Making the masses more computer literate.

[glaston]

Now back to your original post, what is going to be your decision on your family and friends when it comes to free thinking help? Ya gonna stay uptight or put them in their place. Just curious.

I'm gonna take it on a case by case basis, and be a smart ass about it.
Demand refreshments constantly.

As Clint Eastwood would say in his role as Dirty Harry " A man has to know his limitations. "

The Dirty Harry character is created so that the average Joe can connect with the character.
However, Clint Eastwood doesn't know any limitations.
He directs, stars in, does the music, catering, editing, and special effects in his films.

[jayd512]

As Clint Eastwood would say in his role as Dirty Harry " A man has to know his limitations. "

Well said, Lucky! After all, even though a man can learn a multitude of trades and skills in life, there are some things that one individual mind can't get to. Mine is engines (as I said, I have no desire to learn), another is History. And that does hold some interest for me. But I have no grasp of historical dates and places... much less the names that are associated with those dates/places!
And for me, acknowledging that allowed me to move on to what I can learn.

[glaston]

I think my post count is stuck at 35.
What could I have done to bring this much hell down on me?

[elija]

Lounge posts don't get counted in the total...

I find it interesting how the definition of computer literacy has changed over the years.

When I was growing up (I'm in my 40's) and I'm sure those of my age and older can relate to this, being computer literate meant being a computer programmer and information miner. This I think was mainly due to us having these wonderful tools and no real idea what could be done with them. That and your average science fiction story

Now-a-days computer literacy means many different things. For instance, I can look after and generally use my system, configure and run web and file servers and I can program in a variety of languages. Does this make me computer literate? yes it does, but I have never compiled a kernel in my life and frankly the idea of doing so scares me. I don't need to do it, the kernel I have works just fine.

To answer the original poster; the only way to make the masses more computer literate is to make them sort out their own messes. Provide assistance and advice by all means, but stop fixing the whole mess. Either that or start fixing the mess for a living and then you will be grateful for the computer illiterate

[questio verum]

I think my post count is stuck at 35.
What could I have done to bring this much hell down on me?

As Elija said, Coffee Lounge posts don't count toward your total. I kinda like that. I've been posting here for almost 16 months, yet I've "Just Joined". Too bad that couldn't be applied in real life... "Yeah, I've been around the world 3,217 times, I've cured cancer, I've bedded 1.6 million beautiful and skilled partners, I speak 187 languages -including machine, I've sampled the cuisine in every internationally recognized region of the world, I've realized the man-machine connection by offering up my own body as source, my accomplishments in molecular biology are recognized in every civilized sector of the universe, and oh yeah... I was "Just Born"

qv