this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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I’ve never felt like a bigger idiot than when I try to explain the fediverse to normal people.
I don't think this is as much as specialized knowledge issue as it is that normal people are frightingly technologically illiterate considering how much is computers. I mean this is not a hard concept to grasp at laymans architectural level
Technology literacy is specialized knowledge. You're portraying the comic.
99% of people have no need or desire to know anything more about technology than the bare minimum to use it. The fact that you're on Lemmy alone means you have way more tech knowledge than the average person.
Yeah it is but that's not what I was getting at. You can try to explain things to people in the most basic way, say that a server talking to another server is like sending a letter. Latter concept is something everybody including literal children is conceptually familiar with. You do not need to know how the post sorts their shit, or distributes it or even how to properly adress a letter to understand how this works.
Except replace "letter" with "e-mail" and "institution or person" with "server" and people will act like this is impossible to attain knowledge requiring years of study. And I don't mean in the abstract, I mean in the literal sense I have tried to use that specific analogy to explain how 2 servers talk, with no more depth than that, and it regularly fails
It's crazy to me that within the span of my adulthood computers have gone from being a niche interest to something everyone uses and is knowledgable about and back again.
Computers have never been something that everyone is knowledgeable about. The IT industry has kinda trended like that, but to the general population they've always been boxes filled with magic smoke.
And that's perfectly fine. If everyone was as knowledgeable about computers as you or I am, I wouldn't have a job (well, I'm currently unemployed, but that's because of Musk).
Not literally everyone, but there was a time period where it seemed much more common than not, at least in the US. When it was taught to children starting in elementary school, and taking advanced classes was required for many jobs, it seemed rare to meet someone who wasn't knowledgable. I guess it isn't included in children's education or business education these day.
Personal computers used to be widely used because it was the only way to get online. We now have a new generation of users who use their phones to access the Internet and owning a computer is no longer required. Almost everyone has a phone. Not everyone has a computer.
Would you consider basic economics specialized knowledge?
Maybe I feel crazy rather than stupid then.