There are people that I’ve encountered that have a mental block when anything with “technology” comes up. This block has nothing to do with people’s financial class or exposure to technology. I’ve seen this in people who are near genius level and in the “average joe”.
Most of the time I encounter these blocks when working on people’s computers with them. Telling someone with a technology block to point at a square on a screen results in a blank stare. Any computer or technology related discussion needs to be repeated a number of times using different explanations each time before the person with the block can understand, regardless of how simple the concept is. To continue with the previous example, ask one of these people with the technology block to point at a square on a piece of paper and they might even be insulted by being asked to do a trivial task. The same task when on a computer screen becomes an incredibly difficult task.
I would love to know if there’s a term for this problem. I’ve encountered it for a long time and I think this may only get worse as technology gets forced into more and more areas of people’s lives.
Recent events reminded me about this because of an issue where someone in a position of authority was not flexible or willing to take advice when making decisions of a technical nature even though they had no information from which to base a decision. To make items worse, they also have the technology block, so they found it frustrating to listen and digest any information given to them.
So, after our cable box finished receiving a firmware update, I went surfing to see what was on and found a Dr Phil show about Cyber Bullies. I have a few things to say.
The coverage of the Megan myspace case from Missouri I don’t really have much to add to.
For the coverage of the “bad joke” I think they left one thing out that I’d have liked to know.. was the joke posted as the person (personal e-mail) or using their work account.. that would be a valid point they left out.
The rest of this post was inspired by the gamer in the show, but not a direct “response”. The situation was that an online gamer was getting upset by the threats against him and his family by other players. He was also unable to get the manufacturer and host of the online game to handle the complaints. Sadly, nobody has made a good reference that has been adopted worldwide about online scenarios and how to react to situations like these and how to protect yourself online that have made it to the mainstream. I’m sure a few references exist.. and if you know of one, feel free to post it in the comments here for others to know about.
To protect your anonymous identity online and be “safe” while playing X-box or other games, one of the important things to remember is to not give people identifying information. Don’t use a name that you use for AIM and every other service if you don’t want people tracking you. Don’t post any personal information or give out anything you don’t need to, especially to other players. This little bit of protection in itself make the other players’ threats empty ones. If someone doesn’t know who you are, their threats are nothing more than words.
The online gamer also was concerned about letting his kids online.. both in case the people who made threats against him and the people who will be talking to his children. Firstly, if precautions are made with some basic limiting of information, using different names, etc as listed above, nobody will know who the dad is, so we can assume that threat is limited. The issues with children online range from harassment, introduction to sexually explicit situations and other adult content exposure to stalking. A few precautions will solve most of these problems:
- Don’t let kids play adult games (or any really) without supervision
- Explain to your kids that similar to real life, you CAN (and should) ignore people who harass you. Don’t engage them and if it gets to be too much.. TURN IT OFF
- Don’t (you or your kids) give out personal information
- Don’t join location-based chat (ie: #sandiego-kids on IRC would be a bad choice)
One other very important thing about being online is to realize how fast friendships can be created and dissolve. Giving out your home phone number to someone you’ve known for 2 hours wouldn’t make much sense in real life.. and likewise you shouldn’t do it online either. Rather than retyping a previous post, I’d recommend a read of this.
After noticing some friends have their resolutions online, I feel compelled to do the same..
This year.. NONE.
I like the way I do most things. I like the attempts I make to continue improving myself on a personal, work and other levels. I have nothing that I feel needs to be tracked with a final “goal” at this point, nor do I want to.
Yes, there are things I can do better, ways I can improve, things I could do differently.. and yes, I am working on them.. I will continue to work on these things until the end of time. . but I do see that I am always improving, and I can live with this and sleep comfortably at night.