[Liverpool] Advocacy (was: Re: Multi-Boot Query)

[Bob Ham]

On Thu, 2009-04-02 at 14:05 +0100, Dan Lynch wrote:
> In the recent Small Steps sessions at FACT it turned out that a lot of
> folks said they'd be scared to approach a LUG (or similar group) in
> case they were ridiculed for not knowing about something or met with a
> hostile attitude.

<rant>

That is a bit of a concern, I must say.  But it's understandable; I
think it's probably a general attitude towards computer geeks.  I've
often noticed that people are uneasy when asking for advice about
computers.  This comes out clearly when they use the wrong words to
describe what's going on, the classic being referring to a hard disk as
"memory".  There's a fear there of appearing ignorant and being
ridiculed.  I think it's mostly a social issue driving this because the
Internet and computers now play a significant role in almost everybody's
lives; being ignorant of computers is increasingly similar to being
unable to read.

Personally, I'm more likely to be put off by someone trying to use
jargon and failing, rather than just explaining what happens in their
own terms.  Rather than saying "I click on the round blue thing on the
main screen and I expect the thing for going to web sites to appear but
nothing happens", people say "the Internet won't work".  This just
annoys the hell out of me.  They say this because they're afraid that
using terms like "the round blue thing" will highlight their ignorance
and using terms like "the Internet" will make it sound like they know
what they're talking about.  This is ironic because it's actually the
reverse; *trying* to appear as though they know what they're talking
about really highlights the fact that they don't.  And, of course, if
they knew what they were talking about, they wouldn't be asking someone
else for advice in the first place.

Alas, I don't think there's much that can be done about this except to
continually point out that it's actually OK if someone doesn't
understand computer jargon and using phrases like "the round blue thing"
is infinitely more useful than using jargon incorrectly.

</rant>

Bob

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