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30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered
Despite being around for multiple decades at this point, some folks simply do not really get how to interact with a computer. This can be pretty frustrating if you need them to do something on said computer, but also quite hilarious when you encounter the janky, bizarre and downright counterproductive ways they do the most simple tasks.
Someone asked “What’s the worst case of computer illiteracy you’ve seen?” and netizens shared their best stories. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to write your own thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.
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#1
This was 10+ years ago. Anytime the house WiFi wasn't working well, my roommate would unplug the Ethernet cable from the modem and the router and hold it up and down (like you would hold a hose to drain the water out) to "let the electrons drain out" so the internet wouldn't be clogged. I tried to explain this wasn't how Ethernet worked but he said the cable technician told him to do this, and that was the end of the matter. The thing is it usually worked because it reset the internet connection, just not for the reason he thought it did.
#2
I knew someone who once put their credit card in the floppy disk drive to make an online purchase.
#3
My mom was trying to move ~200 pictures from one folder to another. Her approach was to open one picture, do Save As, save it to the other folder, and then delete the original. One by one. When I tried to explain that she could click-and-drag the whole thing over in two seconds, she said "that wouldn't be any faster than the way I do it!"
She would also "save" pictures she found online by copying them, opening Microsoft Word, pasting it in there, and saving it as a .docx file. And she would try to "open" jpegs by right clicking on them, choosing "Open With," and selecting Microsoft Word.
#4
Oh goodness so many stories...
As a student working in college I had the ticket for a computer that wouldn't boot. Showed up to find over a dozen refrigerator magnets stuck to the outside of the case.
There was also the prof trying to upgrade Windows (he had 3.1) via floppy disk (I forget how many discs, his PC didn't have a CD drive, but it was a lot) on his 386 that he refused to replace/upgrade.
EDIT: Those are old stories - more recently we had the new hire (19 yo in 2023) that we had to explain what a Start button on Windows was and how and where "File->Save" was and what it meant. Kids that have only been exposed to phones/tablets are the bane of my existence these days.
#5
I was once trying to teach someone how Windows Explorer worked. For whatever reason, they could not grasp the concept of using folders to store documents. I had to get an actual folder and piece of paper out to demonstrate putting paper into the folder before she was able to grasp the concept.
Rinso The Red 4 months ago
I used this technique to teach my dad. "This is the desktop, its just like you have a desk sitting in front of you with stuff on it. This is a folder... etc."
#6
My grandfather typed "big boobs" as his facebook status like, 15 times in a 5 minute span... I think I understand what he was trying to do...
#7
I worked at the head office of a major UK company. They hired a woman as a website administrator and, on her first day of training, asked her to click on something. She just stared blankly, and they repeated, click on it with the mouse. The what? Was her reply. They had interviewed her for the job and it turned out that in 2004 she had somehow never used a computer that had a mouse. I don't think she made it past lunchtime.
#8
I worked for a law firm, and one of the administrators would print the PDF of the case from her email. She would then scan it back to her computer because it "downloaded to the documents folder so she could move to the case folder."
I told her she could just click the down arrow and download it, then move the file, saving hundreds of sheets of paper. She said that was too complicated.
She only lasted a few months before she was fired.
Edit: I thought of another one. Lawyers are not smart when it comes to electronics. Same law firm, a lawyer was afraid the cleaning crew was going to steal her laptop. So she took her trash can and shoved it under her desk. Put her laptop in the trash and covered it with paper towels. Of course, the cleaning crew empties her trash. They find the laptop and put it aside in the cleaning crews supervisor office because they thought it was weird we'd throw a laptop away that looked brand new.
#9
Around 2016, I watched my brother (in his 30s) open safari browser and click in the search bar to type out “www.yahoo.com” and hit enter and then click in the search bar on yahoo’s homepage to type “Google”….
#10
The whole family has used emails for years, the other day I had to send one for my dad, and he said something in the line of "send both files in one email, so you don't have to pay twice".
David Morgan 4 months ago
Still using AOL metered account or similar? God knows how much that has cost over time.
#11
My employer hired someone to work for me doing tech support. In the first few days I had to show her how to open Outlook, create a new email, where to put the recipient address, etc. Had to show her multiple times how to open Excel, let alone use it. She never did get the hang of email, eventually we concluded she actually couldn’t read and we had to let her go. This was in the early 2000’s and she was probably in her 30’s at the time.
