Computer People
In the early days of the Internet's slow invasion into education, I often dealt with teachers frustrated by the ever increasing technological requirements of the job. Faced with a new student information system or using a network instead of a local printer I often heard the refrain "I am not a computer person." Before smart phones and widely available broadband and cheap laptops, there really were computer people. hobbyists and early adopters mostly. We ended up in jobs that used our newfound skills and were tasked with bringing the rest of the work force along with us.
These days, the Internet is ubiquitous. Go to a friend's house and search for their Wi-Fi network and your phone or laptop will probably see a list of 20 or more from surrounding houses. We gave our grandson an old iPad today. He's a rising sixth grader. Not only did he know his Apple ID and password, he also figured out how to open a Google account with no help from his Nana or me. He knows the difference between a lightening cable and USB-C and can program a Smart TV faster than I can.
I posted today about making my Dad a YouTube playlist to watch while he recovers from surgery. Several people remarked how their senior parents are still averse to technology. Dad hit his zenith with DOS 5.0, I think. He's still using a version of MS Word that saves files as .doc, but he did opt for an iPhone (still using a v6) a second-generation iPad and the original Apple Watch. He's got plenty of dough to upgrade but can't be arsed. Still, as seniors go, he's pretty good with tech and always curious. He has a bookkeeping system of his own design using Quicken and various spreadsheets. He figures stuff out on his own. I don't remember him ever asking me for help with a single tech problem, even though I would be glad to assist.
Our database administrator and programmer at work is a woman older than me who works in a silo because there's no one else at the university with her skillset to give her any help. She told me that when she works some SQL voodoo magic to get a particularly complex query to work, she has to call a former colleague to celebrate because none of the rest of us even have the context to understand her genius. She has a great back story, where, like me, she decided she enjoyed tech and wanted to make it a career, only she chose programming which required her to get formal education. Today she has a master's degree in CS, and no one messes with her because the place would fall apart without her. Getting to work with her is a bright spot in my day.
Thankfully, computers have been around long enough and a requirement in most jobs that the days of people giving up before even trying are gone for the most part. I did have a lady this week who called because her computer would not come on. When she was asked to make sure it was plugged in, she refused, on the grounds she didn't know what the power cord looked like. I had to go to the other side of campus and, sure enough, plug the power cord into her laptop. That's pretty rare and the sign of a character defect more than anything else. Don't be like her.
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