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.
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 shit their pants.
When did people get so dumb about computers ? Man.
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’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.
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 fuck 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.
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.
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.
If you’re entering or exiting the tram, heads the fuck up.
Something I absolutely hate is when people say shit like “do you sell an apple charger?” The complete ignorance of what port your device uses or even what it’s called is infuriating. Look, you either have a usb-c or lightning port, and you only have a lightning port if your phone is from like a decade ago or something. You should know by now to look for usb-c cables. It’s especially frustrating when they get angry at me when they don’t understand what I’m talking about.
I’m a sales supervisor in an office supply store, and I get this ALL THE TIME! I once had someone argue with me over the name of the cable connectors and wondered why I didn’t know what they were talking about. Then they said, and I quote, “Well, to me that’s what I call them, so I’m going to just keep calling them that.”
Linux nerds screeching about how Linux desktop works perfectly out of the box and with less time and effort then Windows/OsX.
It’s entirely counterproductive to adoption.
Yeah, I tell people Linux is like driving a custom built car. You can make it do anything you want and have absolute control and freedom, and often do things other cars can’t, faster and more efficiently and cheaply. But sometimes it’s going to break and you need to get in there and wrench. If you don’t enjoy learning, or work 80 hour weeks and have no time to tinker, don’t use Linux desktop.
I got my SO to change because they like to customize, and I’m there if if breaks.
“I got my 107 year-old great grandmother running Arch from the command line in 20 minutes! Now she browses with Lynx and hosts a Matrix server.”
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.
You’ve met my mother in law, I see. And my dad. Why do they do that? It must be an age thing.
Totally. There’s old duffers at work that struggle to open a word doc, but are strangely adept at Navigating Facebook…
WAY too many people don’t realize “AI” is just marketing bullshit, and genuinely think that LLMs and shit are literal intelligence in a computer.
For one, it’s driving every company under the sun to shove it into every product under the sun; and two, if we ever do create a true AI (what we’re calling “AGI” now, at least until marketing drives that one to meaninglessness too and we have to move the goal posts again), it’s going to be humanity changer in par with shit like discovering fire… and people will be confused as all hell becuase “wE’ve hAd tHAt foR yEArS!” cuz they’ll think its the same spell-checker-that’s-wrong-occaisionally-and-generates-nudes that we have today.
A lot of tech evolves and changes quickly, and a whole lot of people just dont like change, especially as they get older. It is also harder to learn new things as you get older. While it doesn’t apply across the board, the “can’t teach an old dog” addage generally holds true. This is not something that will go away. If you dont want to become that person, continue to exercise your brain as you age, and learning new tricks will be easier.
The problem is that you often can’t learn because the app’s instructions are a year behind.
The way some people think everything needs to look fancy and gimmicky.
Like, I get it, stuff would be better blending in with their surrounding fashion, but if we need to get thru more than three layers of menu to get to something we frequently use, it’s wasteful, and if it’s for something critical like in a car, it’s straight up dangerous.
I’m tired of people breaking software. If your software broke because of a dependency then next time maybe you shouldn’t introduce one.
The way they misuse it! :-(
