It still amazes me the fundamental ignorance of computers by some average people, even those who are using them daily, and are otherwise adept. This is not to knock ignorance, since I know I certainly am ignorant in so many fields. And it's not because I have knowledge of computers. It's just the way that it surfaces and the very basic confusion that puzzles me. Computers have been ubiquitous for some time now, and even though someone isn't comfortable with a computer, cultural literacy should at least bring the definition of basic concepts to peoples' attention. Why aren't the basics sticking?
The incident that got me thinking about this was a friend (intelligent, businessman, musician, educated, smart) wanted to hire me to help him with his computer, which he says is very slow in everything, and it used to be fast. A couple of questions led me to think it was a memory problem, and I ask him how much RAM he had. He said, "I don't know how much I have, but I know it is O.K. because when I show the little pie chart, I am only using a little sliver of the memory," Well, I knew right away of course he was looking at disk drive storage, not RAM, and I realized I was up against computeracy again.
This type of misunderstanding is not just not knowing what a certain component or term means, it goes to the fundamental way a computer works. If you don't know where your documents are stored, and that ram holds the volatile things, you might as well be using a typewriter.
I mean, when early in the 1900's, as the auto started to replace the horse and carriage, did people still call the steering wheel "the reins" and the accelerator the "buggy whip" for 20 years? And when they ran out of gas, did new users think the problem might be in the tires?
Of course things are getting better, People have their kids who can bring them up to speed, and maybe the knowledge base is better than I encounter. It was way back in 1990 that I first thought the tide had turned, when I was in a 7-11 and heard two truck drivers discussing their custom computers. After all, some have long thought that maybe computers should be made toaster-like, so people could just turn them on and use them without having to BE or know a geek. We certainly are not at that point yet.
