Will you be able to work out your computer in 5 years?
Posted on 30 May 2008 by Andrew Metcalfe

Google and Microsoft are both making noises about the their future plans for the computers and mobiles at the moment. Google are outlining their plans for the way we will use these devices in the near future:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7425209.stm

Whether it will actually happen the way they plan is very much open to speculation. I do think the fact it will change in someway is not speculative. From an IT skills point of view this presents a very real threat. I have written before about how people can be very inefficient if they are poor with computers and this is compounded as these people are least likely to adapt to the new changes.

I worry that large numbers of people are going to find themselves in real difficulties in the near future and just don't realise it. If you just don't understand anything more than simple tasks on a computer you will be left behind. Can you alter the predictive text mode on your mobile phone? Do you even know that you could alter the predictive text mode? I am sure that the companies building the hardware and operating systems will do their best to help but the hard fact is that we are moving into a world where if you can't use a computer effectively the range of jobs you can do will become narrower and narrower.

I don't think companies do enough to ensure that their employees are staying up to date with technology. The companies that evolve effectively will have a clear competitive advantage. They may do this by recruiting skilled people but I think upskilling existing staff will be cheaper albeit challenging. I did a session on "zip" files recently, it was far more challenging than I had anticipated but recently the biggest troublemaker of the session sent me a zipped up folder without me requesting it. It can be done.

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J.J. said...
For a young person in the workplace, it is desperately clear that there are tough times ahead for the tech-challenged. As a junior (in age) employee, what's hard is figuring out how to convince management to implement new technology while tiptoeing across the issue that the same management will likely be the group most alienated by it.

Excuses to stay behind the online tech curve are running out, and it is frustrating to have your ability to progress and excel hindered because of an management, IT and internal "culture" whose outmoded rules prioritize protecting their way of life and don't "get" how a shake-up would allow us to do their jobs better.
03/06/2008 13:32:00
Marc said...
I wish it was as simple as just worrying about IT (which I do think is a very big issue). My real bugbear right now is the quality of written English. If we can't get our kids leaving school without decent written English (knowing where to put a comma, how to not split (joke) an infinitive), we have bigger fish to fry....no?
02/06/2008 14:29:00
Andrew Metcalfe said...
I wish the majority were armed and ready. If I was to stop hearing "How do I connect to the wireless" (internet that is, not transistor radio), "why is it flashing" (the wireless router, not the IT manager) and "I've got a great laptop, it fits in my hand bag", I would think people were ready!!

People of school age will be fine, I am more worried about people 30+ (and obviously not all people over 30, I think Bill Gates will cope). The 30+ brigade are the people who are making the balance sheets of companies look respectable, if they start to fail these company balance sheets will start to struggle.
30/05/2008 16:43:00
Danni said...
The thing is...this just simply won’t be an issue in 10, 20 years time. Yes, there will always be a degree of reluctance to change: people prefer what’s comfortable, recognisable and often cling to the norm for nostalgic and sentimental purposes. Just look at the national furore when Brits were asked to part with the pound and back the euro. Or the unease when new ways of doing things are put into the public domain. I remember not so many years ago when the notion of ditching cds for mp3s was met with a pretty lukewarm response. But, sooner or later, people buy into change to the point where we can’t imagine any other way of doing things – I’m continually staggered by the number of people plugged into a pair of white earphones on my way to work. It’s the same on the IT front: maybe the current crop of 20 and 30+ somethings are grappling with zipping files and the like but generation X are introduced to technology before they touch puberty (my 11 year old cousin sent me a friendship request on facebook this week-naturally I refused) and are well ahead of the curve. Schools are beginning to see computers as an essential teaching aid, not a dispensable budget luxury. So let’s not be alarmist about this: the overwhelming majority are armed and ready for the impending IT revolution.

30/05/2008 13:56:00
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