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ElvishMystical , cottonbro studio / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered I knew someone who once put their credit card in the floppy disk drive to make an online purchase.

Final score:

54points

POST

Mohsie Supposie 3 months ago

Probably a good trick to pull for Contactless pay!

8points

MrWaffles42 , LinkedIn Sales Solutions / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

50points

POST

Mohsie Supposie 3 months ago

Someone loves Microsoft Word!

17points

tziganis , aimee rivers / wikimedia (not the actual photo) Report

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

42points

POST

Robert T 3 months ago

I seem to recall installing Windows 95 from floppy disk. There were lots of them! Lots and lots!

14points

psychkp , KOBU Agency / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

35points

POST

Rinso The Red 3 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."

4points

a_burdie_from_hell , Pixabay / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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...

Final score:

34points

POST

Bat cat in a hat 3 months ago

To buy bras? 😆

23points

Richard Graham 3 months ago

He was just trying to download a picture of Trump and Vance.

4points

Socrates 3 months ago (edited)

Maybe that was his password

4points

Freya (she/they/he) 3 months ago

Reminds me of those old people Facebook posts where elderly people would use Facebook statuses as google search

1point

Michael Largey 3 months ago

Maybe its time to get grandpa checked out for dyslexia.

1point

Abdullah Abd Rahman 3 months ago

He meant big booboos ?

0points

MrSpindles , Matheus Bertelli / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

31points

POST

Regina Holt 3 months ago

Reminds me "The IT Crowd" British Comedy TV show

18points

ArizonaGeek , Prasopchok / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

30points

POST

Trillian 3 months ago

In a LAW OFFICE do they not have cabinets that can be locked????

16points

prstele01 , Nathana Rebouças / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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”….

Final score:

28points

POST

Robert T 3 months ago

He must be related to my gf. She searches for Google before entering what she wants to seach for, not realising that the address bar is already linked to Google and she just Googled Google and opened a wormhole threating the whole of humanity!

25points

anon , Solen Feyissa / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

#10

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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".

Final score:

27points

POST

David Morgan 3 months ago

Still using AOL metered account or similar? God knows how much that has cost over time.

6points

outcastspice , Mimi Thian / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

#11

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

26points

POST

Chicken Nugget 3 months ago

...did they not do an interview, or literally ask her any question? surely literally a single question would've exposed her????

4points

anon , Marek Levak / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

#12

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

26points

POST

Glasofruix 3 months ago

"That's how you do it on an iphone"

9points

OldBob10 , Gabriel Beaudry / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

#13

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered The guy who wanted to know why his computer didn’t work during a power outage.

Final score:

24points

POST

Chicken Nugget 3 months ago

his brain had a power outage too

15points

RubyleafIsHere , Andrew Neel / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

#14

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

23points

POST

Sweet Taurus 3 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!!

7points

VictoriaEuphoria99 , Dave Smith / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

#15

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

22points

POST

Mohsie Supposie 3 months ago

The correct word to use would be the cursor, not the mouse!

22points

40_degree_rain , Vitaly Gariev / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

#16

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

20points

POST

Robert T 3 months ago

Particulary the clip where Scotty picks up a computer mouse and speaks into it like a microphone. LOL

34points

roundyround22 , Oleksandr P / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

#17

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

19points

POST

Nolgoth 3 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

7points

jemainsen , Kenny Eliason / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

#18

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered When I connect my new mouse my keyboard stops working.

You guessed right, he unplugged his keyboard instead of his old mouse.

Final score:

19points

POST

Mila Sliacka 3 months ago

That’s a good one 😄

2points

pulcherpangolin , fauxels / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

#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.

Skarth Report

Final score:

18points

POST

Elchinero 3 months ago

"craigslist"

0points

#20

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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!”.

Final score:

18points

POST

Ace 3 months ago

This sounds like weaponised incompetence to me.

35points

#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.... 🤷🏻‍♂️.

sicilian504 Report

Final score:

17points

POST

Michael Largey 3 months ago

Chances are overwhelming that even when and if she comprehended what you meant she would be unable to answer.

10points

#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.

SirGreybush Report

Final score:

16points

POST

Reviewer01 3 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!

14points

BeepBopARebop , Vitaly Gariev / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

#23

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

15points

POST

Slapdash1 3 months ago

Why would you even print every email that comes in?

