to use a computer (imo). Sometimes it's a choice.

And seeing as how online scamming is a billion dollar a year industry, sometimes it's the better choice.
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No people can choose not to own a computer I've said that several times, people shouldn't be choosing not to USE a computer where the opportunity to use them are often free or at very low hourly charges .. not these days .. that's like refusing to learn to read and write.. choosing to be computer Illiterate
 
hollydolly said:
yes I'm still confused HC..sorry.. but if it left them childless when their only child died young.. we can presume that she wasn't an adult when she died.. so how were you born.. and who raised you ?
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Perhaps I am using the wrong terminology. Mother gave birth to me when she was young, late teens I think. Some few years later she died from TB. I am not saying that my grandparents were childless but the fact that they had lost their only child and that they lived a long distance from their son-in-law and grandson, meant that they were like a couple without children. I do hope that's explained my ambiguous post. Sorry about that.
 
hollydolly said:
Do you know anyone who doesn't use one after all these years since we've commonly had home computers , who is perfectly capable of learning..?
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I know several people that just reject computer technology altogether and are afraid of going online. And, at least a couple of these people had used computers for decades while working. It's a state of mind (self limiting) telling the "self"- I can't, therefore I can't.
 
caroln said:
The DAR: I made them a website for their chapter and had to instruct them on how to look it up on line! :ROFLMAO:
My husband: Anytime he wants to look something up on line, he says, "the next time you're on the computer, look this up".
My sister: "I learned how to open my e-mail! Yay!" I gave up. She's a lost cause.
My ex best friend: I had to post pictures on Craig's list for her when she was selling something. And take down old ones. I tried to teach her how to cut and paste, but she never got it. She would call me when she got errors on her computer and I had to tell her, keystroke by keystroke, how to resolve it.
My old boss: She never tried to learn. I couldn't teach her because she was always "too busy". All I ever got was, "take care of it".
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I was torn between :ROFLMAO:....and...🙁
 
My dear wife had trouble with anything technical. A smart phone would have been useless for her. I printed out step by step instructions for dialing her flip phone that she carried in her purse. But, she did learn to do the things she really wanted, like searching the web and e-mailing friends and family. And, she enjoyed playing computer games. Her main problem was carelessly hitting the wrong key or clicking the wrong place and something weird would happen. If I hadn't been handy to fix things she would have been lost.

I think part of the problem is that computers have no common sense. Older people are used to dealing with other humans. And a real person can still understand what you want even if you fumble a little. Computer software wants specific responses. You click in the wrong place and anything can happen. It can be a puzzle to figure out how to recover.

I see a lot of web sites that are poorly done. Things that should be obvious aren't. The programmer assumes you will understand what they mean. Sometimes you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to do something that should be simple, or just guess and see what happens.
 
Grampa Don said:
I see a lot of web sites that are poorly done. Things that should be obvious aren't. The programmer assumes you will understand what they mean. Sometimes you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to do something that should be simple, or just guess and see what happens.
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Thank you! I thought it was just me being rigid(still could be) but I think that a goal of web design should be usability. That would require the website designer to put themself in the position of the user, rather than just blasting out a website and forcing the user "figger-it-out".

Retail websites are horrible, way too heavy with running code that will make a browser freeze up.

Government websites are so anal, so counter-intuitive with a lot of dead-end and circular features that wastes the user's time...and mental energy. Plus, super dense about security- taking 10 days to mail a password though the U.S. Postal Service....banghead.gif
 
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Nathan said:
Thank you! I thought it was just me being rigid(still could be) but I think that a goal of web design should be usability. That would require the website designer to put themself in the position of the user, rather than just blast out a website and let the user "figger-it-out".
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I think they try. But, you have to consider the type of people who design websites. They are obviously very computer literate. When something is easy for you, it's difficult to put yourself in the place of someone much less competent.

Really good software would be clear as a bell and recover automatically from any poor input. It would be really difficult to write. Maybe someday AI will create it.
 
