Smart phones are Too Smart for the Average User

I saw a story over at AllAboutSymbian, referencing a survey from the BBC, claiming that many people are 'baffled' by new features on their phone.

I work in mobile retail, and the results of that survey don't surprise me in the least, in fact I'm surprised the percentages are not even higher. I get to see the 'average majority' of mobile phone users, and without exaggeration I regularly have to deal with people who cannot:

Turn their phone on!!
Do not know how to answer a call
Or read a text
Or compose a text
Or listen to voicemail
Or turn up the volume in call
Or change their ring tone (You know the people who have that damn annoying standard Nokia tone? It's just because they don't know how to change the bloody thing!)
Or lock the keypad

And so on. And those things are just the basics. So many times I have to hear people tell me how awful T9 is, that they cannot compose a message using it, when in fact little is as simple and easy! Maybe they just can't spell?

As most people I deal with struggle with the above, I am not surprised that things such as email and the like confuse people so much. I can accept that occasionally certain applications do not operate as expected, and occasionally things just 'go wrong', but that does not account for a lot of the problems. Generally, when it comes to technology, most people are ignorant, and they revel in it! They come in store, proud as anything, that even though they have given in to the evil advances of modern technology, there's no way they are going to use that as an opportunity to actually learn something! Oh no, better to be ignorant and one of the crowd than actually know something, because that might mean you are not normal! Because normal people are ignorant, only smart ass geeks understand technology. And if you are a geek, you are different, and different is bad. It's like being at school; no one wants to be the class swot, better to sit at the back of the classroom and muck about instead of actually learning something.

Of course, there is a lot I don't know; the way to learn is to ask from those who do, read, study, research. Then learn, remember, apply your learning and use that to understand the next step. Wallowing in ignorance is nothing to be proud of.

For as long as the general population remains generally thick, smartphones will always remain smarter than those who use them.