# How did you learn to use a computer? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 17, 2017, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818 "2017-05-17T04:23:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/61 "2017-05-17T21:45:38Z")
I was twenty in 1957 when Univac donated a more-or-less obsolete Univac 1 to Penn. I was working in a lab and the operator (and mainly repairman) for a rather large analog computer that was programmed using long cables. But then the lab hired a couple of people to program the Univac to solve the enzyme reaction equations that my computer was doing. I got sort of interested and learned just a bit about digital programming. Fast forward 20 years and my department bought a Wang minicomputer that used BASIC as its OS. I learned a bit about it and wrote a few programs, nothing serious. Five years later I was cowriting a book with someone in Cleveland and mail was taking 2 weeks minimum. My coauthor had bought an Apple ][ and wondered if we could somehow communicate using his computer and a McGill computer. Then a colleague went on sabbatical and lent me a TTY machine and an acoustic modem. With the help of our computer centre we were able to exchange files and print them at our respective computer center/res. Then I had to give back the TTY so I finally bought one of those brand new IBM PCs with IBM-DOS that didn’t even have a version number, but was later called 1.0. I was 45 at the time and taught myself from then on. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/62 "2017-05-17T22:17:58Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > In my 50’s, first computer use was in school in the mid to late 1970’s. I should note, however, that this pre-dated the PC as we know it. Computer access was by a repurposed teletype machine that did everything in text or ASCII graphics, no screen, no CRT, and we used terminals that interacted with a big mainframe via telephone over a modem the size of a shoebox. If I recall, the “fast” speed was 400 baud, which is basically 400 bits per second. > > You _had_ to learn about basic programming because there were no off-the-shelf software packages. You had to type in any new programs you wanted to use, command by command. It was pretty primitive by today’s standards. Same same, that gave me the basics (pun intended). Then, later on I worked in a bank financial analyst operation where we were masters of paper spreadsheets and 10-key. We were early adopters of IBM PCs (no hard drive) and Lotus 1-2-3. Maybe from my earlier education, I found that I had a real knack for the PC and Lotus. The rest is history! As for the OP and youngsters not being computer literate, I see that with my family. Everyone assumes that kids just “get” computers. But more and more they are just using applications, so they don’t necessarily know any more than that about computers. Of course, they all know some kid at school who can hack into Bank of America (if they really wanted to) so they rely on that person for taking care of them if they have a need. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/63 "2017-05-17T22:41:44Z")
I’m 63. The library where I was working in the 1980s got a computer and sent me to classes to learn how to use it. It wasn’t long after that I got a home computer and taught myself as much as I could. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/64 "2017-05-17T23:51:03Z")
I’m 59 now. Back in 1996 I got promoted from working out in the shop to an office job in purchasing. We had some kind of computer that was not connected to the internet and the software was “Copyright 1980”. I learned how to use it pretty fast by trial and error and from co-workers. Then one day they brought in PCs for everyone, hooked them up and said “OK, there’s your computer, start computin’.” I was learning that the same way as the old computer and at about the same time my parents bought a PC, showed me how to use the internet and I bought my own almost immediately. Would have been around 1997 by then. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/65 "2017-05-18T01:07:53Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > 48 > > What does “learn how to use a computer” mean? It seems to me that there is very little overlap between what this meant when I started using computers in the early 80s and what it means today. Probably. I was a tyke in the early 1980s. If I saw a computer that decade there’s no way I would remember it. However the knowledge of using the (easy) GUI on a Macintosh has stuck with me. It’s only smartphones that have really changed the UI. To keep up, all I needed to do was update Windows every five to ten years and explore the computer. (For instance, Windows 7 has libraries that don’t perfectly match to the directories I was familiar with… so I’ve taken the directories I needed direct access to and made them shortcuts on my desktop. I don’t think this makes me some kind of “power-user”.) > [@](#): > > What are you considering as “computer-literate”? I suspect that computer use among kids is actually on the decline nowadays because much of what they used to use computers for is now taken over by smartphones and tablets (unless you want to say that such things actually count as computers—does your definition of “computer-literate” include “cellphone-literate”?). Yes. If you can search something on Google and watch a video on Netflix on a smartphone that would match “my” definition of “computer-literate”. > [@DPRK](#): > > I wonder how these computer-illiterate people would answer the question, “What is a computer?” > > Anyway, no one is born with that knowledge, not in 1950 and not now. Nor