13points

TechnicalWhore , Claudio Schwarz / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

#24

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

15points

POST

Mohsie Supposie 3 months ago

The white-out on a printout may be understandable. Possibly printed out a pdf or another document that they could not edit.

29points

Silent_Ad_8672 , Petr Macháček / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

#25

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered 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.

Final score:

14points

POST

Robin DJW 3 months ago

Oh, we had that one, too. I had a lady that called us when she was not able to connect to her LAN. She asked "Is Windows down?" We were years from virtual desktops, so the calls we got...

3points

#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. .

phl_fc Report

Final score:

14points

POST

Elchinero 3 months ago

OK!

0points

#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.

typejfsebastian Report

Final score:

13points

POST

deejak 3 months ago

Merge.

8points

#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.

Redland_Station Report

Final score:

12points

POST

Sam Lombardo 3 months ago

Confusing

5points

anon , Tony Webster / wikimedia (not the actual photo) Report

#29

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered Ages and ages ago a gentleman came in for a computer repair as his “cupholder” was broken... It was his DVD-R.

Final score:

11points

POST

Ace 3 months ago

This one has been around since the late1980s when PCs first started to be commonly seen in offices. See also BOFH

12points

#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.

80085ntits Report

Final score:

10points

POST

Robert T 3 months ago (edited)

The printer thing is easy done. I recently replaced my dad's printer and got the new one all setup and working and printed some test documents etc. etc. He comes to use it and it doesn't work. Next time I visit, I have a poke at it and it transpires that the default printer is still set to the old one, and Windows is merrily queuing documents for a printer which is no longer attached to the PC. Changing the default to the new printer was two seconds. Uninstalling the old printer driver took about half an hour, half a dozen reboots and a bit of Googling even for me! At least now there shouldn't be any confusion if ever it asks which printer to use!

8points

blackmobius , smial / wikimedia (not the actual photo) Report

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#31

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered She thought touching the computer would give you a computer virus (and she thought it was the source of AIDS)

She was an elderly high school teacher.

Final score:

10points

POST

Brian Droste 3 months ago

My parents are much older. I know my dad never touch a computer. Pretty sure my mom never did either.

0points

grptrt , Daria Nepriakhina 🇺🇦 / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

#32

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered Had a college student using Excel to write a document as if it were Word.

Final score:

9points

POST

Bat cat in a hat 3 months ago

Well you can, and the formatting is sometimes easier

10points

#33

When I worked as a field tech for a local university, I would have to fix PCs for clueless professors and admins all the time. My favorite was an admin that just needed a new monitor, nothing else. She was adamant that I make sure I put all her icons "back in the right place" after replacing it .

shinigami2057 Report

Final score:

8points

POST

Daniel Atkins 3 months ago

That isa where you smile and nod.

6points

Dutch Swimmer Goes Viral For Super Revealing Trunks During 2024 Olympics: “Is This Legal?”

#34

There's this new guy at work who has admitted to never wanting anything to do with computers. Unfortunately for him, he's now working in a data center and we use computers all day. Well, he doesn't know how to send an email, didn't know how to add me as a contact in his phone, couldn't figure out how to change his password, was completely confused when we said to open Google chrome... there's so many small things that it just blew me away.

RustyNK Report

Final score:

8points

POST

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#35

I have so many from the late 90s. “Hey, man, my mouse SUCKS. Hardly tracks my movements at all.” She had the mousepad upside down… slick part on the desk. She had her wrist resting on the upside down pad, and the pad was moving right along with her mouse the whole time. It was all I had not to shame her. I had to explain it with a neutral facial expression and vocal tone.

expressly_ephemeral Report

Final score:

8points

POST

#36

A couple of my coworkers use my laptop to clock in when we're at work. Each of them could lose 9 fingers and they wouldn't type any slower. To clock in, all you have to do is type in your user name (which at my shop is 12FirstnameLastInitial) followed by your password (which for both of these coworkers is password1 in all caps). They've been using my laptop to clock in for near on a year now. One of them can use the time clock in less than 2 minutes, the other one's current record time for clocking in, start to finish, is 4 minutes. His user name is 10 characters long, so all told it's 19 keystrokes and 3 clicks to clock in. 4 minutes is his record.

