Friday fun discussion: How much of a computer person are you?

Computers. They've pretty much already taken over our lives. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, for the most part. Although cases are easily brought up where a bit of havoc was wreaked when they didn't behave as expected.

But again, for better or worse, they're here, and here to stay. So living with them effectively is the only way to go now.

To that end, how much of a "computer person" would you consider yourself to be, as you live day-to-day in the our modern cyberworld ? For example, which box in the above survey would you check? (Go ahead and check it now!).

Do you feel at ease with these amazing machines being almost everywhere now? Would you like to see more of them in our lives? Fewer?

How do people in general feel about this question? Well, of course there are lots and lots of articles out there that address this question, but, and maybe this isn't so surprising, there are indeed a lot of articles on the subject of how well older people feel about computers.

Does that constitute ageism? To assume that somehow just because a person is past a certain age, that he or she is automatically in an anxious or less capable state regarding the learning and using of computers?

Since most of is here are likely in middle age or older, the question is relevant for us. But even a little reading, such as I did on the subject, points to a recurrent answer: it depends far more on the individual person's ability and experience than it does on his or her chronological age.

But here are some interesting facts I did learn about older (60+) computer users from a sampling of articles about them:

"In 2000, 14% of the (elder) group were Internet users; now 73% are."

" ... about half (53%) of people 65 and older are smartphone owners."

" ... digital developers want very much to market their platforms and tools to this (older) age group (because of the size of the market)."

" ... Seniors would like to see more easy to understand “How To” and “Getting Started” manuals that come with devices. Most times, technology comes with instructions using the terminology that they don’t understand.

A controversial claim:

"What companies need to understand is today’s tech is built by younger generations, for younger generations. Older adults are not considered in the design."

Really?

And some thoughts that may not have occurred to us, assuming they're even true:

"And as people grow older, the reaction time slows down. It’s why many struggle with touch screens on iPads and iPhones. Blood circulation also plays a factor when using touch screen devices, as their touch may not register. Also when older individuals with tremor disorders use touch screens, it registers as a swipe and not a push."

OTOH, there are also articles claiming that older men who are active computer users experience significantly less onset of dementia in their later years:

https://www.theregister.com/2012/09/05/computers_ward_off_dementia/

"Men who use computers as they enter their winter years have a better chance of avoiding dementia than those who don't."

“ ... dementia for computer non-users and users was 13.3 per 1000 persons per year. Incidence of dementia among computer users was 40% lower."

I know, I know, correlation doesn't equal causality, but if we're active keyboard tappers, that's still likely to be a good thing.

And yet, the best short answer to the question raised in the thread title is arguably, and simply:

I'm a "computer person" as much as I need to be. What I am doing is enough for me.

And that probably really is enough for most of us.

But if you would like to post below and say just how much a "computer person" you think you are, or aren't, (and check the appropriate survey box above as well), feel free.

Me? I consider myself to be a "somewhat informed amateur" (I checked the "so-so" box in my own survey). But I know we have some guys here who are pretty good at computers, pro level, and I invite them to step forward and acknowledge that as well.

But, hey, since it's Friday, let's also end on an upbeat note with some "computer person" jokes (some of them are pretty funny, too!):

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=%22computer+person%22+jokes&qpvt=%22computer+person%22+jokes&form=igre&first=1&tsc=imagebasichover

Well,
Home computers have been around quite a while. I was still a young man in my late twenties when I got my first one with a university discount where I worked. It was an Epson with a 20 megabyte hard drive and two floppy slots. The processor was and 8086? Lol. This was way before the internet, so I mainly used mine for a golf game and a Chuck Yeager flight simulator.

I've kept up with things to be good enough for my needs.

81:
Another great thread. I checked "1" but 1 1/2 would be a better choice. I do run anti-virus software regularly. I do upgrades manually and backup manually (I use Macrium Reflect Free) once a month (always just before doing the upgrades as I have had upgrades trash my computer in the past and it took 10 minutes to fully restore from a backup). But bottom line is a know enough to know what I don't know... and I don't know A LOT!!

Mel

So, is the IPad I am on a computer? In the early 70s I took a computer class where I learned that garbage in was garbage out. That is all I learned. The computer was huge and in another room. We learned how to use punch cards. I think by the end of the course I learned how to store my name, address and phone number. LOL.
I am more an electronics guy having built my own 24 inch console TV from the Devry Institute of Technology while in the Air Force. My test to check my aptitude was which one of these objects uses a battery. A fridge or a flashlight? I got it right so electronic technician was my calling. However, I trained to be a gunner on a B52 nuclear bomber and was sent to Marquette Michigan. That is where we practiced blowing up Russia at the end of the Viet Nam war. So what was the question? Oh, what’s a computer?????? I still don’t know. My best to all,
Jack

I started programming computers in high school. The best job I ever had was the 18 months I spent writing games in Assembly code for the Mattel Intellivision until Mattel Electronics went out of business. I was one of the "Blue Sky Rangers".

