Ask Lemmy

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.

Not exploring the Settings menu of a new device. That should be the first thing you do when you first power on a new device. Most people just go with whatever the default settings are. Hell, some have never even seen their settings menu beyond the wifi connection.

"XYZ company already has all my data so I don't care that they're spying on me and selling my data to advertisers"

Fucking makes my blood boil. These people have absolutely zero critical thinking skills, or self respect

People need to learn innovation is not always progress, and that some paths forward are dead ends.

Being completely uncritical of it. This ties into being unwilling to learn, if they're introduced to word processors via MS Word, many people are completely unwilling to move to something else like LibreOffice Writer, even if it's not actually that different.

Back to the first sentence, too many people just aren't willing to consider the ramifications of living in a walled garden made and maintained by foreign far-right groups, or if they are generally aware and critical of it, it usually still not enough to actually do something against it. That includes people who are generally tech savy, most of my millenial-or-younger friends and relatives aren't on Signal, including one who is a software developer and vocally critical of Trump and US tech companies. Meanwhile my parents and grandparents have no issue using Signal.

And what makes so many people so willing to look at ads? I know way too many people who could easily use adblockers if they wanted, but just don't.

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.

The idea that people are available 24/7.

My sister works in tech and it's concerning to me how much she believes all the hype from tech startups. Sometimes i wonder if she is serious and sometimes it is painfully obvious she is.

I remember one time she urging me to use this app that 'translated cat meows.' the concept sounded just silly to me but I induldged her by recording and "translating" the meows of her cat that i had been taking care of for a couple of years. The interpreted cat meows according to the app revealed that the cat supposedly loves me, and i' m her favorite and she is sad when i am not around. (which is standard cat behavior if you treat them well and especially for this cat that is very caring and social.

My sister reacted like she was jealous, not only believing everything the app translated but also feeling like i displaced her as her cat's favorite human. The whole experience was surreal.

Totally. There's old duffers at work that struggle to open a word doc, but are strangely adept at Navigating Facebook...

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.

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.

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.

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.

“Computer illiterate” isn’t silly and funny to say anymore. Computers have been around since the 80s. Get with the program. Oh and doing a quick Google search yourself can solve a good 70-80% of issues. Stop calling the help desk immediately.

I would love to see a majority of people stop considering 'new tech' as the magical wand/solution to all their problems, and see them stop considering 'new tech' as a necessity in their lives. Whatever their age.

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.

Beware of that kind of shortcuts, they often can be very wrong.

Also, do you think old people not wanting to use whatever new app or service is more of an issue than younger people not be willing to not use same app or service?

I don't know, but my view of technology being awesome and wonderful and the way to a better future has died, and that makes me sad

I'll try to answer the question. How about this worry so many people have that technology facilitating any level of privacy is only going to be used for evil purposes. Even non technology cases. "Why aren't you putting your real name and hometown?" Because it's not relevant to this situation and nobody's business! "Why are you refusing to be in this cute video we're making for the company social media presence?" Because I don't want my picture out there for everyone to see, and to be able to extrapolate where I live and who I work for

I think I got our company social media person to actually think I might have been serious when I eventually started saying I was under some kind of witness protection just to get out of it without having the same battle every time

I'm still awaiting the moment someone finally has a reason to legally insist on looking into my background or whatever after the whole "what shady activity or history are you hiding, always wanting your privacy and refusing to volunteer information about yourself" only to find I'm completely clean. No criminal record, no suspicious affiliations (unless Lemmy counts, hah), nothing incriminating. I've lived an extremely boring life. I just value my privacy

I fucking hate that word 'Innovation'. It is spammed by corporatebros who think their shit doesn't smell.

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.

Generative algorithms, and the people intent on replacing artists with them.

Also everyone labeling and/or peddling these things as "Artificial Intelligence".

Also all of the corporations trying to shoehorn them into every product and service and ram them down user's throats.

Also every user that patronizes these things voluntarily.

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.

If you’re entering or exiting the tram, heads the fuck up.

I think we're coming to the end of a 50 year cycle of rapid technological improvement that's been a parasitic host for capitalistic predilections. Shareholders ride tech companies hard and put them away wet, fucking over workers and squeezing consumers in the process. Innovative and awesome companies end up getting subsumed into a shit whirlpool where the product gets worse, more expensive, and steals your data. So I guess the people in my example are the tech investors and MBAs feeding them, and their abuse of tech is what needs to die.

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 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.

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.