The dialog was simple.
I said : I've sent you a message, did you get it ?! I was excited as this was the first message of this kind.
He said : I disconnected phone. I don't know what it is doing !
The message was not received.
The phone is an Android device I gave to my father.
This is a smart phone like many others but its complexity seems to be overwhelming to someone who does not have the exercise of: understating it, the functions and how these are to be changed and using it in a very personal way.
The way we are using and setting the devices up is very personalized - the reason why all the service providers are so keen on getting on your phone or device- but to even start using a device one needs to have a minimum level of digital literacy.
Digital literacy is referring to the ability to understand a piece of information (who created it, for what purpose, is it real, is it original or not? ) to understand the interdependency on the web, to have a sense of how that information is affecting the reality on a social level and to know how to protect your identity while navigating the wide wide web.
According to a source on the internet ( which we should question and NOT take as the truth) these are numbers of millions of people disconnected from the Internet at the moment.
I can only suppose that the economical difficulties, among other factors, are keeping these people back from connecting.
When they will finally connect, drawn by the very human desire to keep up the pace with the rest, the need to be part of something - will these people have the ability to use the internet and the capacity it has? Will they know how to use the devices ?
Will the devices of the future be so advanced, so intelligent that the human being will only need to ask for something and it will be done? Will the human beings know how that machine work and what is happening in the background?
How will the public network look like at that time? Will we have the abilities required to use computers to their full capacities or will we continue using computers and other devices for entertainment, trivial purposes mostly?
One thing is sure, the schools in Moldova and Romania- where I've spent 15 years all in all studying- are not preparing digitally aware human beings. The system is outdated, overwhelmed and kind of stuck in an archaic way of doing life. I am curiously learning about other education systems and alternative learning ways.
So the fact that my father, your mother, father or grandfather lock that little monster in a drawer or take the plug out or simply refuse to look at it afraid of doing something wrong, scared of destroying the little things - is an understandable human reaction when confronted with overwhelming new, huge amount of information.
They simply do not have the skills, nor the mental elasticity required when interacting with an intelligent device such as a desktop PC, laptop, table, mobile device and we might need to help them - for their good and ours.
While connected to the same network we are as weak as the weakest link and nowadays while millions are excluded from the Internet, there are millions using the internet in a trivial, simplistic and rather stupid way- an open gate for those looking to take advantage and use them.
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