The first users should be the ones who designed it. The best and easiest sites, programs and clearest instructions I found were the ones that were designed or written by former programmers. An auto mechanic once told me they ought to make the design engineers fix one before it leaves the factory..
 
I know a lot of people who do not know how to use a computer. One guy always says he is so glad he never went on the internet due to hackers.........yet three times I know of that his bank account had someone get into it! It is funny how I end up placing orders for some of them on Amazon or elsewhere because they do not know how to do it.

I have several cousins who do not use computers. One who lost his wife a couple of years ago now has no contact with some of us. She did it all for him.

I cannot imagine my life without my computer. I have used one since 1993, before Windows and social media. I used a bulletin board and that was how eBay was used back then
 
ManjaroKDE said:
The first users should be the ones who designed it. The best and easiest sites, programs and clearest instructions I found were the ones that were designed or written by former programmers. An auto mechanic once told me they ought to make the design engineers fix one before it leaves the factory..
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The company I worked for had a special department for testing software. These people would look for things that were confusing or just didn't work. It had to have their blessing to be released. Even so, required updates were inevitable.
 
Holly, I don't think it's entirely a matter of age, but more of education and attitude. As you know, I live in a senior community. We have a state-of-the-art computer room, and virtually everybody who lives here has a computer, a cell phone, and lots of other technology. People over 70, 80, and 90 often have discussions about googling this or that. We even have an "Apple" club. Our community news comes to us via email, and during the pandemic, all board meetings were provided to all residents via Zoom.

So, the "old people scared of technology" thing is becoming obsolete, though I do think it was true about 20 years ago.
 
Grampa Don said:
I think they try. But, you have to consider the type of people who design websites. They are obviously very computer literate. When something is easy for you, it's difficult to put yourself in the place of someone much less competent.

Really good software would be clear as a bell and recover automatically from any poor input. It would be really difficult to write.
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That's the issue with trying to decipher instructions that come with a electronic device that has some included software. :rolleyes:
Grampa Don said:
Maybe someday AI will create it.
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That day has pretty much arrived, not sure I'm liking it or not. On Facebook(mobile) the scroll thru articles that appear are almost certainly written by AI. Of course their leading title lures you to scroll and scroll through the wordy article, in hopes of you're hitting the myriad of advertising. The reader rarely gets to see a coherent conclusion.

 
My brother (very intelligent, mid-60s) has never tried to use a computer. He lives off grid. I helped him get his Covid payments via phone, but when they switched to applying online, I told him I couldn't help him any more. He found someone else to help him.

I have a lot of trouble with computers. I've learned to do most of what I need to do. But I seem to be a jinx, and there are things I just can't do.

Some government and corporate websites are poorly designed. I want to cry when I'm suddenly "required" to deal with a landlord or other essential service via a "portal" that won't even let me sign up. I'm not proud of this; it's just a fact.

I don't think there's anything wrong with people who don't want to learn. If they can live happily without computers, hooray for them.
 
NorthernLight said:
My brother (very intelligent, mid-60s) has never tried to use a computer. He lives off grid. I helped him get his Covid payments via phone, but when they switched to applying online, I told him I couldn't help him any more. He found someone else to help him.

I have a lot of trouble with computers. I've learned to do most of what I need to do. But I seem to be a jinx, and there are things I just can't do.

Some government and corporate websites are poorly designed. I want to cry when I'm suddenly "required" to deal with a landlord or other essential service via a "portal" that won't even let me sign up. I'm not proud of this; it's just a fact.

I don't think there's anything wrong with people who don't want to learn. If they can live happily without computers, hooray for them.
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No I didn't say Old people were scared of technology Sunny , in fact i said the opposite, that some older people in their 80's are in fact as cognisant as much of the young folks ... I had you and Lewkat in mind when I was thinking of it...
 
jet said:
well im ok with computer,but smart phone grrr,i just know the basics
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I got one for free lately but I really hate the stupid thing. I just look at it now and then. Don't intend to follow the addicted zombies who stare at the darn thing all their waking life and then go to sleep with it. I feel there is something better to sleep with then a smartphone but the addicted zombies probably disagree with that statement.
 

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