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As children, we learn from adults. The dawn of the computer age brought a lot of change and reversed that role for many of us. Since I make a living off software and writing about software, I am a welcome guest in the homes of many elderly PC users. That's usually not a problem, they have taught me about the world some 30 years ago so I should gladly return the favor in today's world of computers. I should ...
But there are two mysterious phenomena that remain inexplicable to me. Two whimsical conditions that keep intelligent human beings from sending off an email or burning a CD...
Peter E. stared at his screen in disbelief, visibly scared by Microsoft Outlook 2010. "How can I send my message now?". He had taught children orthography for more than 30 years, rode his bike all the way up to the Atlantic, repaired vacuum cleaners and radios for his relatives and now he was at his wit's end. I switched into "you can do it" mode and asked him kindly to take his time and look at the available options. As minutes went by, I knew that I was facing the first phenomenon - the sudden inability to read. Once your eyes and mouse pointer start wandering across the screen aimlessly, this state of mind is all too easily reached, a sort of nirvana without the Buddhism part. It might be worth checking whether this may come in handy for hypnotherapy sessions or as a sedative because those affected appear totally gone.
Peter had this sense of calmness about him. After a while, I said "On the top left", he awoke from his fixedness and carefully took aim with his mouse pointer. When he got to "New E-Mail Message" he stopped. And then - nothing. No click. This is the second phenomenon, fear of destroying your PC with a single click. Another unfathomable mystery.
Taking a sober view, I can see some programmer built in a button and it appears rather unlikely that it will instantly shred your PC! And yet I can see the fear of hitting an unknown control in his eyes even when it is perfectly obvious what it does. How is this possible? Are people afraid a click will expose naughty images and send them to their relatives? Unlikely, it is simply fear of the unknown, fear of unexpected consequences and fear of failure with keyboard and mouse.
To get around this, my "students" like to rely on pen and paper to carefully write down a step-by-step solution. This may work to some degree, but it is ultimately analogous to sticking a load of post-its to the dashboard in your car explaining how to hit the brake and clutch while holding on to the steering wheel. It prevents you from getting the broader picture. To grasp the logic behind it, you have to read, observe and practice.
I once explained the intricacies of Ashampoo Burning Studio to a senior executive of a large German company in a sales pitch. I was prepared for the worst and had a speech ready for every possible occasion but in the end, I had to do very little talking. He just read and clicked! Without hesitation, he tried out the various features, went back and forth, looked at previews and burned a disc with a broad grin on his face. He had never seen the program and was no computer scientist - he was simply curious and brave. That's exactly the key to getting to grips with a new piece of software. And don't think for a second that I use a different strategy! Even after 25 years of PC work, I still employ the old trial and error approach. The more applications you get to know, the more parallels you will recognize and the faster you will get going with new programs.
Your PC is a playground, not a prison! Good software is intuitive and displays features in a clear, logical fashion. Have fun with it, click your way through your applications and discover their available settings. You will be surprised by how many possibilities will open up to you and feel at home very quickly. As kids, nature gave us all the tools we need: Curiosity, a lust for experiments and a good dose of trust that nothing disastrous will happen.
I tell my customers (especially the older ones!) that they CAN NOT break the computer so bad that I can't fix it!! But I still get phone calls at all hours of the day and night wanting to know if it's alright to "click this" or "connect to that"!! Of course, I tell them that I'd rather answer a question than fix a computer but still.....<GRIN>
What a Great Article ! Every "baby boomer" should read this article. Every Senior that has the desire to learn computers, "should read this article"
At the ripe old age of 74, after 34 years experience supporting all aspects of personal computers, both hardware and software, I agree that many people have a distrust of doing anything which they haven't done before. As a result of this experience, I can assure you that one of the reasons for their concern lies in your last sentence: "a good dose of trust that nothing disastrous will happen."
I know there is no problem and you know there is no problem when someone presses 'Enter', but you clearly haven't witnessed people - including the not-so-elderly - miss-hitting the 'Enter' button and pressing the 'Delete' button which is situated so conveniently adjacent to either right or left, depending on which 'Enter' button you are aiming for. At that point panic sets in. Sometimes rightly so, as I can attest. If the unfortunate person pressed the wrong key at an early stage in their experience with a computer, then it is entirely understandable that they will regard any instruction which they have not previously carried out, with a degree of concern which borders on paranoia.
Why? Because they believe their trust has been sadly misplaced! You can't necessarily blame them. After all, there's an old saying: "If it can go wrong, it WILL go wrong". With computers it often does!
Of course there is no "self destruct" button on your computer, but the fear for sending an E-mail message for instance is (at least in my case) not knowing who is going to read it! People are ( I think) not so much afraid of computers as of the Internet...A school teacher, telling children that they should be careful not to talk to strangers will accomplish more than one result: some children will be afraid of everyone they do not know, some will say hello to every stranger they meet and some will react as the teacher has meant...People react differently to news and there is a lot of news about "hackers" (this is of course not the right word, because hackers built and do not destroy!) so people get affraid.
Just know that using your cell phone is a lot more dangerous than using your computer (just be sure to use good passwords (I recommend a password manager) and some decent antivirus programm ( I myself am using Ashampoo Anti Virus after trying others and since then had no noticable problems any more!), but what I am trying to say here is that computers are NOT dangerous and there is a lot of really good software out there, so don't be afraid..just be careful!
I'm 71, started with Dos 5 orso ,can't remember now - oops?? Always said to a good friend of mine -"It's a mechanical thing that's all and it can't hurt you - back up regularly what you need saved and if it gets so unworkable or so slow and God forbid you can't fix it - hit the magical "FORMAT" key - reload your backup and away you go again. A small glitch in life and everything just rolls off your fingertips to a faster, really clean machine, ready to do your bidding, just like before.