Granted, he's from the boomer generation, but computers have been ubiquitous for more than 30 years now, and the layout of the keyboard hasn't changed much since the early 1870s when the QWERTY layout was created.

SpitefulMechanic351 Report

Final score:

7points

POST

Geoffrey Scott 3 months ago

The job I just retired from, a middle school, still uses time cards...with the advent of Kronos, what 10-15 YEARS ago?? And yes, we have badges with e access to open exterior doors.

3points

Woman Put A Water Fountain With A Camera In Her Yard, Here Are 24 Photos Of Regular Visitors (New Pics)

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#37

My stepdad (75years old) has always been firmly against technology. He is so firmly against technology that he used to get upset if we used a solar calculator. Now, he is a brillant man and so very kind. He was a mason so his profession didn't need technology. He can do advanced math in his head. Brillant man.

But he will use technology to his convenience- uses an ATM and usese a flip phone cell phone because dude is busy AF and found that he was missing out on additional fun activities because he missed calls--- and refuses to use voicemail. This man HATES voicemail and believes that you should always answer the phone. So his cell phone rings off the hook and he stops everything to answer anytime. Now that I have tried to paint a picture of hos absolute resistance to anything that has to do with technology, on to the story.

At Christmas two years ago, we were all yarning about data breaches, scams, banking s**t, etc. My stepdad proudly asserts to everyone how he is absolutely impervious to any banking scam or fraud because none of his business, let alone anything related to his money, is on the internet. For the first time in my life I left this man speechless. I said "just because you don't put your information on the internet it doesn't mean the bank doesn't put your information on the internet. Everytime you use an atm, debit, any basic banking, it is all happening over the internet. But you would have zero clue if your accounts got completely emptied out till your monthly bill arrived in the mail"

He literally stared with his mouth dropped open and just blinked. Meanwhile the rest of the fam dog piled onto him about his misbelief.

dinosarahsaurus Report

Final score:

7points

POST

deejak 3 months ago

Old man does have a point, though. Just because info is being moved via internet by institutions, **which usually have/use very secure means** is NOT the same as John Q. Public accessing sensitive data (banking, medical, etc) via his (perhaps compromised?) outdated browser on his old phone/computer. The more you know...

3points

50 Of The Most Incredible Shots That Were Submitted To The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

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#38

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered No joke. In my early days of IT, I once went to help someone who couldn’t get their foot pedal to work. It turns out they were placing their mouse on the floor thinking it was a foot pedal. I kindly explained how to use it.

Oh, one other. I had a user complain their coffee holder was broken. They were using the pop out CD/DVD tray as a cup holder!

RawMaterial11 , NotTfue123 / wikimedia (not the actual photo) Report

Final score:

7points

POST

SCP 4666 3 months ago

A built in cup holder for desktop? I so need this..😁

3points

AttitudeAdjusterSE Report

#39

I once had someone who thought their Wi-Fi was down because their wireless mouse had run out of battery and needed new ones, think that's my favourite.

Final score:

6points

POST

Socrates 3 months ago

I've come across more than one person who didn't realise their wireless mouse had a battery that occasionally needed changing.

3points

#40

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered Seen actual people immerse a laptop (back when they were not waterproof) in water to clean it.

anon , Carissa Rogers / wikimedia (not the actual photo) Report

Final score:

6points

POST

Robert T 3 months ago

I immersed one in a glass of cola once. It didn't like it. It shut down immediately. I did get it to come back to life after disassembing it and giving good clean. However, it had sticky keys turned on permanently!

7points

Woman Moves Out Of Parents' Home After They Asked Her To Give Her Space To Brother, They Freak Out

See Also on Bored Panda

Mom Leaves $250k Inheritance To Son, Throws A Fit When Daughter Stops Looking After Her

#41

No, Grandma... sending an email as HTML does not mean it's labeled as 'Hate Mail'.

NitWhittler Report

Final score:

6points

POST

Robert T 3 months ago

Well as HTML emails are often the ones with nasty links in them, she's partly right!

6points

#42

I had a coworker who double clicked every button and if there was the slightest pause in the computer’s response she’d double click again and wonder why the app would crash or the pc would freeze.

anon Report

Final score:

6points

POST

Robert T 3 months ago

Try asking a Mac user to right-click. ;-)

10points

DiscombobulatedRain Report

#43

Teaching virtually during Covid to imigrant families with little computer experience. I had to screen shot to show where to type a web address. I had to explain that when Google automated results were not sites that their child actually went to. 'All these sites that come up that he never goes to and I know because I watch him....'. Also the laptop keeps shutting off randomly because it needed to be charged.

