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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

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#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.

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

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

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#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

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#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.

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

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

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#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.

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

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

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#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

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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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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 2 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 2 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 2 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