Perplexing
Sep 16, 2004
I find it interesting that newbie web surfers can be so profoundly confused by the web, often acting as if they're as gullible as a six-year-old.
Dan Cederholm brought up the topic when a visitor of his, arriving via Google, assumed that he represented Skoal -- producer of chewing tobacco -- because the word "Skoal" is the title of a post of his. Nothing else on the page suggests that his webpage is affiliated with Skoal, it's about Dan's (then) upcoming visit to Sweden, and yet that single word on the page was enough for the confused visitor to leave him a comment about a trouble of his with Skoal's products. In English, mind you; the visitor left the comment in English -- the same language that, to any actively thinking individual, would reveal that the page in question has nothing what-so-ever to do with the company which goes by that name.
It's a picante subject, I know; because -- in the eyes of the casual observer -- what I'm doing here is basically calling every internet newbie a halfwit; insinuating that if you don't know how to use the web then you're a fool.
The usual acquittal being that the web is stupendously perplexing, and that, to someone uninitiated to the web, it would be quite bewildering; I'm sorry, but I just don't buy that.
I believe the reason, more often than not, is rather that computer inept people overestimate the capabilities of a computer. They expect to be able to just type a few words in the address bar and that will somehow show them the precise information they're looking for. They'll look at you quizzically when you tell them that the spelling has to be exact; that ebay.com is different from ebey.com.
And yet, they understand that dialing the correct phone number is required for the person you have in mind to answer your call. They expect the computer to understand them like their friends understand a spoken question.
Note that I'm not just talking about a person's maiden voyage on the web here, I'm talking about people who stay in this state of web-induced confusion for years of using the web. They exist, I've seen them.
I bet you too know someone who kind of fits this description, and that you're scurrying through these last paragraphs to jump to their defence; they're not stupid, you cry; computers are difficult. It's understandable, blaming it on the presumed overwhelming complexity of using a web browser says something about you, too; it says something about your own far-reaching intellect.
Whether using a web browser is difficult or not depends on how high we set the bar for the word "difficult". If having to think, actively, without being spoon fed explicit instructions, constitutes "difficult", then yes, it is. These perpetual web newbies are the same people who need labels on their coffee mugs alarming them to the fact that coffee tends to be hot, and that you shouldn't let your child play with the new blender.
But I'm sure they're nice people, just a little slow.
Comments
I know quite a few people like this. I'll excuse some because they didn't grow up with this technology. Some of them do learn fast after you showed them how to do it but other can't seem to learn. But to me the really 'slow' ones are the ones that did grow up with a computer in the neighbor but still don't get how to download a program or how to shop online.
I think people are too lazy to take their time and read the instructions that appear on the screen. They rather ask their 'geek' friends to do it rather then learn themselves.
Comment by Darice de Cuba at 21:01, 16 Sep, 2004 #
What bothers me is that my generation (mid-1980s to 1990)--despite being overwhelmingly tech-savvy--does have a fair share of these people.
People who don't understand how to use word processing software, what the address bar is, how to input a new URI.
I'm almost apalled when people don't know how to find what they're looking for online or change the typeface in Word. From a geekish point of view, they seem stupid.
And then what disturbs me more is that these people have computers in their homes, are going to grow up with computers, and eventually work with computers. They're going to live in an isolated world; everyone else will be competent and unwilling to help them.
Comment by Benjamin at 22:05, 16 Sep, 2004 #
I think that you're exactly right in that some people overestimate the capabilities of the web. There are three types of web users: those who know what they're doing, those who don't know what they're doing, and those who think they know what they're doing. Most problems come from the last group.
It's frustrating to write a weblog entry (or make a page or whatever) and have some user ignore the entire page with the exception of the title and the comment box. I didn't think it could happen to me.
Comment by Stephen at 22:15, 16 Sep, 2004 #
I couldn't have said it better, well, maybe a little better, but that was pretty good.
Comment by Justin Blanton at 22:39, 16 Sep, 2004 #
I liek SKOAL.
Mint skoal is the best dip evar. Skoal classic is sux! He is lucky he got mint!!!
Comment by Joo Suxx at 23:08, 16 Sep, 2004 #
I think it's muchly a case of "it normally works." Like, normally, entering a url into a search engine *will* get you to the site you're looking for. Quite often, the corporate website *is* the first result for a search on their brand name.
Unfortunately, people like this learn to rely on the "usually," which creates problems when the "unusual" pops up.
Comment by Matt Wilson at 02:57, 17 Sep, 2004 #
What really puts me in a dazed state is the blind acceptance of some people.
There seem to be conceptions of "the way things are." I've seen people at a public library where Internet Explorer crashes every five minutes. They just shrug and restart it, since "that's the way it works on the internet."
If a car broke down every five minutes there would be an outrage. But since it has to do with computers, it's widely accepted among the average users. Computers have a strange capability to make people blindly accept whatever it says.
That's a common joke on an IRC channel I hang around in: "YOU CAN'T LIE ON THE INTERNET!"
Comment by Johan Svensson at 03:11, 17 Sep, 2004 #
I was designing a web site for someone and they had told me I had to write explicit instructions on how to use links because the visitors to the site were universally older woman who didn't understand the concept that blue underlined words are links.
Comment by NeWaVe at 18:02, 17 Sep, 2004 #
My client list, unfortunately, is filled with them. Even worse, I no longer have either the energy or the inclination to guide them. The only saving grace is that a few of them actually trust my design sense.
Comment by Cheshire at 23:34, 17 Sep, 2004 #
It works both ways. While 'we' make fun of their inability to understand technology, 'they' mock our inability to talk to girls.
Comment by plank at 15:04, 20 Sep, 2004 #
Very spot on. In the video game realm, these people are called 'scrubs' because they refuse to accept responsibility for their actions yet they accept obviously pathetic excuses to support their lack of progress, or shift the blame onto the process itself.
Comment by Peter at 21:51, 23 Sep, 2004 #
The discussion has been closed on this entry. Thanks to everybody who participated.