How technologically inept are you?

[Madd_Maxx]

I’m so good with technology our IT guy calls me genius-boy. It isn’t like I grew up with it, I didn’t even get my first computer until I was almost 20. I just can.

Ask me to do something artistic, however, and I’ll be drawing stick figures and coloring outside the lines.

[divemaster]

I bought a digital camera for my wife and it sat around for a few months until her son could come and figure it out. Oh, sure I could turn it on, point it at something and click the button, but I had no interest in making it my new project to go through all the buttons and icons. And I’m still not sure how I’m supposed to get a picture in my hand that looks like a real photo and not a picture that comes out of a printer. I guess I need to take the chip to a photomat or something.

I just bought a house and there are some pretty new-fangled appliances. Again, the stepson will come in useful. I’m going to hand him the manuals and tell him to figure it out and give me the highlights. I’m smart enough to read through such things and figure them out, I just have no interest in investing the time.

I am pretty good with setting up the entertainment system and surround-sound but I have not kept up with the new technology much. 1080i vs. 1080p? Upconversion? I only have a nebulous understanding. But since I really get into movies and home theater at least the interest is there. I’ll tackle these manuals and set-ups myself.

I also do not carry a cell phone and on the occassions I have to use one I’m pretty lost for anything beyond the simplist functions. Now I see people flipping things sideways and typing messages and such.

But I still want my phone for the simple purpose of making phone calls. I’m perfectly willing to jot down messages on pieces of paper, keep phone numbers in a phone book, and forego surfing the web until I get near a computer.

This is me also. I still have a real address book for phone numbers, I still pay most bills by check, and I can wait until I get home to make a phone call or do internet. Never in my life have I gotten the sudden urge to “text” somebody.

I am quite adept at purchasing off the internet with credit cards and such and I can access my bank accounts on-line, it’s just that there’s something so satisfying about paying bills by check and balancing my checkbook every month by hand using paper statements.

Far too often it seems as tho devices are designed backwards. They come out of the box configured to do as many tings imaginable. Which I believe is confusing for the least sophisticated user. The lowest level user often needs to learn how to disable functions they do not wish to use and that distract/confuse them. Instead, I suggest it would be preferable for a system to initially be set up to satisfy the barebones needs of the lowest level user, with the ability of having additional functions unlocked by anyone depending on their needs/interests/ability.

This quote wins the thread.

[GuanoLad]

If I am given time to learn something, I am pretty good with technology. I learn the quirks, and tricks, and a few of the shortcuts, and then I’m fairly fluent.

But if something new is thrust into my hands, and I’m asked to use some feature immediately, I get totally lost and flustered.

I don’t have a mobile phone, and when I have to use somebody else’s I look at the incomprehensible array of buttons, half of which don’t seem to be even necessary, and stare at them completely mystified. Which button is for answering? What is the “R” for? And how am I expected to do anything if the screen is blinking “Keypad Locked”?

[kelly5078]

Shoeless and I are apparently identical twins.

[Angel_of_the_Lord]

I’m pretty good. Cell phones don’t present any kind of problem, and my Blackberry was fun to figure out! When I took the aptitude tests at a temp agency straight out of college, I got 92% on Microsoft Access. Nevermind that I’d learned Microsoft Access was a program about half an hour earlier. I’m not mechanically inclined, but I can probably replace anything in my computer if given instructions.

My ability to code is pretty limited. I figured out HTML (and the hex colors, incidentally) by experimenting with the source code for a couple of websites back in 1997, when I was 14. Same with Javascript, though to a lesser extent. Anything else, though, and my eyes just glaze over. I’m sure I could figure it out, but it’s boring. I used to make programs for my TI-83 calculator, though (yay, Blackjack!).

I’m also very, very good at finding what I need on Google. This means that, if I don’t know how to do something, I can still figure out how to do it if need to.

That being said. . .troubleshooting? Especially when it’s something really wrong? I suck at that. Like, truly, majorly suck. Recently, my OS got utterly corrupted or something. My computer wouldn’t boot into Windows. That. Sucked. For me, the line between “oh, this is annoying, but I can figure it out,” and “. . .can I just beat on the fucker with a rock until it works again?!” is very, very thin.

Also. . .TVs. Seriously. I mean, I can figure them out, but I don’t want to have to. Fortunately, I almost never watch TV anymore, so. . .not my problem :D.

I’m not mechanically inclined. Changing out bits in my computer is fine, but electronic repair is beyond me.

I’m a whiz at figuring out how to use new applications and UIs. I honestly think, however, that that’s just because of my age, how I was raised, and the fact that I’m normally a pretty quick study. Computer menus just make sense to me. I’m good at learning and using shortcuts and key combinations.

Also? I follow directions. Seriously. Almost every truly crappy horror story I’ve heard about repairs not working? Most of the time, the people in them didn’t follow the directions, or didn’t read them carefully enough. I read them multiple times. I make sure I understand each step and substep before I do it. If I can’t find directions immediately, I find them with Google. There are times when experimentation is fun and valuable. Those times do not involve my expensive magic boxes.