Chicken Nugget 4 months ago
...did they not do an interview, or literally ask her any question? surely literally a single question would've exposed her????
#12
My sister places every file she creates on the desktop. She does not understand folders. She cannot move a window around on the screen, she cannot resize a window except by the minimize and restore buttons in the upper right corner. She does not understand if she is using Google and wants to change to a different search she does not have to close and reopen Google but can use tabs.
#13
The guy who wanted to know why his computer didn’t work during a power outage.
#14
About two years ago my mom got a laptop again after refusing to go anywhere near one for about a decade and…hoo boy did I lose brain cells being her tech support. A couple times she called me for help logging in when the device was literally telling her exactly what to do. Another time she asked me to log her out of her Google account but only that, not the whole laptop please, reasonable enough request—if it hadn't been a Chromebook, where apparently *everything* goes through your Google account. I tried to explain that to her and she went, "I don't care for your theories, just tell me what buttons to press."
Mother, that's what I'm trying to explain to you. THERE ARE NO F&%$ING BUTTONS.
Sweet Taurus 4 months ago
I feel this is my soul! I've had to teach my Grandpa all sorts of things over the years about his computer and he's so stuck in his ways that if there's an easier way to do something I taught him 10 years ago he doesn't want to learn it because of his "if it ain't broke don't fix it" type of mentality. Don't get me started on teaching him how to use his smart phone!!
#15
I was helping someone with a website for their small business.
I told them I put an "alt" tag on some of the photos that would show text when they put their mouse over it, and to try it out.
He literally picked up his mouse and placed it on the screen.
I fell on the floor and almost pissed myself.
#16
Growing up in the 90s, I remember seeing multiple adults try to yell commands at a computer screen. They didn't understand about standard I/O like keyboards and mice because their only concept of computers was from watching Star Trek.
#17
Ahhhh all of Germany!
One company I work with knows that our system is to send finalized PDFs of their documents before they are included in a publication and that they should add comments and return. Different stakeholders should comment in different colors if they can't figure out how to note otherwise.
This company prints the PDFs (huge documents), sends them around their department for individual, handwritten makeup in various colors, scans that doc and sends it to their foreign offices for makeup where it is repeated, and red and that three timed scanned copy to us.. all in black and white.
No 90's era homework packet image quality can rival it.
Nolgoth 4 months ago (edited)
This is similar to how message traffic was generated when i was a communications electronics technician (aka radioman) on a submarine. People would type up a message and email to radio, we would format/edit it properly then we had to print it out and hand route it to the various people we needed to. If changes were made we had to go back and edit the doc, print again and reroute by hand. Keep doing that until the captain signed off on it to be transmitted. The last year i was aboard we finally had a fully electronic method of routing created by one of the junior enlisted in my division. Streamlined the process
#18
When I connect my new mouse my keyboard stops working.
You guessed right, he unplugged his keyboard instead of his old mouse.
#19
Sold a computer on craigslist about 10 years ago. Keyboard, mouse, LCD monitor, and cables.
He took it home, and said it didn't work, the screen would stay blank when he powered it on.
When he brought it back, he was pressing the power button on the LCD monitor, not the computer.
#20
I’m a teacher and one of my coworkers a few years ago had no understanding of the difference between the desktop and internet browser. She only ever had Chrome maximized and did not understand in any way what other programs were or a desktop with icons or anything. This was around 2017 and she was mid-30s so I don’t think she was only familiar with Chromebooks but maybe?
I also spent an entire year showing a coworker how to attach a pdf to an email on a weekly basis. Every week she was so thankful I showed her because “I never learned this before!” It eventually got so bad that I took it to administration because I was worried about her mental capacity. They concluded she was just lazy. Three years later and I’m working with her again and showing her how to attach a pdf to an email. “Thank you! I’ve never learned this before!”.
#21
I used to do tech support over the phone. I once asked a lady if she knew what version of Windows she was using. She proceeded on at least a 3 minute tirade about how she didn't find my question funny and said "there's nothing wrong with my house windows! I'm calling about my god damn computer!" and how she demanded to speak to my supervisor because I was wasting her time and wasn't trying to help her. Mind you, this all happened less than 10 minutes into the call. I tried explaining what Windows was to her but I couldn't get two words in without being interrupted so.... 🤷🏻♂️.