Final score:

6points

POST

Geoffrey Scott 3 months ago

Covid taught many parents that they should not homeschool. Many teachers in our building were praised, and apologized to for what they do every day with no credit.

7points

Woman Refuses To Chip In For Babysitting Because She Doesn’t Even Have Kids, Asks If She’s A Jerk

See Also on Bored Panda

“This Breaks My Heart”: People Stunned—And Angry—After Woman Buys Lost Luggage From Airport

#44

Not removing the plastic cover before installing the CPU cooler when it comes to desktop building. This is something I always look for before installing PC components since seeing this happen.

Sea_Perspective6891 Report

Final score:

6points

POST

#45

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered "Will my laptop still work if I take it upstairs?".

ZeldaFan812 , Christina Morillo / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

Final score:

5points

POST

Ace 3 months ago

Valid question - how good is the wifi signal up there?

15points

"I Didn't Start The Dryer": Karen Gets Taught A Lesson After Throwing Out Neighbor's Wet Clothes

#46

A 65 year-old coworker of mine worked the same receptionist job for 20+ years. We had a site-wide internet outage and she was convinced it was because some cables at her desk had gotten unplugged “this is wireless, it just needs to get plugged back in” she insisted (????).

Focalina Report

Final score:

5points

POST

#47

A user was attempting to connect to the Wi-Fi network by following the documentation.

Upon reaching the step requiring credential entry, the instructions said something like "Enter your username and password in this window," accompanied by a screenshot of the login window.

The user contacted the help desk, unable to write anything into the window. Eventually, it was discovered that the user was trying to type their credentials into **the screenshot** itself. 🤦.

ssiws Report

Final score:

4points

POST

Socrates 3 months ago

I've come across this as well. The live system runs in a web browser and the help documentation also runs in a web browser which by default opens in a new browser tab. The screenshots in the help are full-screen pics which look exactly like the live system. Lots (and I mean lots) of people attempt to type on the screenshots - but most realise their mistake before asking for help.

4points

See Also on Bored Panda

Guy Divorced 3 Years Ago Drops Off 3 Y.O. With His Ex-Wife Completely Out Of The Blue

#48

Not knowing how to open a website if there's no icon,or bookmark.

anon Report

Final score:

4points

POST

#49

During a late 90s "PC training" session at my job, I was in a room full of older employees who'd apparently never even seen a computer before, much less used one.

When the instructor asked us to click on something with the mouse, one guy picked up the mouse and pointed it at the monitor like a TV remote, and then asked the instructor why it wasn't doing anything.

Keefer1970 Report

Final score:

3points

POST

Toby 3 months ago

And that's how the Wii was born

11points

#50

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered A middle aged lady got frightened after being told she needs a mouse to operate a computer. (This was early 2000s).

launderingpileofcash , Teona Swift / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

Final score:

2points

POST

justagirl 3 months ago

i mean—this is kind of cute.

3points

#51

My mom doesn’t know how to plug in the charger for her phone and refuses to learn. Also, doesn’t know how to do anything that requires pressing buttons.

Yet somehow has NSA levels of social media hacking, without having social media herself.

BigBellyBurgerBoi Report

Final score:

2points

POST

See Also on Bored Panda

“All Three Shot Out Pink”: Triplets' Baby Shower Turns Sour, Pregnant Wife Wants A Divorce

College Student Does Exactly As Told After Roommates Demand They Keep Their Stuff In Their Room

#52

One guy I worked with had a smartphone. We tried to get him to download the app for our payroll provider so he could look up his paycheck on his phone. He refused to learn how to download an app from the app store.

anon Report

Final score:

2points

POST

Robert T 3 months ago

Actually I can sympathise with him. One company my gf worked for wanted her to install an app on her phone that tracked her movements whilst she was at work. Payroll and scheduling should not be via apps and the internet!

