'[I] had to show her multiple times how to open Excel': 20+ People who had no idea how to work a computer

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 22, 2024 5:00 PM EDT

If you've ever watched someone on a computer open a new window and slowly type "google.com", these stories are for you. If you're reading this, you probably know that there are plenty of computer shortcuts that make your life easier. These days, you don't have to search for the google homepage, you can just type in whatever you need to search for. But there are people of all ages and backgrounds who haven't quite mastered computers and technology, and their mishaps might make you giggle. 

U/ThatLasagnaGuy asked the people of r/AskReddit to share the "worst case of computer illiteracy you've seen," and more than 2,700 people chimed in. Some folks were stuck with the infuriating task of helping their coworkers. A lot of people aren't too familiar with Excel, so they ask their coworkers for help. I wonder if they know they can google the answers to most of their problems… but it seems like some of these people are so far behind on their tech knowledge that it'll take a while to catch them up. 

After you read about these people who were utterly baffled by today's tech, check out a 15-rule wedding invite that has convinced this person to skip the wedding. 

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  • 01
    ASUS Big
    via Aleksander Vlad on Unsplash
  • 02
    What's the worst case of computer illiteracy you've seen?
    via u/ThatLasagnaGuy
  • 03
    Professional_Gaping The whole family has used emails for years, the other day I had to send one for my dad, and he said something in the line of "send both files in one email, so you don't have to pay twice".
    via u/Professional_Gaping
  • 04
    MrW... My mom was trying to move ~200 pictures from one folder to another. Her approach was to open one picture, do Save As, save it to the other folder, and then delete the original. One by one. When I tried to explain that she could click- and-drag the whole thing over in two seconds, she said "that wouldn't be any faster than the way I do it!"
    via u/MrWaffles42
  • 05
    She would also "save" pictures she found online by copying them, opening Microsoft Word, pasting it in there, and saving it as a .docx file. And she would try to "open" jpegs by right clicking on them, choosing. "Open With," and selecting Microsoft Word.
    via u/MrWaffles42
  • 06
    psychkp I was once trying to teach someone how Windows Explorer worked. For whatever reason, they could not grasp the concept of using folders to store documents. I had to get an actual folder and piece of paper out to demonstrate putting paper into the folder before she was able to grasp the concept.
    via u/psychkp
  • 07
    VictoriaEuphoria99 I was helping someone with a website for their small business. I told them I put an "alt" tag on some of the photos that would show text when they put their mouse over it, and to try it out.
    via u/VictoriaEuphoria99
  • 08
    He literally picked up his mouse and placed it on the screen. I fell on the floor and almost | myself.
    via u/VictoriaEuphoria99
  • 09
    launderingpileofcash A middle aged lady got frightened after being told she needs a mouse to operate a computer. (This was early 2000s)
    via u/launderingpileofcash
  • 10
    Elvish Mystical I knew someone who once put their credit card in the floppy disk drive to make an online purchase.
    via u/Elvish Mystical
  • 11
    Silent_Ad_8672 I work in a call centre, and one of my jobs is helping the call centre clients with basic computer troubleshooting. It is..an interesting task trying to explain to a man who makes more than I do and has been working the same job since longer than I've been alive where and what the start button is.
    via u/Silent_Ad_8672
  • 12
    outcastspice My employer hired someone to work for me doing tech support. In the first few days I had to show her how to open Outlook, create a new email, where to put the recipient address, etc. Had to show her multiple times how to open Excel, let alone use it. She never did get the
    via u/outcastspice
  • 13
    hang of email, eventually we concluded she actually couldn't read and we had to let her go. This was in the early 2000's and she was probably in her 30's at the time.
    via u/outcastspice
  • 14
    BeepBopARebop This just happened last Friday. I am a new legal secretary in a small law firm where the partners have been in business for 50 years. Part of my job is to print every email that comes in and of course people always send big fat attachments Friday at 4:55.1
    via u/BeepBopARebop
  • 15
