Tom Battey - Journal

The Computer Illiterate

I forget that there are people in the world who still don't know how to use a computer.  Okay, not the world, I'd figured Facebook probably hasn't made it to the poorer parts of, say, Africa yet, but I figured that in our sexy interwebbed bit of society at least, everyone would at least have a basic understanding of how a computer works.

Turns not everyone does.  Certainly not everyone down the public library.  And this is completely unsurprising when you actually think about it.  I imagine that most people don't have much need of a computer, so why should they automatically know how to use one?

But this is still baffling for me as I'm part of a generation of people that might as well have an ethernet port built into the backs of their necks.  It's a little strange to think of people not spending roughly 50% of their time connected to the internet through some device or other.  What do these people do all day?  Well, they probably have real jobs, and families, and other things that leave them little time for blog-writing and similar internet time-wastery.

I salute you, the computer illiterate.  Obviously, by your very definition, you won't ever read this, but I'd like to take the oportunity to congratulate you on having better things to do than stare at a screen all day.  Good job.  Also, it's properly funny when you don't know which way up a mouse goes.