computer gripes
I don't consider myself inordinately stupid, but I feel that way when I am constantly told by companies and websites that installing or downloading or even viewing whatever is 'easy.'
Flipping a light switch is easy. Starting a car is easy. Toasting bread is easy.
There is nothing easy about these computer-related activities. I can just imagine the computer geeks snickering behind their hands as us ignorant peons try to figure out their 'easy' instructions.
I suppose ever since the introduction of those first computers back in the 40's, every generation has considered their technology terribly advanced. (See 'Star Trek' or 'Apollo 13'.) And so it is today. But I have to believe computers are still in their infancy, relatively speaking.
The problem so many times is that the '1, 2, 3' steps that are so often put forward assume that everything else is in place for those steps to go through and they almost never are. Oh wait, do you have an anti-virus program? (And who doesn't?) Well, that needs to be disabled. Trying to send a pic somewhere, use it as an avatar, or whatever? Wait, this program only accepts jpg, gif, and pdq files. Or didn't you know that? Oh, and we forgot to mention, it can't be more than 6 kbs. And getting tech support... slitting wrists would be infinitely preferable. 'Click on this, open this, type in this... it still doesn't work? Well, there must be something terribly wrong with you!' (Okay, slight exaggeration there.)
The other problem is that the computer nerds constantly assume that everyone knows as much, and should know as much, about computers and software programs as they do. Nope, we don't. That's why we have you. When you have a mechanic work on your car, you don't need a dissertation on the complexities of the internal combustion engine, you just want him to fix it. And you sure don't feel like getting under the hood to help him repair the timing belt.
Yet that's what most people are expected to do when it comes to computers and computer programs.
The day computers get to the point where you can say, as Mr. Spock would, "Computer, do this!" and it does, then THAT will be easy. Till then, let's call it anything but that.
Flipping a light switch is easy. Starting a car is easy. Toasting bread is easy.
There is nothing easy about these computer-related activities. I can just imagine the computer geeks snickering behind their hands as us ignorant peons try to figure out their 'easy' instructions.
I suppose ever since the introduction of those first computers back in the 40's, every generation has considered their technology terribly advanced. (See 'Star Trek' or 'Apollo 13'.) And so it is today. But I have to believe computers are still in their infancy, relatively speaking.
The problem so many times is that the '1, 2, 3' steps that are so often put forward assume that everything else is in place for those steps to go through and they almost never are. Oh wait, do you have an anti-virus program? (And who doesn't?) Well, that needs to be disabled. Trying to send a pic somewhere, use it as an avatar, or whatever? Wait, this program only accepts jpg, gif, and pdq files. Or didn't you know that? Oh, and we forgot to mention, it can't be more than 6 kbs. And getting tech support... slitting wrists would be infinitely preferable. 'Click on this, open this, type in this... it still doesn't work? Well, there must be something terribly wrong with you!' (Okay, slight exaggeration there.)
The other problem is that the computer nerds constantly assume that everyone knows as much, and should know as much, about computers and software programs as they do. Nope, we don't. That's why we have you. When you have a mechanic work on your car, you don't need a dissertation on the complexities of the internal combustion engine, you just want him to fix it. And you sure don't feel like getting under the hood to help him repair the timing belt.
Yet that's what most people are expected to do when it comes to computers and computer programs.
The day computers get to the point where you can say, as Mr. Spock would, "Computer, do this!" and it does, then THAT will be easy. Till then, let's call it anything but that.
posted by gbj at 5:07 PM
2 Comments:
Say amen, somebody! AMEN! I've been saying this since, oh, about when we left BASIC behind. I remember when computers really did start to get "user-friendly" and feeling hopeful, but did that last? Oh, no. I think there may have been about 3 nanoseconds when users and designers/programmers were on the same page. After that they went off somewhere and we were left behind.
And speaking of your car analogy (I'm just warmin' up here), how efficient would our society be if every two years cars were redesigned to use something new as fuel and have new controls that it took a long time to learn, etc. etc. so that if you wanted to drive as efficiently as you did in the past, you had a whole new learning curve? And new expenses?
I'm complaining as someone who has had to use computers at work for a lot more than wordprocessing for two decades now, and who teaches online. I don't like the way the industry forces people to become more and more computer-involved and less and less life-involved. We're separating out into Those Who Live Through a Terminal and Know the Computer World But Little Else, and Those Who Don't.
Having said all this, I guess that is the way of the world. But do I have to like it? Uh-uh, baby.
I spend a lot of time on the computer but like Kathy it's not because I'm infatuated with the computer itself.
Eventually, the public gets what it wants- consumer demand forces companies to change their policies and services. That's one great thing about an open marketplace: if one company doesn't provide a service that people want, you can bet some other will.
I'm just kind of surprised it's taking so long.
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