7points

#53

I tried to teach a lady at my parents' church how to burn CDs. Couple days after, she calls me over and says she can't get my instructions to work. I'm like, I know I wrote these down such that a piece of toast could do it, but I go through each step as I wrote it to make sure it worked literally as written. That all goes as it should but the disc still doesn't burn as it should. Open up the disk drive...... she had put in the plastic cover meant to protect the actual CDs without considering maybe the clear plastic thing wouldn't be the same as all the shiny metal CDs.

bullshitrabbit Report

Final score:

2points

POST

Mike F 3 months ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Historical_Salt1943 , LinkedIn Sales Navigator / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

#54

Long ago, a Best Buy employee told me that when his town’s store first opened, an elderly lady came into the computer section, picked up the computer mouse and tried to move it across the computer monitor screen asking “is this how you do this?”.

IdentityEnhancer Report

Final score:

1point

POST

RedMarbles 3 months ago

At least she was expressing the willingness to learn?

2points

#55

30 Hilariously Embarrassing Attempts At Understanding Computers That People Have Encountered I was doing the on-boarding orientation for a medical job maybe 8 years ago and this older lady kept trying using the pc like a tablet. Just couldn't figure out why the monitor wasn't a touch screen. She had no idea what the mouse and keyboard was for. Some one had to show her. She had to have been hired for evs. Or nutrition.

Final score:

1point

POST

Brian Droste 3 months ago

I kind of got used to my touchscreen tablet or my phone. Two or three times I turned my laptop computer on and tried to use it like a touch screen. Realized right away what I was trying to do.

2points

#56

When it’s someone half my age asking me how to save a file to a certain folder.

boringexplanation Report

Final score:

1point

POST

Brian Droste 3 months ago

For many years I didn't know how to open or save anything in a file. I would create a file and just keep it on the main file screen. Started to get to many files where I had to scroll down to get to some of my files. Finally decided to open a new file and was able to learn to save some some of my files I don't use as much and put them under misc file screen. Hope this sound correct or understandable.

1point

#57

I used to work with someone who had his own typist for his reports. We did the same job.

gbinasia Report

Final score:

0points

POST

Michael Largey 3 months ago

Having someone to do your typing for you is advantageous even if you're highly computer literate.

0points

#58

Was once asked to show a 50 year old fully functional adult how to use an ATM because they had no idea how it worked.

abgry_krakow87 Report

Final score:

0points

POST

Phil N DeBlanc 3 months ago

There's a first time for everything, even if you're 50.

9points

#59

When CD/DVD drives were a thing my uncle called me and said he broke the coffee holder.
Me: the coffee holder?
Uncle: Yeah, y'know, you hit the button and it comes out. Damn thing broke.

nuudootabootit Report

Final score:

-2points

POST

Ace 3 months ago

That's the third one so far on this list...

13points

I am a writer at Bored Panda. Despite being born in the US, I ended up spending most of my life in Europe, from Latvia, Austria, and Georgia to finally settling in Lithuania. At Bored Panda, you’ll find me covering topics ranging from the cat meme of the day to red flags in the workplace and really anything else. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, beating other people at board games, cooking, good books, and bad films.

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As a Visual Editor at Bored Panda, I indulge in the joy of curating delightful content, from adorable pet photos to hilarious memes, all while nurturing my wanderlust and continuously seeking new adventures and interests—sometimes thrilling, sometimes daunting, but always exciting!

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How do you usually react when someone struggles with basic computer tasks?

POST

Hans Georg 3 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.

8points

CK 3 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.

3points

yo mama's cookie 3 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.

7points

Mike F 3 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

4points

Carrie B 3 months ago

I am gen x and I feel the same. We remember not having the tech, so we appreciate it, and weren't too old to progress with it :)

3points

Grenelda Thurber 3 months ago

Don't worry, your time will come. Everything you know will be obsolete someday too.

0points

Sweet Taurus 3 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.

6points

michael reid 3 months ago

You can get internet scavies from this.

3points

Grenelda Thurber 3 months ago

It's interesting that some of these are complaints about people who aren't familiar with newer technology (e,g not understanding how to copy a file) and some are complaints about people who aren't familiar with older technology (e.g. trying to operate a computer by touching the computer monitor).

2points

UKGrandad 3 months ago

Not a computer, but I once saw a manager at a place I worked sending a document by fax. As the document started moving into the machine he suddenly grabbed it and yanked it out. I asked what he was doing and he told me that he needed a copy before sending it. Up until then he'd had his underlings do that sort of thing so this was his first time using a fax, and he genuinely thought that it sent the physical documents to the recipient.