does owning a smartphone help even a bit. But stuff like knowing how to open an Amazon account or using the in-house software at the OP’s workplace has pretty much nothing to do with fundamental computer science. In what ways does their computer illiteracy manifest? I’m not expecting someone using a computer to know how to program a computer, much like I wouldn’t expect a car driver to know how to build or repair a car. (Such knowledge is helpful, of course, and I would hope they would at least know when a car needs maintenance.) These customers don’t save their usernames to the computer (so they tell me they can’t use the system since they forgot their username), and would rather rely on the far-less reliable mailing system to get information to us. I wondered if the way I had learned to use a computer was unusual, giving me an advantage compared to them (while leaving me unable to see how they were disadvantaged). The schooling I got wasn’t really better, it seems, but having a (cruddy) computer without an internet connection as a teenager apparently did give me an advantage, since I was able to teach myself some basics. I had a hard time believing people younger than me had fewer opportunities with a computer _at school_, but it seems nearly everyone learned their skills at home, so more modern schooling isn’t giving them much of an advantage. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/66 "2017-05-18T01:22:59Z")
> [@](#): > > About how old are you? > > How did you learn to use a computer? Was it through school or otherwise? I’m 40, and I learned how to use a computer at home when I was 6. The summer between when I was in kindergarten and first grade my mom decided that having a six-year-old and a newborn (just born in mid-June!) wasn’t enough of a challenge for her, so she went back to school. She wanted to get a degree in computer science, so she had to have a computer… therefore we got our first, also a Commodore VIC-20, because it met the minimum standards for her beginning coursework. She taught me how to use it in general over the course of the summer, and also how to program rudimentary things in Basic. Interestingly, even though I started school in the 80s, I don’t think I ever saw a computer at school, let alone used one there, until we moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire in 1987. I guess none of the three elementary schools I’d gone to before then, all in Lawrence, had the money for things like computers. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/67 "2017-05-18T01:54:41Z")
59, first experience was in H.S. in 1973 learning how to write programs in FORTRAN, doing the keypunching, mailing the keypunch cards off to the computer at the U. of Chicago to be run, and see how my program worked out. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/68 "2017-05-18T02:19:53Z")
I’m 56. I first used a computer (a Wang with a green screen and the 8 inch floppy discs) to run a genetics simulation for a class in college, about '82. In '84 I learned to use an Apple with two 5.25" floppies to run a grading program, and something called Bank Street Writer to compose tests for high school biology classes. I used that computer until '93 when I changed jobs. I had to teach myself how to use Microsoft Word then. I also figured out how to use the internet. I got paid to take a two-week summer course about 2000 to learn how to email attachments and other things, how to use other MS Office features, and set up a website (which I have never done, so it was promptly forgotten). The school district also started using a nifty grade book system and substitute teacher system, which was great. I’m retired, so I generally use my computer now to surf the internet, email occasionally, pay bills, and print out stuff if I have the need. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/69 "2017-05-18T02:56:13Z")
I was in Kindergarten in 1983. We had “library” as a class and I remember the librarian teaching us how to use computers to play games on floppy disks (the ones that were actually floppy). In 6th grade -89/90 “keyboarding” was a mandatory “elective” along with shop, home ec, and other stuff. It was mostly typing, but we used computers. So you had to at least know a few things about using them. In 8th grade I first remember going “online” and using email. In high school there were many classes that required using computers from time to time for research and writing papers. By the first time I went to college in the mid 90s, my mom had bought a computer - we never had much money so it was a huge deal when a basic one was around $3000, but I wouldn’t have my own for a few years. Still, at school the use of computers at the libraries was expected. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/70 "2017-05-18T03:01:16Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > I first used a computer (a Wang with a green screen and the 8 inch floppy Heh. Yes, my age is 10 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/71 "2017-05-18T03:17:51Z")
Dare I mention … IBM punch cards? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/72 "2017-05-18T03:25:15Z")
