Technology Savvy

Last night, a friend sent me this article. The article brings many issues up to the reader; the first being that is highly unlikely that you will read the article. With the said, I did read the article and had to agree with majority of what was said. It is worrying that most people view being able to use an iPad/iPhone as the definition of being tech savvy; yes, a baby that can barely speak can touch images on a screen. Software is made to simplify everything and require the least amount of effort possible.

As the article states, many of the younger generations have grown up with technology and don't know much about it except how to use it in limited ways (great analogy by the author with maintenance of cars); that includes the physical hardware, protocols/services being used to connect to the Internet, or even a general concept of how the internet works (it's pure magic to them). I have been re-installing the OS on computers for as long as I can remember for my father's friends' computers; many of which had children of their own whom were definitely old enough to learn how to do it themselves. But of course, they weren't interested in the fact that their computers were infested viruses and malware (not the consequences of them); they just wanted to able to surf the Internet and didn't care to learn how to restore the OS.

The user can see and feel the local physical hardware and most people don't understand how that works; it's no surprise that they don't know how remote or cloud storage/computing works. I don't expect everyone to know how their data packets are sent but knowing the main components/processes are truly important. Majority of the people on the Internet don't know what can happen if net neutrality is lost; it's worrying that most people don't know what could actually happen. Then there is the entire security and privacy issue... I'm sure there are tons of methods of getting to your data without your permission. It makes me wonder if cloud storage is more secure and protected than local storage that is connected to the Internet (in general).

We use technology on a daily basis; we need to be aware of how it works in order to discuss what should/shouldn't be allowed to occur. Maybe the availability and ease of the Internet has done us a disfavor; instead of learning how it works, we post cleverly written text on images to describe our problems for entertainment using the Internet.