Michael Largey 4 months ago
Chances are overwhelming that even when and if she comprehended what you meant she would be unable to answer.
#22
In the 90’s, as a junior doing IT support, got a call for a file search/undelete.
The lady was following a guide. Every time she saved a document, she named it…
Literally …
YourDocumentNameHere. Every time!! Confirming the Overwrite? with a Yes.
She called me to find an older document from last week, to edit a page on a 400 page contract.
I found a single file of course. Told her boss she needs to retype from scratch, just that page, then do photocopies. Else retype all 400 pages.
Then left for next client.
That boss called my boss, really angry. Had a meeting with HR and boss, they never checked my version.
I had to explain step by step, the HR lady didn’t get the problem either at first. My boss sure did.
I got written up, to shut up the other boss, the reason? Being impolite.
Reviewer01 4 months ago
My dad spent actual months trying to add information to a file by opening a brand new blank file, adding the new sentence, confirming the override and then saving with the original name. He was always outraged when the computer failed to somehow insert the information into his file in the plane he imagined it should go. I explained with much patience, we went to a real physical filling cabinet and I showed him that what he was doing was the equivalent of taking blank paper, writing a sentence then just pushing it into the filling cabinet then giving permission for all previous documents to be shredded. He couldn't grasp this because "computers are supposed to be better" - they don't read your mind about what you meant when you told them to definitely not do that!
#23
This just happened last Friday. I am a new legal secretary in a small law firm where the partners have been in business for 50 years. Part of my job is to print every email that comes in and of course people always send big fat attachments Friday at 4:55.I had some emails queued up to print and since it was already 10 minutes after I was supposed to be gone I asked the managing partner if he would shut down the computer after it finished printing. He did not know how to shut down a computer.
#24
Remember floppy disks? I once saw a grown man using a rubber pencil eraser to "erase the files" on his disk.
On a separate occasion, during the dial-up modem period of the internet, I saw a Dad yelling at a kid for dialing up the home access number while on vacation in Hawaii. They got a $3200 phone bill at checkout for him playing Dungeons and Dragons with friends all night.
I saw a secretary use white out correction paste on a printout.
Mohsie Supposie 4 months ago
The white-out on a printout may be understandable. Possibly printed out a pdf or another document that they could not edit.
#25
I work in a call centre, and one of my jobs is helping the call centre clients with basic computer troubleshooting.
It is..an interesting task trying to explain to a man who makes more than I do and has been working the same job since longer than I've been alive where and what the start button is.
#26
I was providing remote support for a factory and got a call from the plant manager who was trying to do a tour, he couldn’t log into a system. Turned out he was typing his username and password but then not pressing “ok”. He called me to ask how to log in while he had an audience. .
#27
There was a lady in the office in an admin-kind of role. She didn’t know about copy and paste.
She had to send out a lot of almost identical letters, only the names and a code/number would change. She would type the whole thing out.
It blew my mind.
#28
A friend asked me to print out her daughters homework so she sent me a whats app.
It was a screen grab from her phone of the school dojo website where someone had uploaded a photo of the physical homework printout that itself was a print screen as you could see the tabs open and the paper sat on a desk.
#29
Ages and ages ago a gentleman came in for a computer repair as his “cupholder” was broken... It was his DVD-R.
#30
I used to do customer support for a major antivirus company, where most of the client base was 65+, and I have a ton of horror stories...
Most of it is just pretty generic computer iliteracy, lile asking them to open the browser and type in an adress, followed by total helpess confusion from their side.
A bunch of the clients also entered the chat instead of phone support, despite using the "hunt and peck" method of typing, and being completely unable to follow written instructions longer than 5 words.
These are the cases that really stood out:
1. An elderly man called and said he'd gotten a new Mac, but couldn't install our software. Turns out he needed a lot of handholding to even download and open the install file, which took about half an hour.
When we finally got it opened, it showed a message saying his OS was outdated. I asked him if he didn't say the computer was new.
Turns out he bought it 10 years ago and kept it unopened in his shed...
