Can anyone be of help for my university research question?

zigjig

Beta member
Messages
5
I am doing a 3rd year project at college/University about the difficulties of computers.

I wanted to speak to people who feel like they only use them when they need to. Or don't use them at all (a bit of a contradicting question to ask). This could be for any reason e.g. a computer related injury, frustration when using them, lack of understanding when using them.....

Sorry if this was the wrong place to post this?
 
A computer forum is a bit of a strange place to ask this question, since most regulars here will be not just using computers but enjoying using them as a hobby!

Regardless, most people I know of (in the older generation particularly) that stay away from them do so because they find them confusing and / or aren't sure how to use them.
 
A computer forum is a bit of a strange place to ask this question, since most regulars here will be not just using computers but enjoying using them as a hobby!

Regardless, most people I know of (in the older generation particularly) that stay away from them do so because they find them confusing and / or aren't sure how to use them.

I'll expand on that by adding: Because they are confusing they are afraid of breaking them because they don't know what they are doing.
 
There's also people like myself, who used to be an enormous computer hobbyist (Check out some of my first big posts here on CF, I used to know the in's and outs of all the latest CPU's, Mobo's & GPU's to a tea! - my first dating back to 2005) ... But, as the rigours of working life and other pressures start to take their toll, I started to lose focus/interest etc on the subject. It's got to the point that now all I use the computer for is Word Processing and the internet. Anything else now frustrates me to death.

Don't get me wrong, when duty calls I can still build a beast and overclock it to the knifes edge (Latest being an I5 760 to 4GHz on air), but really for friends only now. I try to stay away from them as much as possible.

Even being on here, right now, I'm only passing through to see what's happening now and again :).

Chris.
 
Foreign terminology is also a big turn off. At a recent church members meeting, someone said a sentence that contained, for whatever reason, "you should have had an email from the webmaster telling you to do x y and z".

This was met with the following from an older member: "But how on earth can I look at it? No-one's told me who the webmaster is!"
 
I think most people that are reluctant to use computers is due to the simple reason that they do not understand them and are daunted by the seeming complexity of them. They do not know where to start or how to navigate to find files, programs and so forth. Usually once these same people are shown how to do these things in a patient calm manner they become avid users. Once they realize that most of it is basically repetition and that these patterns can be learned their fear of the unknown recedes. These same people then start to explore and suddenly it becomes fun. Usually they fear they will do something wrong and destroy an expensive piece of equipment, so do not attempt anything unitl someone shows them how to find the things they are looking for or how to do what they want to do.
My mother wouldn't touch a computer until I showed her how it was just a matter of learning how to navigate the file system. I then had to buy another computer as I could never get on mine after that;)
 
Back
Top Bottom