    had some emails queued up to print and since it was already 10 minutes after I was supposed to be gone I asked the managing partner if he would shut down the computer after it finished printing. He did not know how to shut down a computer.
    via u/BeepBopARebop
  • 16
    A.. I worked for a law firm, and one of the administrators would print the PDF of the case from her email. She would then scan it back to her computer because it "downloaded to the documents folder so she could move to the case folder."
    via u/ArizonaGeek
  • 17
    I told her she could just click the down arrow and download it, then move the file, saving hundreds of sheets of paper. She said that was too complicated. She only lasted a few months before she was fired.
    via u/ArizonaGeek
  • 18
    Edit: I thought of another one. Lawyers are not smart when it comes to electronics. Same law firm, a lawyer was afraid the cleaning crew was going to steal her laptop. So she took her trash can and shoved it under her desk. Put her laptop in the trash and covered it with paper towels.
    via u/ArizonaGeek
  • 19
    Of course, the cleaning crew empties her trash. They find the laptop and put it aside in the cleaning crews supervisor office because they thought it was weird we'd throw a laptop away that looked brand new.
    via u/ArizonaGeek
  • 20
    Skarth Sold a computer on craigslist about 10 years ago. Keyboard, mouse, LCD monitor, and cables. He took it home, and said it didn't work, the screen would stay blank when he powered it on.
    via u/Skarth
  • 21
    When he brought it back, he was pressing the power button on the LCD monitor, not the computer.
    via u/Skarth
  • 22
    40_degree_rain Growing up in the 90s, I remember seeing multiple adults try to yell commands. at a computer screen. They didn't understand about standard I/O like keyboards and mice because their only concept of computers was from watching Star Trek.
    via u/40_degree_rain
  • 23
    MrSpindles I worked at the head office of a major UK company. They hired a woman as a website administrator and, on her first day of training, asked her to click on something. She just stared blankly, and they repeated, click on it with the mouse.
    via u/MrSpindles
  • 24
    The what? Was her reply. They had interviewed her for the job and it turned out that in 2004 she had somehow never used a computer that had a mouse. I don't think she made it past lunchtime.
    via u/MrSpindles
  • 25
    ssiws A user was attempting to connect to the Wi-Fi network by following the documentation. Upon reaching the step requiring credential entry, the instructions said something like "Enter your username and password in this window," accompanied by a screenshot of the login window.
    via u/ssiws
  • 26
    The user contacted the help desk, unable to write anything into the window. Eventually, it was discovered that the user was trying to type their credentials into the screenshot itself.
    via u/ssiws
  • 27
    BobFX My sister places every file she creates on the desktop. She does not understand folders. She cannot move a window around on the screen, she cannot resize a window except by the minimize and restore buttons in the upper right corner. She does not
    via u/BobFX
  • 28
    understand if she is using Google and wants to change to a different search she does not have to close and reopen Google but can use tabs.
    via u/BobFX
  • 29
    Cuddles_McRam... Last year there was a new employee with a CS degree who said they didn't know how to use Word and wanted to do everything with Adobe instead. This is at a government agency, so redoing all the systems to accommodate one person was definitely not happening.
    via u/Cuddles_McRampage
  • 30
    Attitude Adjuster... I once had someone who thought their Wi-Fi was down because their wireless mouse had run out of battery and needed new ones, think that's my favourite.
    via u/Attitude AdjusterSE
  • 31
    OptionalGuacam... I'm a graphic designer and it's fairly routine for me to be emailed photos taked with a phone of a webpage displayed on the customer's laptop or desktop monitor. They don't know any of the myriad ways to take a screenshot or copy a url. Some of them can't send an email from a desktop OS.
    via u/OptionalGuacamole
  • 32
    I'm a late GenX and I know I should be used to it by now, but the inability of people. younger than me to do anything that isn't on a mobile device continually boggles my mind. Bonus: If you claim to be a graphic designer, you should understand that you cannot make a 300x250 graphic "higher res". Please stop sending me 1250x1042 jpgs.
    via u/OptionalGuacamole
  • 33
