Browser Reviews

Using the internet without knowing what a browser is, is like speedcubing the 3x3x3 without knowing what a Rubik's cube is.
 
pjk said:
It's not jargon. It is a fundamental piece of how you browse the internet. People don't know the different between a search engine and a browser, that is sad. But as I said before, the thing I find sad and that most people don't even question it, or even wonder how it works. People today are so vulnerable because they don't think.
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I think you overestimate how many people use the internet. A classic example was that big black dude. I'm not being racist, I'm going by what he said. By the sounds of it that guy probably rarely uses the internet. In New Zealand, only approximately 71% of the country even had internet access in 2008. I put some other countries in there too. Feel free to play around and see how atypical this is of the world in general.

Anyway, I bet 99.999% of the population have absolutely no idea how a phone even works. I certainly don't, nor should I, and nor should I care. As long as there are people to deal with problems when they arise it doesn't matter at all. I say this, because phones have been around for way longer than the internet and are way more common and therefore you would think (according to the logic that you appear to be employing) that almost everyone would know about phones by now.
 
Dene said:
I think you overestimate how many people use the internet. A classic example was that big black dude. I'm not being racist, I'm going by what he said. By the sounds of it that guy probably rarely uses the internet. In New Zealand, only approximately 71% of the country even had internet access in 2008. I put some other countries in there too. Feel free to play around and see how atypical this is of the world in general.
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I understand that, and I don't think I overestimate it. I am assuming though that almost everyone that was interviewed in Time Square uses the internet on a regular basis (most of them seemed to have decent knowledge about it. eg. the woman talking about Yahoo, or almost all of them mentioning Google).

Anyway, I bet 99.999% of the population have absolutely no idea how a phone even works. I certainly don't, nor should I, and nor should I care. As long as there are people to deal with problems when they arise it doesn't matter at all. I say this, because phones have been around for way longer than the internet and are way more common and therefore you would think (according to the logic that you appear to be employing) that almost everyone would know about phones by now.
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I find this fact almost as sad. The biggest difference though being that a phone (how it works) is much more complicated than knowing simply what a browser is. A better comparison to your scenario would be if they asked "how does the internet work?".
 
pjk said:
I find this fact almost as sad. The biggest difference though being that a phone (how it works) is much more complicated than knowing simply what a browser is. A better comparison to your scenario would be if they asked "how does the internet work?".
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That comment was in reference to your "or even wonder how [a browser] works"

But I do wonder why you find this to be such a sad thing. The world has moved away from the majority of people having a vast knowledge of the components of their surroundings (when their surroundings were simple and didn't require technical understanding). Nowadays people specialise in things (well, not everyone). This means that one doesn't need to know every detail about everything around them. If they need help with something, there is someone that knows the answer! This means that the few elite in a subject can push that subject further ahead (is this starting to sound familiar to you... like modern science?).

So computer people can understand computers and make them work nicely for me so that I can put all of my focus on my own matters of interest (psychology at the moment) and perform to the maximum because I am not distracted about things such as how a browser works.

Personally, I think this is a good thing and is the foundation upon which the western world is moving forward at the most rapid pace in the history of the human race.
 
Dene: I think you make it sound really black-and-white. There's a huge difference between complete ignorance and having a PhD. You can get a high-level understanding of what happens when you browse in half an hour. Knowing that your monitor is not a PC shouldn't be too much to ask, either (grr...).

I'm not studying to become an English teacher or a professional writer, but I'm still trying to learn the language. I'm not a historian but I want to know and understand at least some of it. Specialization is for insects and all that.
 
Dene said:
So computer people can understand computers and make them work nicely for me so that I can put all of my focus on my own matters of interest (psychology at the moment) and perform to the maximum because I am not distracted about things such as how a browser works.
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You make it sound like learning how a browser works would take a significant amount of time.
 
Tall5001 said:
its sad that people dont even know what a browser is and the difference between a browser and a search engine is!
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They were asked if they knew what the difference between them was was, which caused some of them to assume that they were similar but had something that distinguished one from the other. When those people answered, they didn't realize that they were two very different things, because of the wording of the question. Saying that they don't know what the difference between a browser and a search engine is, based on the survey, is a misleading fact. If the surveyers asked what someone what a search engine was, then asked the same person what a browser was, the results would likely be different.
 
You could explain what both a browser and a search engine is to someone in about 1 minute.
Such ignorance could be understandable if someone had never used a computer before, but other than that, I just don't get it.
This is akin to not knowing the difference between an ipod and earbuds, or not knowing the difference between a hamburger and a hamburger patty.
 
Johannes91 said:
Dene: I think you make it sound really black-and-white. There's a huge difference between complete ignorance and having a PhD. You can get a high-level understanding of what happens when you browse in half an hour. Knowing that your monitor is not a PC shouldn't be too much to ask, either (grr...).
Click to expand...

A good point that you and Kirjava both make (pretty much the same point anyway).

I'm sure one could gain a reasonable understanding of how a lot of things work in half an hour. For example, how the toilet flushing system works; how the remote control for the garage door works, how the air conditioner works, how the sewing machine works, how to change a tyre, how to build a fence, how to paint a house properly, etc. etc. I could go on all day. However most people don't know the vast majority of these pretty basic things. Why is that? Well, I think a lot of it has to do with intimidation. It might be hard for the likes of yourself (a very smart person) to understand that. But for someone that is not so educationally inclined, learning new things can be a very intimidating and lengthy process. It's easier just to leave these things to electricians and plumbers and builders and mechanics etc.

Again, I ask, as long as one can use the toilet, as long as one can use the garage remote, as long as someone can use a browser, as long as someone can use a search engine, why bother learning about them? Bear in mind that the vast majority of the population is intimidated by the thought of approaching such tasks because they don't learn as easily as you do.
 
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