I learned by soldering every connection, plugging in every component, writing every program from nothing, then entering every program in binary. Sometimes drawing the circuit and etching the board. At least I didn’t have to invent the CPU. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/73 "2017-05-18T04:17:13Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > A friend of mine was recruited before finishing college to run the mainframes for one of the nation’s largest insurance companies due to his knowledge of legacy programming languages. He’s still there some 20 years later. > > He has no idea what’s in his home computer and I’d be surprised if he had ever performed a minor upgrade like adding memory to a home PC much less replacing a CPU or building a system. Do you think being able to modify hardware is necessary for being computer literate? Because I really don’t, and I doubt most people do. Building your own system is something hardcore computer gamers do; it seems much rarer among computer programmers and sysadmins. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/74 "2017-05-18T05:34:29Z")
Spitting distance of 53 and my parents sprung for a Commodore PET 4016 in '82. Taught myself BASIC and 6502 Assembler on it. First by just reading the code of the programs I had and then with the help of Compute! magazines. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/75 "2017-05-18T05:43:19Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Do you think being able to modify hardware is necessary for being computer literate? Because I really don’t, and I doubt most people do. No, and I didn’t say he was illiterate. I was agreeing with your statement that “computer literacy” can be rather compartmentalized. Same friend once had me come by because his Windows PC was running terribly and I did all the usual malware checks (loaded with it), defrag, etc. Said “Shouldn’t you be doing this?” and he said “I have no idea how to do that stuff”. Again, I don’t know if routine system maintenance counts as “literacy” but it was out of his sphere. All that said, the bar for “computer literacy” seems to be pretty low if we’re happy with knowing how to access your email and watch cat videos on YouTube. In terms of “literacy”, that feels like mastering a Dick & Jane primer and calling yourself literate. I don’t have a solid definition for “literacy” off the cuff but I would expect a proclaimed computer literate person to have a grasp on navigating through the OS’s basic setup options, file libraries, navigating basic standard program functions (File, View, Tools, etc), setting up peripherals and connecting to a network, basic troubleshooting and at least a rudimentary understanding of the hardware (no “I need more memory for Windows? But I have a 2TB hard drive!”). That’s a far higher bar than the OP sets though. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/76 "2017-05-18T06:01:57Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Dare I mention … IBM > punch cards? Had I taken my college Comp Sci class in 1984 instead of 1985, I would have been programming on punch cards; the school scrapped their punchcard system the year before I took the class. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/77 "2017-05-18T06:23:12Z")
Same here. I just missed using Punch cards by 2 years. Older students told stories of long lines waiting in the lab to get their cards run. I was very lucky to use a Vax VMS. The lab was quite modern for 1986. VT220 terminals. We had a full screen editor, EDT. Interactive Compilers and Linkers. You ran your DCL at the command prompt. No batch job submissions like students on older mainframes. We even had campus email on the Vax in 1986. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/78 "2017-05-18T06:29:35Z")
Our lab even had several DEC Rainbow PC’s. A odd PC that ran DOS or CPM depending on how it was booted. Had built-in VT100 terminal hardware emulation to connect to the Vax. Most of the Rainbows in the lab were used as terminals. One of my classes used DBase II for several projects. That was done on the Rainbows. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/79 "2017-05-18T07:45:29Z")
I’m 38. My dad sold computers in the 70s before I was even born. Computers were always around our house in some form or another. Instructions were never formal, rarely even “here’s how you get it to do _x_.” I just kind of absorbed it. We kids had a Commodore 64 that we mostly figured out on our own,8,1. The family computer ranged from some DOS thing with an orange on black screen to 286/386/486 running pre- and post-Windows 3.1. At school, starting in junior high, I used Apple machines, including LAN type stuff. I learned to type on an electric typewriter first before using word processors (starting without wysiwyg). Spreadsheets was through osmosis and some later help on Excel from my dad. In college I learned some complicated visual graphics programs in dedicated classes. Computers seem pretty easy to me. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818/80 "2017-05-18T09:36:45Z")
I’m 31. When I was a kid my dad let me use his computer to play games and use what I guess would be called interactive “edu-tainment” CD-ROMs about dinosaurs, space, and biology. I was probably the last generation where kids regularly turned in school papers written on typewriters. I can’t remember when the schools installed computer labs, maybe fourth or fifth grade. They taught kids how to type and use word processors and spreadsheets but I mostly just remember everyone playing Oregon Trail or drawing horrible pictures in Paint. Later on in middle and high school they taught us how to use the internet and find proper sources. I also went to the public library a lot as a kid and used the computers to search for books, which was handy since it would search other libraries in the system too. Must’ve been a pain in the past since you’d have to visit every library, or call them all one by one I guess. My first computer all to my own was a Pentium 90, good enough to play the original StarCraft. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-to-use-a-computer/786818.md?page=5)