Oh so true, if only some people would listen to this advise. It will not break.
Very comforting for one of the older ones.
I taught myself to use a computer by clicking on everything to see what would happen, if I tried to do something wrong I always got a message asking "do you really want to do this", clicked "no" and went back to the previous screen and learned what to do. I did this with Windows 95, 98 and XP, so was not intimidated by Vista, 7 or 8 and I am looking forward to 10. Not bad someone who will shortly have their 84th birthday.
Mainly I agree with you, but, 3/4 weeks ago I switched off my desktop, and next day The screen read "Missing operating system". Amidst great panic it took me 2 hours to replace the system and replace my files via external hard drive. I didn't know then what caused this and I still don't. I might add that though I am 80 years old, I started using Windows 3/95/98/ Xp and now 7, and I have attended and passed all the Clait courses Etc..I also use Photoshop regularly. But I still sometimes wonder if there is such a button as you describe . Enjoyed your blog best wishes Barrie Grant
As I've always found Ashampoo to be very reliable with all the software I have ever downloaded, I was intrigued by this article. It was humorous, informative and highly believable. Thank you Ashampoo for all your hard work.
Colin Crockett
My biggest safeguard is 'back up your main operating system frequently so that you can go back into a safe area if and when disaster does happen'
It is not always that easy. Live mail merely says "Email message" and does not reveal this means create a new email message until you "hover" over it. In DOS you could do a great deal of harm with the del and format commands.Even when you know how to use one word processor, the commands can be difficult to find when they change the name and there are many pull down menues.
While I agree with the author's comments, the world is not all that free and easy. Clicking (selecting) an "inappropriate to the cause' icon or button can erase data, corrupt files, critical Windows settings, et.al. It's a bit like to driving a car and we all know what a bad decisions can bring about.
So, explore but pay attention to what you're doing. If you arrive at an unfamiliar junction, open another window and search on-line for the name of the button, program running, etc. Quite often, it will bring a deeper understanding of the environment, better selections and more fluent operation.
Great - I live in a retirement village and am often called on for help with PCs.
I am printing several copies to hand out to all the folk that keep asking for help on things we've done before, which they assiduously wrote down but are once again lost...........
Awesome article! I appreciate your brevity. Well done.
What are you on about?
I bought my first computer early in 2003, a couple of months after my 45th birthday. I had almost zero experience of computers and I set about discovering what it could do in very much the manner you describe, trepidatious as to the consequences of my actions.
A few years later I saw an episode of the TV show Grumpy Old Men, on which John Peel spoke of his own tentative approach to his computer and the contrasting way his kids would fearlessly rattle away on the keys. Then, if they didn't get the desired result, they would simply rattle away at something else.
As he told how he held this terror of doing the machine some form of damage, I realized that I had been suffering from the same needless worry. In common, I suspect, with many of my generation and those even older, I thought of the computer as something mechanical and fragile. Like the train sets of my youth or somesuch. Mistreatment would lead to costly repairs.
Since this epiphany I have discovered that even the worst case scenario merely involves pulling the plug from the wall and waiting for the computer to rejig its settings on reboot.
Moss and Roy were correct. It really is all about switching it off and switching it back on again. Computers are a surprisingly hardy breed.
What you say is absolutely right. I meet it all the time. Somewhere on every computer there's a button that will delete all the files/start a nuclear war (take your choice), but 'they' just won't tell you which one. 'They' being Microsoft as often as not.
More specifically, programmers do need to take great care with the labelling of buttons. The example you quote 'New E-mail Message' may not be specific enough. Should it be 'Create New E-mail Message'? Too long? Try 'Create E-mail Message'. Or put a title on the button which gives a fuller explanation when hovered.
Excellent article!
All you say is true. I am 63 years old,and approx 25 years ago at work, we had a new computer,and my boss said to me, play with this and see what happens. I did and learnt to love computers, i now have an i7 comp, and love playing on it every day.
Trite as it appears "TO BOLDLY GO...." is what drives us as humans. Of course there are some who are not of that frame of mind and as we get older we prefer to keep our hold on our vision of reality and the safe ground we know.
I always told those I taught that you couldn't harm a computer by pushing the buttons but to take notice if it asked are you sure?
I have number of ...poo's software and find it mostly intuitive but I still do a quick check that I have done all the steps before committing to press the go...
I see some of my friends within your description.
They are afraid of hitting the "Wrong" button.
Ah Sven
A very interesting approach but, I sense a pre-disposition to the belief that us oldies are less than computer savvy and a bit scared of the unknown.
In some cases you may be right but, just remember that computers were around certainly by the early seventies.
Not, of course, the ubiquitous desk top but, Main frame and industrial computers certainly were. In 1974 I was trained as a computer hardware specialist on 16 bit and 32 bit Honeywell systems. I was pushing 40 then, I am 80 now and in that time I have been closely associated with computers as they developed
I have never considered myself an expert and I am certainly better at hardware than modern software but, to your credit,
I still hesitate to push that button. Not because of any fear of the unknown, but more because, my experience tells me that if I push that button without a clear expectation, I may have a very sorry mess to clean up. That is a function of modern poorly written software. Not fear of the unknown.
I think you should make that point more clear to your readers.
Keep up the good work though.
Bob
Good clearly explained article. Im no expert myself but I have been telling (older people) that for years now "you cannot break it", "it will not explode on you" . The worst that can happen is your PC will "freeze" , this can be fixed by a simple restart
Great to read this, a few years ago I was a teacher . Childeren the age 12 to 14 taught me how to use the PC. Yust do it ,they said.
And it's true , we can learn a lot by trial and error.