There is a lot of talk about how “everyone” is computer-literate and Internet-savvy these days. Generally, there is a lot of truth in this; but, occasionally, something happens to bring me down to earth with a bump. One of these was a few days ago. I’ve been staying with my parents over Christmas, and I took my laptop with me, usually leaving it on my bed as there isn’t a desk or anything in my room. One day, my father said to me, in a somewhat panicked voice: “what’s that glowing thing on your bed? Is it going to set the bed on fire?”. Think of him when you think that “we can just move everything online”.
Admittedly, this anecdote concerns a man in his 80s. It would be interesting to know if there are any statistics out there that capture how many people there are out there who are computer-illiterate to the extent of hardly knowing what a computer is, and what the demographics of this group are.