Read-Write Web has a characteristically well-thought-out post about the new world of thinking digitally instead of physically. You can particularly appreciate the part about computer-phobia.

Who among us, working in a tech-related field, has not had an acquaintance who waved away our computer-jargon with the retort “I don’t understand computers!” Or gotten a phone call from a relative late at night, who needed help with their home computer?

At the same time, software engineers, web designers, and graphics artists seem to be at a loss when it comes to dealing with the physical world. A great programmer is stumped when their car stalls, a brilliant web designer will have their website in perfect order while their desk is buried under three feet of junk, and many IT professionals tend to let their health go, developing the expanding waistline and fluorescent-lighting complexion that goes with spending all your time in a cubicle or a server room.

We have to remember that the first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s, which makes them about 40 years old. That’s an extremely short time, when you consider how used we are to the digital age. In all of human history, we’ve only had the span of two generations to adapt to a world with computers in them, and yet they are everywhere in our world. No wonder some of us have a hard time dealing with them!

Compare things like cars and phones. We’ve had those around for nearly a century, and as a result we’ve gotten more of a handle on them. The average person may not have mechanic knowledge, but they at least understand that a car needs gas, oil, a battery, and coolant. They understand how to do simple maintenance tasks like changing a flat tire or replacing an air filter.

And telephones make sense to people on a level where computers do not. The average citizen – excluding the tech-savvy reader we expect you are – is still fuzzy on the concept of the Internet; how can that web page be across the country and yet right in front of them at the same time? Yet they have no problem understanding that the voice on their telephone is coming from a person very far away.

Peter Brittain