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Tech

TheCatWoman

     I have huge problems with tech, I almost gave up joining here as I kept running into problems about codes and passwords. I can use basic email and just about cope with some shopping, like the big forresty place, but some I find overwhelming. I don't know how to use a smart phone I can just about cope with a stupid one, but not well. Everyone seems to think that everyone else is comfortable with tech and that 'it's intuitive', who's intuition are they using? I can't seem to find any help and everyone seems to think more tech is the answer. I'm starting to get very excluded from the world as everything moves towards smart phones, mobile banking, do they really want me to crash the worlds entire banking system? That's the other thing with tech, I go near it, it goes wrong, the list of things I've crashed gets ever longer, sometimes I only have to stand next to something for it to stop working. I'm so fed up with stupid answers when I try and explain my problems, from people talking loudly and slowly to me, (my response was I'm autistic not deaf or stupid), or laughing, getting angry, trying to start me off at a place well above my understanding, like 'you have to decide if you want Apple or Android?' Most often they just sort of drift away, before I sprout a second head or something. One of my learning difficulties is that some bits of information go straight to long term memory storage without ever passing through short term memory storage, I'm told that without spending time in short term storage, I have no synaptic links created, so I can't retrieve information. For example I know I've done C&P dozens of times, but I can't remember how to do it, everytime is like the first, of course it dosen't help when I lose stuff, like an essay or something. Tech causes me more meltdowns than almost anything else

Parents

  • I can offer some practical advice though

    • avoid the trap of ‘I just want to do this.’ computers are  tools you have to understand how they work and how they are applied. you wouldn’t go to a woodworking class and while they’re trying to teach you to hammer in a nail say ‘but I just want to know how to make a cabinet.’
    • learn the interface. Desktop personal computers and laptops have very similar Windows-based interfaces. A lot of the symbols are the same between different operating systems. The save symbol or the Wi-Fi symbol or the folder symbol, The email symbol often to all tend to look quite similar on different operating systems. Again don’t think about big tasks, think about what does this symbol mean. What does this little box or button on the window do.
    • learn about clicks drags and gestures. Outside of wordprocessing Most modern computing doesn’t involve a lot of typing. It’s usually about manipulating symbols on the screen. with fingers Sometimes with a momentary touch or press and hold or press and drag. As if you were tapping or sliding counters around a board. there are also multi finger gestures. A touchscreen can tell the difference between one finger and two fingers and will respond differently. A common way to zoom in on an image is to put two fingers on the screen together and then take your fingertips and spread them away from each other on the screen.
    • learn about clicks, you can use the mouse and it’s pointing to drag things around the screen as well or to tap them by ‘clicking’ them. Imagine the mouse pointer being like a single finger hovering over the screen. When you press the button it presses against the screen and when you release the button it releases. But unlike a touchscreen the computer knows which button on the mouse you pressed. By convention the button on the left is the one for basic actions moving things about for example. The button on the right is typically an alternative action often bringing up a menu of options related to whatever it is you’re interacting with.

    Focus on the basics of interacting with the computer, learn its languages and conventions, and the tasks that you want to do with it will be so much easier later on.

Reply

  • I can offer some practical advice though

    • avoid the trap of ‘I just want to do this.’ computers are  tools you have to understand how they work and how they are applied. you wouldn’t go to a woodworking class and while they’re trying to teach you to hammer in a nail say ‘but I just want to know how to make a cabinet.’
    • learn the interface. Desktop personal computers and laptops have very similar Windows-based interfaces. A lot of the symbols are the same between different operating systems. The save symbol or the Wi-Fi symbol or the folder symbol, The email symbol often to all tend to look quite similar on different operating systems. Again don’t think about big tasks, think about what does this symbol mean. What does this little box or button on the window do.
    • learn about clicks drags and gestures. Outside of wordprocessing Most modern computing doesn’t involve a lot of typing. It’s usually about manipulating symbols on the screen. with fingers Sometimes with a momentary touch or press and hold or press and drag. As if you were tapping or sliding counters around a board. there are also multi finger gestures. A touchscreen can tell the difference between one finger and two fingers and will respond differently. A common way to zoom in on an image is to put two fingers on the screen together and then take your fingertips and spread them away from each other on the screen.
    • learn about clicks, you can use the mouse and it’s pointing to drag things around the screen as well or to tap them by ‘clicking’ them. Imagine the mouse pointer being like a single finger hovering over the screen. When you press the button it presses against the screen and when you release the button it releases. But unlike a touchscreen the computer knows which button on the mouse you pressed. By convention the button on the left is the one for basic actions moving things about for example. The button on the right is typically an alternative action often bringing up a menu of options related to whatever it is you’re interacting with.

    Focus on the basics of interacting with the computer, learn its languages and conventions, and the tasks that you want to do with it will be so much easier later on.

Children
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