this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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Basically I have a lot of friends who self describe as bad at tech. It seems like a lot of learned helplessness and refusing to even listen to instructions because they've already told themselves they can't do it. But they would like to get better and do trust me. So I was trying to come up with some "tasks" to give them to help them gain confidence and to gain some basic skills as well.

I have zero qualifications in tech/computer stuff, and no professional background either, so I know that all this stuff can be self-taught.

I was thinking gaming-related stuff might be a good entry point: setting up a Minecraft server, installing mods for games, hacking your 3DS. These things boil down to following instructions so maybe it would help people learn that if you follow the documentation/guide you will get things done. It doesn't require much thinking or problem-solving, just following instructions.

Would like to hear what other people think and what "tasks" they suggest tech illiterate or tech-averse people try in order to build their confidence and gain some basic competence.

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[–] Achyu@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Maybe get them interested in some useful/simple automation/shortcuts stuff?

Bookmarklets? Easy to start.

I think the best option would be finding their uses/needs and tailoring the approach to that.

If they use excel/Libreoffice, maybe the Record macro option would be good? Or mail merge?
Teach them.about the quick access bar and some new shortcuts that would help them?

I think helping them with backing up settings and data would be a good thing too.
It'll be a good start, to get them to know the need and importance of backups. Backups could also make them more confident in trying out stuff. Like, knowing that they can come back to the backup if things go wrong.