2. A guy was very adamant "the chinese" had hacked him. After some back and forth, he revealed the reason he thought so was that a popup, IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE, was asking him to upgrade or uninstall the software for an HP deskjet printer. He admitted to having had one, and to have installed the software...
"But that was 6 years ago and I've had several printers since then! How do the chinese know I used to have one??"
And no, he had never uninstalled the software.
He ended up hanging up and telling me that I was of no help.
3. An elderly couple called and wanted help to install the antivirus on their new computer. To do that, I also had to help them get the new computer hooked up to their wifi. After A LOT of handholding and spoonfeeding, we got to the point where they needed to input the password for their wifi.
I told them it was on the back of their router. They did not know what a router was. I tried words like internet box, modem, tried asking them which supplier they had and then explaining that their internet came in the thing their supplier send them. No luck.
45 FREAKING MINUTES into the conversation, I ask them where they think they get internet from.
"From a hole in the wall", they say. I asked if therr was a wire running from it. Yes there was. Ok, could they follow it and see what it went into?"
"Ohhhh the internet box, why did you not say so??"
4. I was trying to help a woman download the install file. I asked her to open her internet browser and type in the address. She did not know where or how to type the address.
This in itself was a fairly common problem, so I tried all the regular solution. A specific keyboard shortcut autofocuses on the address bar. She insisted it did not. I tried to explain where it was and what it looked like. She could not find it.
She got increasingly frustrated every time I asked if she was sure she'd opened her browser.
15 minutes into the call, I asked her to describe what she saw. She basically described her desktop.
So I said she was not in an internet browser, and she said
"I logged on the wifi 15 minutes ago like you said to do!!"
In the year I worked at that place, I developed a deep hate for whichever societal force leads so many elderly folks to learn such a degree of helplessness.
How do you usually react when someone struggles with basic computer tasks?
Hans Georg 4 months ago
Had a computer for inspection because it was slow. Cleaned it up and emptied the trash can. Once done I brought the computer back. Not long after I got a complain that this persons documents were gone. He stored them in the trash can.
CK 4 months ago
Computer literacy aside, that's the equivalent of hiring someone to organize one's home and physically storing things in the trash can.
Load More Replies...
yo mama's cookie 4 months ago
I think our generation (Millenials) were some lucky bastards. We grew up with the advancing technology and understand the basics of every device pretty fast. Everytime I have to teach my mum how to use her laptop I'm just grateful I don't have to stress about this kind of stuff.
Mike F 4 months ago
I had a coworker who was great with the phone, but couldn't find his way around a computer with a compass. He was ~25. I've never seen anyone who could send a text faster even though he had sausage fingers. He was absolutely awful on a computer though
Load More Replies...
Sweet Taurus 4 months ago
I used to volunteer at a re entry class for newly released prisoners. Most of them had been in prison for a decade or more and our job was to teach them every day things to help them acclimate themselves back into society. They all were given smartphones and it was my job to teach them how to use them. It blew my mind they had no idea what an app was let alone how to go to the App Store. That job required a ton of patience.
Hans Georg 4 months ago
Had a computer for inspection because it was slow. Cleaned it up and emptied the trash can. Once done I brought the computer back. Not long after I got a complain that this persons documents were gone. He stored them in the trash can.
CK 4 months ago
Computer literacy aside, that's the equivalent of hiring someone to organize one's home and physically storing things in the trash can.
Load More Replies... yo mama's cookie 4 months ago
I think our generation (Millenials) were some lucky bastards. We grew up with the advancing technology and understand the basics of every device pretty fast. Everytime I have to teach my mum how to use her laptop I'm just grateful I don't have to stress about this kind of stuff.
Mike F 4 months ago
I had a coworker who was great with the phone, but couldn't find his way around a computer with a compass. He was ~25. I've never seen anyone who could send a text faster even though he had sausage fingers. He was absolutely awful on a computer though
Load More Replies... Sweet Taurus 4 months ago
I used to volunteer at a re entry class for newly released prisoners. Most of them had been in prison for a decade or more and our job was to teach them every day things to help them acclimate themselves back into society. They all were given smartphones and it was my job to teach them how to use them. It blew my mind they had no idea what an app was let alone how to go to the App Store. That job required a ton of patience.
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