2points

Justin Tyme 3 months ago

That actually is what happens. It uses Star Trek transporter technology.

2points

Damned_Cat 3 months ago

Back in the olden days, when my office first got email, none of us knew anything about it and it was mainly used for employees to communicate with each other. One day, someone from outside the office asked me for my email address and I realized that I had no idea what it was. I asked the IT guy and he told me that it was confidential and that I was not to tell anyone my email address for security purposes. He told me to get the other person's email address, email them and then they would be able to communicate with me. It wasn't until I mentioned this to my boss that I found out it wasn't true.

2points

Lord of the laserprinter. 3 months ago

My worst nightmare is my 83 year old mother wanting a computer. The Nigerian princes would have a field day .

2points

Igor914624 3 months ago

In 1995, I was doing desktop support at a computer manufacturing facility. I was in the front office on another ticket, and a finance user stopped me and said her computer was acting funny. So I quickly checked it out. It had all the symptoms of a virus that was going around at that time . On Windows 95, you had to reboot the computer with a boot floppy to clear the viruses off of it. My anti-virus boot floppies were in my office, all the way at the back of the manufacturing floor. A good 10 minute round trip walk. I tell her that he computer has a virus, and I jokingly say "don't get to close, you might catch it." While I was making the round trip back to my office and back, she had gone out the front door to the convenience store across the street, and bought the biggest can of Lysol she could find. When I arrived back at her desk, she was hosing down the keyboard, monitor, and mouse with Lysol. The actual computer was a tower under her desk.

2points

Igor914624 3 months ago

Continued: I stopped her, rebooted her computer off the anti-virus floppy and let it start scanning the computer. I threw away the keyboard and mouse. Being in finance, she had a 21 inch Sony Trinitron monitor. I went back to my office, got a cart and a replacement 21 inch monitor (mine off my desk) and took it back to her desk, plus a new keyboard and mouse. By the time I got there, the anti-virus scan had finished. I replaced the keyboard, mouse and monitor. I spent the next two hours cleaning Lysol off that monitor. But every time it got hot, I could smell Lysol. It reminded me never to make jokes like that to someone ignorant about computers.

4points

Captive 3 months ago

My brother has this lady in his office who would print out a PDF, write down with a pen, scan it and mail it to him. She is adamant because "I always do it like that"

2points

Herringbone 3 months ago

Back in the 90s, an author friend had a computer with 5.25in floppy disks (I don't think it had a hard disk - if so, it wasn't big): he saved everything in one file on one disk. It took forever to load the file when he wanted to print out a few pages.

2points

I AM A LOLLY SNEK (she/her) 3 months ago

Classmate didnt know how to capitalise letters using the "shift" button so she would turn on caps lock, type in the letter, and turn caps lock off again

1point

B Jones 3 months ago

Fairly common, I think for people who never had a typing class. It's the first way they figure it out so just continue that way...I had a coworker in a data entry job that was blazing fast with the numbers at the top of the keyboard, but could not figure out how to use the 10-key numbers

0points

Dirk Daring 3 months ago

FW: FW: FW: FW: FW: FW: FW: FW: FW: FW: FW: FW: Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe

1point

CK 3 months ago

The moral of the story is, give your kids a Windows 95 computer to play with.

1point

Russell Rieckenberg 3 months ago (edited)

About 20 years ago I was at the library, there was a lady there asking how to find information online. The librarian tried to teach her how to use a search engine. She said it was too complicated, they should just publish a book listing all the websites.

1point

Donald 3 months ago

My uncle just recently moved in with my grandfather to help him with his day to day activities. He was adamant that he was going to get "another internet" at the home because he didn't want to mess up my grandfathers email. I had to politely explain that one internet connection can handle his email, my grandfather's and the rest of his online activities.

1point

g90814 3 months ago

I'm technically a boomer... but I do technical software support even now. There's really no excuse, except being stubborn and resistant to change. Or weaponized incompetence as noted in one of the scenarios above.

