Over the past few years, we have seen the Internet grow and change
     massively. Once a primary education-based environment with aspects
     of social interaction, we have involved into a largely commercial
     and social network where information and learning have become
     secondary -- obsolete, in some cases. The advent of the WWW has
     seen a largely "point, click, and make it easy" mentality pervade a
     world that was never designed to accomodate the non-technically
     inclined. USENET's introduction to the masses, via such
     questionable advances as Netscape's integrated newsreader and the
     unfortunate, buggy code of the AOL news/discussion forum interface,
     has played a key role in the network's accelerated decay.
     
     The mentality of helplessness and disempowerment is growing by
     leaps and bounds. While many who once counld not have conceived of
     purchasing a home computer are now happy to snap up Wintel
     technology, technophobia is no less pervasive than ever it was
     before: the difference, now, is the wide availability of software
     products targetted at lower and lower common denominators. The
     frequent statement many people make, "I'm not a computer person,"
     accompanied by "I just want it to work," is being capitalized upon
     far beyond what anyone could have envisioned. Newsreaders, mail
     clients, web browsers, and even HTML production tools no longer
     rely on providing efficient and powerful means of data exchange.
     Instead, they are being dumbed down -- and basic features and
     functionality are being sacrificed so that the user will never have
     to be frightened or made to think "it's too hard" or "only a
     computer person could do this."
     
     The truth, though, is dangerous: By and large, the GUI clients
     (particularly those available for Windows, although there's some
     scary stuff out there for the Mac as well) are bloated, poorly
     coded works that impede one's ability to get the most out of their
     net.experience. Newsreaders lack filter functions that would
     otherwise allow the user to glean the most signal from USENET
     newsgroups, allow the user to post improperly formatted, visually
     impossible to read, articles without ever realizing that there
     might be a problem, and fail to provide adequate pointers to
     etiquette protocols. Mail clients [often? sometimes?] do not comply to
     established header and encoding standards, resulting in mail being
     sent that frequently cannot be read. Web clients take up
     unnecessary machine resources and integrate only semi-functional
     mail and news reading functions into their code. HTML editors
     increasingly limit one's control over the finished product, turn
     out bulky and kludgy markup, and occasionally do not even provide a
     means to edit the finished file. The tradeoff for "ease of use" is
     a dearth of software that barely does its job; the user seldom has
     the opportunity or the impetus to demand and require something
     better.
     
     Somehow, the (inaccurate and detrimental) message that only a
     terribly brilliant person could ever use a computer (let alone the
     Net) has been subtly altered: now, anyone can use a computer/the
     Internet, because it's been made so easy that you don't need to
     know what you're doing anymore. Perhaps this is one step closer to
     introducing computing to the masses, but the cost may well be too
     high: we move from a caste of the enlightened who can use computers
     at all vs another who could never learn anything so complicated, to
     a caste of the enlightened who can understand higher-level
     operations vs. a caste that must have its hand held at every
     juncture and play with the pretty buttons to get anything done.
     Unlike a loosely-formed class system that would allow one to escape
     the trappings of a lower class, a caste system locks one into
     place, reinforces and enforces firm limitations, and provides no
     impetus for improvement.
     
     There's good news, though: it doesn't have to be a caste system.
     
     While it is true that many people are not technologically inclined
     and have difficulty learning in a computerized environment (at that
     point, it may be a bad idea for those people to take up Internet
     use as a hobby), it is also true that many people who could learn
     computing skills to some extent or another are only accepting a
     prevalent trend of technophobia that they can work past and beyond
     with a little time and effort.
     
     "But I don't have time;" you say, "I just want my things to work,
     and need to be able to just sit down and get my email/read the
     USENET/look at the Web/talk to people." At this point, you need to
     ask yourself a few questions:
     
