Only 8 percent of the people Google interviewed for this video (I'm guessing this was December 2008) knew what a web browser was. Does this mean all these people are stupid? Not really. Most effective speakers cannot diagram their sentences. But it indicates how long it can take for a basic concepts like a "Web browser" (I think Mosaic dated to like 1992) to filter into the mainstream.
We tend to see change as occurring rapidly and anticipate that it will always accelerate. But I keep seeing little signs that suggest (to me) that modern society is pushing back against The Law of Accelerating Returns, either consciously or subconsciously. This doesn't invalidate the principle, but it ought to temper some of our predictions.
The metaphor doesn't fit for the rest of the population. As such, the job of the interaction designer is to make the experience of the internet more and more like an extension of the real world.
Posted by: Daniel Bachhuber | Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 12:53
It means people are stupid.
Posted by: Casey Stark | Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 12:57
Well, OK, it probably does mean that people are stupid. I was trying to be nice about it.
Posted by: Dan | Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 14:43
I bet no one has a usenet reader anymore, either, or can tell you what they use to FTP files. The language I'm sorrowfully hearing people tell me is that they have "the Internet" and they usually mean that big blue "e" icon. A browser has become "the Internet" and with Gmail (browser-based) and ftp through browsers, it's one-stop shopping. I seem to remember geeks saying, "we're not going to dumb down the Internet for you," but they did.
But if you asked those same interviewees what app they use for (whatever), they could probably tell you because iPhones are population-friendly. Changing technology isn't always bad but makes me long for the old days of separate apps for separate protocols and I miss the word "protocols" as well.
Posted by: Sue | Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 20:33
The Facebook Connect article on RWW cemented my fears about the general public.
Posted by: Heather Solos | Friday, February 19, 2010 at 08:13
Of course it doesn't mean people are stupid. It means that knowing the definition of the word "browser" is, by and large, completely irrelevant to anything.
Posted by: Clisby Williams | Friday, February 19, 2010 at 14:37
Heheheh. 'Modern society' as you so term it, can't even figure out why they should, or how to use, turn signals.
Posted by: ncw | Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 12:56
I think this is good - shows that the technology is mature. One does not need to know how it works in order to use it. It is ready for mass use.
Just like the old times when one needed to know how an engine works in order to operate a car. Now the cars are a mature technology - turn the key and step on the gas.
The pioneers - car-mechanics or programmers - tend to complain that the masses don't know technology. But that is misguided. In the early days, pioneers were builders. Weren't they trying to make user-friendly stuff? Now it is user-friendly. No need to do much more building. But, with such a huge number of users who have no idea what happens under the hood, the experts now have a huge demand to fix problems.
So I see this video as very encouraging - the technology has become so user-friendly that anyone and their grandmother can use it. The Internet and the Web have matured. Good feeling...
Posted by: Coturnix | Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 13:31