Most Tech Illiterate Things People Did

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mattstaff
May 29, 2020 2:00 PM EDT

Someone on AskReddit got a fun thread going about the most tech illiterate things that people ever did. At the very least these moments should serve as a solid reminder that there are a whole lot of people out there that have no idea what they're doing when it comes to technology. Hard to keep up with all of it. 

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  • 01
    Text - FrostySection67 • 22h Wasting an entire tech budget on peripherals, with no computers to attach them to.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 02
    Text - III • 22h There are a few people here at work who will take a picture at the job site, print the picture, scan the picture to their email from the copier, and then forward the email to the recipient.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 03
    Text - 132752 • 19h This girl I know took off the W key on her keyboard and switched it with her A key and was super confused when the key binds weren't switched.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 04
    Text - HappyTrees_ • 23h My professor wants to take a photo with an iPad instead of a phone so that it would look larger when uploaded.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 05
    Text - 8dogsinatrenchcoat • 19h Back around 2009, my dad was pretty sure that partition was just the more official term for folder. Not really sure how he got the idea, but he sure ran with it. That was a pretty painful time, not least for my brother who was studying computer science at the time and was therefore tasked as the laptop-unfucker.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 06
    Text - meatwad75892 • 18h Had a lady in her 40s bring a new laptop into the shop that I worked at many years ago. She said she bought it brand new from Best Buy the day prior, and now it was completely dead and wouldn't turn on. She put it on our table, and we hit the power button. She's correct, nothing happened. Then we ask for her charger. "The what?" Yep, she had zero understanding of laptops using batteries, or electricity in general I guess... So we had to explain what a charger is, that s
    via r/AskReddit
  • 07
    Text - neverdoneneverready • 19h My dad who is 95 and completely computer illiterate, knows that you can look up anything on a computer but doesn't know the right words. He was talking about an old boxer the other day, I think it was Jack Dempsey. He stated some stats of his career and when I expressed surprise he said, "Go look it up on your Ebay. They'll tell you l'm right!"
    via r/AskReddit
  • 08
    Text - CoffeeAddict1011 • 23h Asked client to restart her computer and she proceeds to unplug it...
    via r/AskReddit
  • 09
    Text - lettucecunt • 23h My mom makes a new folder every time she uploads a new picture. She has like 600 folder with one or two pictures each. She doesn't see the problem
    via r/AskReddit
  • 10
    Text - Solfudge • 22h Trading computer monitors with someone so they could see how their desktop was set up.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 11
    Text - maxwellmoby • 19h My boss: the guy doing the PAT testing has broken my computer! Me: how has he broken it? My boss: it won't switch on! Me: that's the monitor... switch it on at the computer. My boss: this is the computer! Me: no that is the monitor. . What is the box black box on the floor? My boss: a printer? Me: what???
    via r/AskReddit
  • 12
    Text - just-some-things • 23h Using a mouse upside down was pretty funny to see. (This was a while ago)
    via r/AskReddit
  • 13
    Text - EWL98 • 19h We were trying to teach grandma how to use a computer. She got stuck at the mouse because she kept lifting it
    via r/AskReddit
  • 14
    Text - DoctorDonut0• 20h I'm in a high school engineering course, and we were doing 3D modeling on laptops. This one girl who was clearly just there to fulfill graduation requirements used the trackpad every day for over a week, and if you've ever tried 3D modeling with a trackpad, then you know it just doesn't work. Eventually, I asked her why and she responded "my mouse doesn't fit" and proceeded to prove to me that her mouse (USB) in fact does not fit into the SD card slot. It still amazes me
    via r/AskReddit
  • 15
    Text - Skarface08 • 22h I work in a cellphone store. I have had on more than 1 occasion, customers get mad at me that I cant access other peoples text messages...
    via r/AskReddit
  • 16
    Text - Hysterical_Realist • 21h I work in web dev, which includes some occasional photo manipulation. One client brought in an old photo of her great- grandfather, with his back to the camera. She wanted me to turn him around in photoshop so she could see his face. Another client got absolutely livid with me that I couldn't take the hyperlinked words from her webpage, port them over to her print ad, and still have them function like a link.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 17
