Learning to Adapt with Technology

My friends and I once read spam mail for pure entertainment. Most of my friends use Chrome and have popup blockers. I don't use popup blockers but I know when a popup indicating that my computer is infected is fake and probably trying to infect the computer (oh, the irony). On social media, I almost immediately know which sources/links are reputable and which are total crap. My generation grew up with this technology and detecting what is reliable is almost innate.

I bring these up because we have a technology literacy gap that we must close. I read an article about the distribution of users' computer skills. The problem we have is more than just being able to use computers and the internet. As with the examples I started this article with, most people will encounter those situations (e.g. spam, fake information, phishing), but people must know how to identify the unreputable things. For people like me who grew up with the internet, it's completely instinctive.

There is a reason spam and phishing exists; it is because it works. It may not affect you, but there are people with less technological literacy falling in these traps. Yes, spam email can be amusing if you know that it is spam. But if you don't know, it may affect your perspective negatively.

While volunteering at the local library, I had no clue to explain how I knew what is spam/malicious. I told him just to assume that everything on the internet is trying to steal your information or get access to your computer. After thinking about that for a while, that was a very accurate statement. How do I draw a line between the internet being a wonderful place for learning and having discussions to something that you have to be aware of or else your information will get stolen?

Then, there is the issue of knowing how the internet works. Books, newspapers, and TV, tend to have a high cost of producing particularly at a high scale. With the internet, that is not the case. Anyone can create a website on the internet, post it to social media, and get millions of viewers. While this is one of the major benefits of the internet, this can be dangerous for those who can’t decipher which content is reliable. We laugh about how “if it’s on the internet, it must be true”, but that is how some people view it. You can’t blame them for doing so either since the old way of getting information tended to be more reliable.

There is a massive technological gap we have close. And with advancements to come faster and faster, there must be ways of having the non-technologists to learn. This will be a combined effort of the technology market assisting the transition and the people. It is not solely on the technology companies, people must have the growth mindset in that they have the ability to learn, but it will take time and effort.