Luddites were a group of British workers who between 1811 and 1816 rioted and destroyed labour saving textile machinery in the belief that such machinery would diminish employment. Although not entirely correct in it’s current day use, it is accepted by most as a term to describe people who avoid or dislike using computers or electronic equipment.
But what about those who embrace the use of computers but are unable or unwilling to learn? Is there a descriptive term for them? They shall not be named, but they are the ones who are guilty of some or all of the following heinous acts :
- Reading emails out load to everyone in the room as if looking for some inspiration on how to deal with them
- Believing that they receive more spam than anyone else in the world
- Typing website addresses into Google’s search bar instead of their browser’s address bar
- Saying things like ‘it won’t let me do this or that’ as if ‘it’ has a personal vendetta against them
- Clicking ‘OK’ to the restart prompt alert produced by some programme updates, then wondering why the computer is shutting down
- Editing documents attached to emails without saving them to their hard drive and then accusing the computer of ‘losing all my changes’
You know the type.. oh I could go on and on all day… but I won’t. Instead, I would like to ask our readers to suggest a suitable title for this type of person, and we will publish it here, tweet it, facebook it and generally get people using it, translating it, enjoying it, and we will finally have a word to describe people who should never use computers.
How about ‘Beakers’ – like Beaker from the Muppet Show : ‘A magnet for misfortune, Beaker would be blown up, electrocuted, eaten by large monsters, or lose body parts. Beaker communicates in a nervous, high-pitched squeak that sounds like “Mee-mee-mee mee!”
Alternatively I kind of like ‘Xenophanes’ – sort of ancient greek know-it-all who disputed just about every theory presented to him!
I’m not sure about ‘Beakers’ ,
he’s little too cute to be used as a collective word ‘cos these mothers are far from cute.
Although, this video demonstrates what you mean:
But if we’re going for a Muppet character, these two old geezers might be a more appropriate choice – what were their names again?:
Statler and Waldorf.
What worries me is your bullet point list. You have described Herself perfectly!
Funny thing was, I didn’t have to think too much as it was just a running commentary on what a certain person close to me was doing at the time… Could it be that we are both married to the same person?? :0