Is it learned helplessness or learned laziness? My mother can speak 5 different languages but "needed" me to show her how find her "My Documents" after she downloaded email attachments for years. It was amazing how after I stopped helping her with everything immediately ("Ma, I've got to finish this homework" is a remarkably effective retort) that she put in the effort to understand how to use this tool for her purposes.
I think more than anything there just hasn't been a good enough effort to help people get up the first part of the learning curve as they often have no idea where to start and people haven't been taught how to protect themselves, etc.
I agree with the earlier post that software designers have to want to make things simple, but people have to want to learn how to use it.
Around 92 I was forced into a required class for basic computers. I didn't pay much attention, but got A's as it was covering topics I already knew well. What I did learn from that class was from the students as I noticed many were just downright afrid of the machines and would only do what the teacher said.
There was no sense of play and the fear of "Blowing something up" was always there and I wondered how anybody could learn with that kind of fear.
I can understand getting frustrated but fear of the machine was baffling but I got a good glimpse on how "regular" people reacted to technology.
When I was about 9 or so I became extremely interesting in computers. I wasn't afraid of them....and I broke them over and over usually to the dismay of my family. Now I know how to do advanced things properly...but computers are very fragile and easy to break. This has to change for normal users, the Applet Tablet and Chrome OS are steps in that direction.
People want stable machines that never break no matter what they do. Once we actually get to that point, maybe people will stop being so afraid but we aren't there, their fear comes from experience of things breaking on them.
Sounds exactly like me. When I was 10 I dismantled my ZX81 to 'see how it worked' and broke it of course. I then got a ZX Spectrum to keep me from crying about it which I also ended up taking apart, but managed not to break.
I think I conditioned everyone in my family to be more afraid of letting me near electronic equipment with a screwdriver than the equipment itself.
There will always be people like that. My grandmother used to live with us as I was growing up, and she was always afraid of technology. She was afraid to touch the electronic thermostat... even though it only had two buttons and just displayed the set temp and the current temp. She was deathly afraid that she would 'break' it.
{edit} On the other hand, you also have people that constantly break things as a result of their own actions, and refuse to change. My friend's sister would be constantly corrupting her external hard drive because she would just yank the plug to remove her laptop from her desk. My friend would fix things and repeatedly tell her not to do that, but it would always happen again.
People are all over the spectrum. There are people that are just downright afraid of new things, and there are people that just take everything for granted (not caring what the consequences of their actions are).
My friend's sister would be constantly corrupting her external hard drive because she would just yank the plug to remove her laptop from her desk.
In the short term, your friend should tell her that she won't fix it anymore (or should have, whatever).
In the long term, thats a design problem. Not that I know how to fix it, but the idea that you can't just disconnect is something that needs teaching. If we can find a way that people can disconnect hardware (e.g. USB drives) that would be a good thing.
My grandmother was always afraid that if you changed the channels on the tv too fast it would break the tv. To this day she's afraid of turning off the tv, she fears it wont turn back on.
You are right, the basic operations for people should be more robust. Perhaps something that automatically backs up Office Documents every night to limit work that is lost? Continuing to ship recovery discs with machines? There are many approaches to this problem but each with its own peril. The solution could be lucrative.
However, I understand the fear of the machine though. Most people are fearful when they first begin to drive, first begin to use power tools or begin to fire weapons in uncontrolled, unsupervised scenarios.
But cars, power tools, and firearms have significant potential for severe bodily harm.
Computers, assuming you're simply using the machine and not trying to stick objects into the power supply, don't. It's ridiculous the fear some people have of simply using a computer.
I remember a line from some short-lived sitcom Tony Danza once starred in. Speaking to his new computer, he says, "You look like a TV, but you're not a TV. You're an evil TV." There's an anxiety and apprehension with computers that, IMO, exceeds the bounds of rationality.
No, you cannot physically harm yourself by using a computer.I think the fear is that they have no idea how it works and how they might break it. A person hates to feel stupid and they hate feeling helpless. I think for this reason they avoid it. Most people now feel comfortable driving cars but are terrified of opening the hood. I think most people are like that with computing, but they don't understand what "maintenance" they should really be doing.
I could be entirely wrong though. I think it is very difficult for those of us that understand technology to understand how those people must feel about things. It is for me at least.
As others have alluded to, the fear does not stem from thinking that the computer is going to kill you. It stems from thinking "If I break this thing, I'm up for $$$$." and "If I break this thing, I won't be able to complete my work." and "If I break this thing, I'm going to feel stupid."