    Text - lasagnebill • 22h We had a supply for I.T class at school once who asked some kid how to make a folder. He didn't know, and said maybe I would know. I did know.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 18
    Text - velour_manure • 19h A 1 Award It infuriates me when I see someone being way too specific with their google searches and then complain when they can't find anything. "What is the best way for someone to remove a stain from their bedsheets but keep the quality of the fabric the same and not ruin the sheet and not have to buy new sheets?"
    via r/AskReddit
  • 19
    Text - CapableGrapefruit2 • 19h My Nana once asked my Grandad to turn her laptop on for when she got home. He ended up ringing her because he couldn't find the button to turn it on. So she was getting annoyed saying it's right there in the top right corner! After a minute or two of utter confusion she stopped, laughed, and asked if he'd opened the lid of the laptop. He asked, what lid?
    via r/AskReddit
  • 20
    Text - CumboxMold • 23h Someone who also insisted on printing anything and everything also covered up the second monitor with a piece of paper because "they didn't need it". Everyone there had two monitors at their workstation and it was really damn necessary. This person insisted it was distracting and there was nothing they couldn't do without it.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 21
    Text - stink3rbelle • 21h Supervisor: "well, we could ask IT, but there's nothing they could really do about it." Because she couldn't identify the issue with my computer, IT wouldn't be able to fix it or help at all.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 22
    Text - whylmcalledqueen • 20h A woman in her thirties (IMO too young to be this technically illiterate given this was in 2017) was trying to plug in the female side of a power cable to a wall outlet, and when it was missing the prongs came to the logical assumption they had broken off and gotten stuck in the wall. I saw all of this in person while she was on the phone with her poor tech support guy probably confused on how this woman tore the prongs off of her power cable. She figured it out bef
    via r/AskReddit
  • 23
    Text - horseinabookcase • 22h Uncle needs step by step instructions to minimize a window or open a new tab. It's been explained to him dozens of times.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 24
    Text - tjm80 • 20h My former boss used his calculator to sum a column on numbers in excel and keyed the total in manually.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 25
    Text - sagbon98 • 20h My grandfather took two buses to work every day. Like in many cities, his city offers a transport pass. He doesn't want any cards, so he payed for each individual ticket in cash. My grandmother told him it would be cheaper to have a transport pass. Once at work, he nearly got fired because he refused to upgrade his computer from MS-DOS. This was in 2014. He eventually upgraded to Windows XP, which I think stopped being sold around that time. He does not have a smartphone or
    via r/AskReddit
  • 26
    Text - Big_Country13• 20h A while back, one of my coworkers called a few people together to show them a new trick. They had just gotten off of a call from a supplier, and they (boss and supply rep) were going over a PDF. The supply rep told the boss to do cntrl+f to find specific parts of the PDF (troubleshooting section I think). The boss had been scrolling for like 15 mins reading the PDF line by line to get to the troubleshooting section while the supply rep was on the line. I only caught the
    via r/AskReddit
  • 27
    Text - NoahV2 • 22h So our teacher tried to show us an example of last year's project in order for us to get an idea as to what to do. She opens up an essay made by a student from last year. In the essay there was a link to a website the student created for the project. (That girl went all out on this project from the looks of her essay.) Well, here comes the cringe part. First up, our teacher MANUALLY types the link, but since it was a redirect it had random numbers and letters in them. So, aft
    via r/AskReddit
  • 28
    Text - Gruzzly • 20h I saw an elderly man open up Microsoft Word and take out a marker and start writing on the "page" on the screen. This was about 20 years ago, way before tablets and smart pens.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 29
    Text - Certitudes • 20h I worked at AT&T and we had a decent amount of older people coming into the store because they needed technical assistance. Once a guy came in the store and I had to show him where the power button on his iPhone was. Then, I showed him how to press an app which believe it or not, he was pressing the screen wrong. He was touching the screen, but it was just not responding when he touched it. I thought the phone was broken so I asked to try for him and it was fine. I spent
    via r/AskReddit

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FAIL technology askreddit ridiculous Reddit funny
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