Yeppers..... IBM XT with an 8086/8088 processor in the early '80s. My first successful upgrade was adding a 3 1/2 inch floppy to go with the 5 1/4 floppy... Some of the newer software started to only come out on 3½ floppies. Since I was the inhouse IT guy, I order myself an Amber (orange) monitor instead of the ever so popular Green monitor. No wonder I'm blind now... Those 12 INCH screen were brutal.

Technically I started on an Apple III. It didn't have a hard drive. I learned how to use a spreadsheet called VisiCalc. During budget season, I used to have to drive down to Corporate and uses a ladies Apple III. She had two floppy drives that allowed us to run the Advanced version of VisiCalc.

Fast forward to the end of the '90s and I discovered the world of OnLine Community Forums. In my hay day, I posted on and or moderated 27 different sites... I'm down to 16 sites now that I administer and still getting a monthly check.

Even though I built a couple dozen computers from scratch, I was like a red headed stepchild around my peers. I referred to order computers from Dell.

I am feeling old in regard to computers. The 1960's IBM 1620 did not even know how to add or multiply as I recall. Tables had to be loaded up. It was all machine language programming and the first program was to read instruction in chunks, ## ##### ####, instead of a continuous string of numbers. Using two letters for the first 2 digits was an improvement One of the first projects was to write a routine to find the square root of a number. The Commodore 64 was about the 4th computer I worked on. If you know how it all began and stay up with things over the last 50 years, it is relatively easy to figure out the newer computers and OS's.

From a 'beginners' computer class:
Punching cards and taking them to the computer center and finding out that my program didn't run wasn't much fun. A little later the class had to write a (very simple) program in machine code which was kind of mind altering, without the drugs.

Oh my! How impressive! Right here within our own relatively small group of HWPC posters, we have such a wealth of talented and experienced computer people!

I think it can be argued that every age of humanity has had its own band of adventurer-explorers, individuals who rejected ordinary lives, and who ventured forth to make discoveries, or do or invent marvelous things, to the amazement of their contemporaries.

The Middle Ages had their knights-errant, celebrated by troubadours and poets. The Age of Discovery had the captains and crews of sailing ships, finding new lands and new wonders, to the awe of the people of their time.

Then the role of the adventurer-explorers took a different turn in the Age of Technology, when a different breed of adventurer-explorers brought us wonderful, labor-saving machines, improving our lives.

But I would submit that our own modern age, the age of today, will remember as its adventurer-explorers: the computer people. People working behind desks in air-conditioned offices probably, and not standing on the decks of sailing ships, or traveling through space in capsules, but as much adventurer-explorers as the world has ever seen.

And what future marvels will they bring to the world in the days still to come!

Might one of them even, so wonderful it would be to imagine, someday write a computer program that assists in the discovery of the cure for cancer?

I believe it is quite possible that when the history of the 21st century is written, and mention is made of those who did the most to explore and achieve, the dominant figures in that narrative will be the computer researchers, systems managers, and programmers and the like, whose efforts will have done so much to make our lives even better, even contributing possibly to the discovery of cures for diseases such as cancer.

Adventurer-explorers indeed!

I retired from IT at a large University dental school. My first exposure to computers was back in college on a Data General Nova back in 1971, from there it was IBM 360, then IBM 370, etc, etc to modern-day computers and servers.As for programming, I started off with Fortran, Assembler (and machine language) Cobol, Hycomp, Basic and moved on to Pascal and then on to Java and C. I purchased my first PC back in 1978, an Apple II Plus,

So yes, I am fairly familiar with computers, servers, switches, routers, etc.

There was no such thing as a "good" version of DOS....

GoBucks said...
Wowzer. So many computer/tech peeps. So, all you experts: True or false. DR DOS was better than MS DOS. (I'm not talking about who won out-we know that.)

Ahh! The good ole days of DOS wars. Microsoft hated DR DOS so much they planted code in Windows 3.1 that produced error codes if Windows detected it was running on DR DOS. I don't have any experience with DR DOS (but do remember it), and since Microsoft tried to undermine it, I might prefer it.

My very first HOmE computer was a Commodore Pet 4032. It was SO MUCH FUN. Then they came out with a tape drive for it where you could actually SAVE your programs. I had friends that loved their Radio Shack TRS 80.

I think I paid $475 for it with a special teacher discount in roughly mid-late 1970s. I still have that computer in my basement! It's a classic in my book

Mel