0points

Marnie 3 months ago (edited)

I sat at the desk of a woman who was hired to do Quality Assurance for my software team. I was working with her and she had her cursor at the start of a very long line of text in an automation test. I said, go to the end of the line. She hit her right arrow button, not just once and held it (which would have been bad enough), but hit it repeatedly, all 120 or so times to get to the end of the line. I don't believe she was even a college grad. Many people from her country lie. Their husbands get a job in the US. Tech is one of the few jobs they get. Their husbands tell then to go into QA because it's "easy", but it's not easy. And for sure, you should have basic computer skills. She was terrible. Also, she was a princess who expected very special treatment at work when she was pregnant. (Just a normal pregnancy.) And was super "sensitive", which was just her way of controlling people. She had the prettiest laugh I've ever heard, though.

0points

B Jones 3 months ago

I can't count the number of coworkers I've taught how to use home/end ... Shift-home/shift-end etc. Since at times we might need a lot of copy paste. And had to explain multiple times home is beginning, end is...well end. And if you really want to blow their mind, shift-tab to switch active windows lol

0points

JayWantsACat 3 months ago

If his defense, his entire career up to this point was spent outside of the office. I deal with contracts, in some part, at my job. One of the guys asked me to make all his edits in one document in another document. I asked "every change in the one file should be made in the second?" "Yes." "Well, what's the difference between the documents?" "One goes to X org, the other goes to Y org." "So, it's the same contract with the same changes but with the heading changed from X to Y?" "Yes." "So, instead of editing the Y file to make the X file, why don't we just save a copy of X as Y once all of the edits are done instead of editing the Y file to match X?" "......" lmao He did appreciate that this was a better, faster, and easier way to get what he wanted done and he laughed about it.

0points

Bartlet for World Domination 3 months ago

For balance: my eighty-something mother knows things about Photoshop that I don't :)

0points

Mila Sliacka 3 months ago

My mother types on the laptop like she’d type on the typewriter back in the days. I’m afraid she’ll break the whole thing. Also she used to hit enter (and by hit I mean smash) at the end of each line like she did with typewriter.

0points

JoeKing 3 months ago (edited)

About 10 years ago, my Mums other half got himself a new PC and she thought she would sign up to Facebook (I done it for her, showed her what to do etc..) Next day, I go round to see her and she was fuming, she cannot log into Facebook, her E-Mail and Password are correct, capital letters, lower case are all correct.. "Why can't I log in..?!?!" She demanded... I took one look at the screen and said "It would help if you were on Facebook and not Yahoo's homepage!"

0points

Damned_Cat 3 months ago

My elderly mother, bless her heart, thought that Google was a bunch of people that answered questions on demand. She would say, "go on the computer and ask them if they know where I can buy X product near me." If I couldn't find what she wanted, she would say "well, tell them to ask around and let you know". She was in her 80's and had never touched a computer in her life, so it was kind of cute.

0points

Chewie Baron 3 months ago

Hello, IT Department. Have you tried turning it off and on again?

0points

Barbara Panda 3 months ago

Is anyone else getting a full screen Hulu ad appear every 1.5 minutes? It makes these articles unreadable.

0points

Carrie B 3 months ago

Half of these are straight bs.

-1point

LonelyLittleLeafSheep 3 months ago

Yeah, I am going to agree with you. My boomer parents had no trouble learning how to use computers or technology and they aren't the brightest bulbs in the box. A lot of them sound like rehashed urban legends that were originally passed around by Gen X'ers talking about their grandparents (the silent generation).

1point

POST

Hans Georg 3 months ago

8points

CK 3 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.

3points

yo mama's cookie 3 months ago

7points

Mike F 3 months ago

4points

Carrie B 3 months ago

I am gen x and I feel the same. We remember not having the tech, so we appreciate it, and weren't too old to progress with it :)

3points

Grenelda Thurber 3 months ago

Don't worry, your time will come. Everything you know will be obsolete someday too.

0points

Sweet Taurus 3 months ago

6points

michael reid 3 months ago

You can get internet scavies from this.

3points

Grenelda Thurber 3 months ago

2points

UKGrandad 3 months ago

2points

Justin Tyme 3 months ago

That actually is what happens. It uses Star Trek transporter technology.

2points

Damned_Cat 3 months ago

2points

Lord of the laserprinter. 3 months ago

My worst nightmare is my 83 year old mother wanting a computer. The Nigerian princes would have a field day .

2points

Igor914624 3 months ago

2points

Igor914624 3 months ago

4points