     * Why are you using the Internet?
          + If it's for recreational purposes: do you go golfing without
            knowing how to hold a club? Do you paint without knowing how
            to rinse your brushes? Do you work out without appropriate
            safety measures? Do you play an instrument without knowing
            the first thing about music? Chances are that, if you do any
            of the above, you'll not only do miserably at what you do but
            become frustrated and quit fast when your brushes won't hold
            paint, your clubs always fly out of your hands and get
            dented/bent from hitting rocks and trees, you injure your
            muscles or your neighbors complain about the racket. Either
            that, or you'll learn the appropriate skills. Wouldn't it be
            better to get a basic understanding of the fundamentals so
            that you can get the most out of your hobby and enjoy it all
            the more?
          + If it's for business purposes: you already know that you do
            your job better when you're well-acquainted with the
            fundamental skills required for the purpose. If you need to
            exchange email on the job for some reason or another, it's
            not going to seem terribly professional if you send email
            that scrolls off the recipient's window or is formatted in
            such a way that your recipient can't read it. If you need to
            post some information regarding your business to the USENET,
            you could lose business if you send out something written in
            ALL CAPS (construed as yelling), poorly proofread (spelling
            and punctuation errors, in abundance, get read as signs of
            ignorance/low intelligence) and with lots of unneeded blank
            space at the top (most folks skip those posts) -- and you
            will lose business if you post it to inappropriate newsgroups
            and/or then mass-email it in an unsolicited fashion. If you
            stick up a web page, huge, slow-to-load graphics and bad HTML
            will cause most people to just skip over it -- and then what?
            Learning how to use this tool responsibly and well will help
            you do your job more efficiently.
     * Do you think of yourself as a reasonably intelligent person? If
       you've made it this far, chances are good that you do. Then what
       do you need with software that assumes that you're stupid? Really,
       really consider this for a moment: some of the most popular
       computer books in circulation are the For Dummies and Idiot's
       Guide series. Since when are you an idiot because you're a
       beginner? Many pieces of software are marketted, both by their
       makers and by the ISPs who distribute them (Earthlink is
       particularly guilty of this), with statements that boil down to,
       "Now you can get on the Internet without it being hard." The truth
       was, it wasn't hard before the GUI software was invented, and it
       still isn't hard to use reliable, powerful software to get what
       you want done, done. You do have to know how to read, but you have
       to read to use the GUI software (you did read the help files...?)
     * Do you believe that social adjustment is generally a good thing?
       In the jump to get the masses online, documentation distributed by
       service providers and software manufacturers seldom includes
       things like pointers to reliable information about netiquette and
       protocols -- so not only do you come on not knowing what you're
       doing, you might never learn what you're doing wrong (and have a
       really hard time understanding why people are telling you off for
       the post you wrote or the things you said on IRC or the email you
       sent to forty-seven people including all of their addresses in the
       header). You would very likely not go to a party without finding
       out what kind of dress is appropriate, or go to a foreign country
       without at least a phrasebook to get you around and a rundown of
       the customs to remind you that, say, no one's going to give you a
       fork at that restaurant in the Chinese village. So why have you
       been given the impression that you don't need to know anything
       about Internet subculture or protocols before blustering on?
       
     So how does one go about transcending this limitation and this
     technophobia?
     
     * First, realize that you are not stupid merely because you don't
       understand. Realize that you do have the power to know what's
       going on, and don't have to be limited to nonfunctional tools or
       be led about by the hand because you're just starting out.
     * Develop a clear sense of what you're going to be using the Net
       for. If you want to just look at pretty pictures on the net and
       never talk to anyone, you can probably disregard this essay
       (although realize that this goal could change). If you want to
       find long-lost friends or send email to your husband, that's a
       perfectly good goal. You might be interested in finding discussion
       forums for other people of common interest; you might want to talk
       to people real-time; you might want to play games; you might want
       to publish an electronic magazine. Know what you want from the
       Internet; don't come in with the attitude that the Net is going to
       show you what you want.
     * Actively search for the software that does what you want it to do,
       and does it well; however, be sure to find out if the information
       has already been placed somewhere out there before you start
       posting all over the place asking for it. (Some tips:
       news.software.readers is a USENET newsgroup which has
       information on different newsreaders for different computers;
       never use integrated browser products unless you don't have a
       choice; news.answers contains the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
       files for innumerable subjects; news.announce.newusers is
       essential and you should read it before you do anything else
       online).
     * Always read the documentation. Find out what your software can and
       can't do; read the FAQ files before you post or ask questions, so
       that you know what's already been addressed; learn what could go
       wrong so that you don't end up feeling out of control, calling
       tech support to find out why the Internet is broken. Many times,
       problems you encounter while online are things that you yourself
       can fix without any help other than the documentation. (This way,
       if a problem that has nothing to do with your system arises,
       you'll be able to recognize it and inquire about it
       intelligently). However, you could end up hosing yourself badly if
       you don't read the docs. Remember: most of the time, you're not
       going to need your hand held.
     * Try to use products (everything from software to Internet service
       providers) that respect you, the user, and the Net in
       general. Look for ad copy that emphasizes functionality and
       usefulness, and be wary of product promoted primarily as "easy to
       use" or "doesn't require an understanding of how [X] works". Be
       sure that there's good documentation accompanying the product (or
       books available on the subject that don't condescend to you).
       Granted, you will need to make concessions in some places (for
       example, most web pages are constructed for Netscape or Microsoft
       Internet Explorer these days).
     * Consider tech support to be a last resort, not your primary source
       of information. Again, most of what you will need to know should
       be in the documentation for whatever software you are using. Tech
       support at ISPs around the world spend hours every day fielding
       unclear questions from people who have not bothered to, or not
       realized for some reason that they should, read the documentation.
       Tech support is, by consequence, one of the most trying jobs any
       person can hold. Be considerate of them, and take responsibility
       for as much as you possibly can. While asking for help when in
       over your head is one thing, again, you do not need your hand held
       and much of what you need to know will be self-evident. (Something
       to keep in mind is that extended reliance on tech support can
       actually prevent you from learning how to do things yourself...)
       
     How will this help you improve signal on the Internet? By having
     established good habits and practices on the software end, you
     should carry these into the content you contribute to the various
     forums available to you. While you may well not know how to build
     your car from scratch (and we're not asking you to), you will not
     only know the basic rules of the road but how to fill your gas tank
     and check your oil yourself. Most of the problems people encounter
     on the Net revolve around not knowing the basics, and feeling like
     they can't learn them.
     
     You can; if you can read, you can learn these things; and with a
     drop of resolve and determination, you will. From here, you can
     find the best solutions for your needs without needing to rely on
     partial efforts that hamper and cripple you.
     
     Best of all, you need not feel as though computing is entirely
     beyond you.