    roundyround22 Ahhhh all of Germany! One company I work with knows that our system is to send finalized PDFs of their documents before they are included in a publication and that they should add comments and return. Different stakeholders should comment in different colors if they can't figure out how to note otherwise.
    via u/roundyround22
  • 34
    This company prints the PDFs (huge documents), sends them around their department for individual, handwritten makeup in various colors, scans that doc and sends it to their foreign offices for makeup where it is repeated, and red and that three timed scanned copy to us.. all in black and white.
    via u/roundyround22
  • 35
    No 90's era homework packet image quality can rival it.
    via u/roundyround22
  • 36
    t... Oh goodness so many stories... As a student working in college I had the ticket for a computer that wouldn't boot. Showed up to find over a dozen refrigerator magnets stuck to the outside of the case.
    via u/tziganis
  • 37
    There was also the prof trying to upgrade Windows (he had 3.1) via floppy disk (I forget how many discs, his PC didn't have a CD drive, but it was a lot) on his 386 that he refused to replace/upgrade.
    via u/tziganis
  • 38
    EDIT: Those are old stories - more recently we had the new hire (19 yo in 2023) that we had to explain what a Start button on Windows was and how and where "File->Save" was and what it meant. Kids that have only been exposed to phones/tablets are the bane of my existence these days.
    via u/tziganis
  • 39
    Smitelke This was 10+ years ago. Anytime the house WiFi wasn't working well, my roommate would unplug the Ethernet cable from the modem and the router and hold it up and down (like you would hold a hose to drain the water out) to "let the electrons drain out" so the internet wouldn't be
    via u/Smitelke
  • 40
    clogged. I tried to explain this wasn't how Ethernet worked but he said the cable technician told him to do this, and that was the end of the matter. The thing is it usually worked because it reset the internet connection, just not for the reason he thought it did.
    via u/Smitelke
  • 41
    shinigami2057 When I worked as a field tech for a local university, I would have to fix PCs for clueless professors and admins all the time. My favorite was an admin that just needed a new monitor, nothing else. She was adamant that I make sure I put all her icons "back in the right place" after replacing it
    via u/shinigami2057
  • 42
    K.. During a late 90s "PC training" session at my job, I was in a room full of older employees who'd apparently never even seen a computer before, much less used one.
    via u/Keefer1970
  • 43
    When the instructor asked us to click on something with the mouse, one guy picked up the mouse and pointed it at the monitor like a TV remote, and then asked the instructor why it wasn't doing anything.
    via u/Keefer1970
  • 44
    prstele01 Around 2016, I watched my brother (in his 30s) open safari browser and click in the search bar to type out "www.yahoo.com" and hit enter and then click in the search bar on yahoo's homepage to type "Google"...
    via u/prstele01
  • 45
    IdentityEnhancer Long ago, a Best Buy employee told me that when his town's store first opened, an elderly lady came into the computer section, picked up the computer mouse and tried to move it across the computer monitor screen asking "is this how you do this?"
    via u/IdentityEnhancer
  • 46
    realmofconfusion I had someone call me because a message had popped up in their spreadsheet saying that there was missing information in column B and that all rows needed to be completed before he could save the file. This was a message that I had added to the master
    via u/realmofconfusion
  • 47
    template file because I was sick and tired of people not completing the file properly. I patiently explained that all he had to do was to make sure that all rows in column B had to be completed, and he asked me "Where is column B?" "Well, Jeremy" I replied "Traditionally column B is located in between column A and column C. "
    via u/realmofconfusion
  • 48
    Also had someone complain that he wanted to get an average, but every time he clicked AutoSum, it was just adding all of the numbers together.
    via u/realmofconfusion
  • 49
    sovietarmyfan I am studying for a IT education. Some students in my class are just unbelievable. We are supposed to learn a lot of stuff like python programming, using virtual machines, set up networks etc. But a lot of students almost fully rely on chatgpt to do stuff for them. They don't learn at all.
    via u/sovietarmyfan

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opinion terrible coworkers ask reddit computers funny stories internet coworkers askreddit typing computer illiterate funny excel google opinions
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