In today’s fast-paced digital world, not everyone is fluent in the language of technology. Unfortunately, some individuals face mockery and ridicule for their lack of digital literacy. In this blog, we’ll think about the importance of empathy and support for those who are perfectly capable but have been made to believe that they aren’t.
Think about this example; I could probably service a car and cars have been around a long time and a drive one but unless someone who has experience in servicing cars shows me what to do I’m not going to have a scooby where to start and in addition I might be going the long way about things when I could benefit from someone showing me quicker and easier ways to do things because they’ve been there.
IT bullies tend to use their knowledge to leverage power, usually because they are powerless in other areas or because they are hiding something and they want to keep it hidden (very much in the news at the moment….)
Thankfully, there are many technology experts out there who are generous with their knowledge and humble and I am fortunate to have more than my share of those people in my orbit.
A massive part of my work for many years has been about building the confidence of those for whom technology feels like the enemy as well as those who want to get more from it. I get a massive kick from seeing someone realise how capable they are using tech especially when they have been made to believe that is not the case.
I’ll conceed I am interested in technology and that of course makes learning about it easier however my driver has always been to save time by getting it to do stuff quickly so I have more spare time to do other stuff (like being with family and friends, travelling and generally enjoying life) as well as taking away the stress of juggling and remembering a million things at once.
So remember, it’s ok to ask, in fact my whole membership is about just that and if anyone snarks at you and says ‘oh, don’t you know how to do that?’ try this response; ‘no actually I don’t, if you could show me that would be great.’ IT bullies will scurry away as they don’t want to be exposed as they are usually bigging themselves up due to some other inadequacy or in reality don’t know either and the others will apologise for being snarky and show you or admit ‘I’m not sure either’ and then you can suggest that you both find out together.
