Rants - Common Sense and Computers
I'm continually amazed and puzzled that people throw out common sense whenever they sit down in front of a computer. I believe people behave like this when trying to deal with anything they don't understand, but since more people don't understand computers, it becomes particularly evident.
Here are some examples of common sense being ignored around computers:
- People will dust their plants and their TVs, but they won't dust their computers. They won't even clean the smudges on their monitors. Cleaning a mouse is out of the question; it's broken and they need a new one.
- People will fold 5.25-inch floppy disks and try to stick them into 3.5-inch drives. I have trouble coming up with the specific piece of common sense they are ignoring, but come on!
- People will spend months doing a repetitive task before considering that the task may be unnecessary or that there might be a better way of doing it.
- People will forget the years of grammar and spelling they learned and will create some of the worst looking documents and emails. Sometimes the level of education of the person doesn't affect the quality of electronic writing.
- People will freely give out their password to anyone who asks. They will even write it down on a sticky pad and place it on their monitors in a public location. Though common sense doesn't teach us to keep passwords private, common sense does tell us to do what we are repeatedly told by authoritative figures.
- People will forward hoaxes via email without thinking, but they are hesitant to pass on hoaxes they hear about offline.
Content updated: 15 Oct 2003