I am not a programmer, not a geek, but just the ability to recognize problems and then find and implement the solution gives me the aura of an omniscient wizard. Simple things like: We have an automatic drying machine for work clothes here, but we haven't been able to use it for YEARS! A Google search, manual found. We now have the third coffee machine. They always break because of the chalky water. When we descale, the display still lights up: If I really go through the instructions in the manual step by step, it suddenly works. And that's before we get to any multiple screens or Excel problems with the sum function.

If you can interpret your car's manual, you're a hero. If you can also get hold of the vehicle's repair manual, then you're a wizard. And if you understand the sum function in Excel, then you are a danger to your supervisor.

I am not tech literate like most programmers or coders, but I can look up things and read. Usually covers most of my needs overall, so it's better than nothing. Where I work I am seen as on par with any IT person but I just literally read instructions and follow them. Tried to explain it, but they treat it like I was blessed by the tech gods or something.

I don't know how to code, but I know my way around computers.

On the topic of echo chambers - At what point did we decide that a bunch of people over a wide geographical area with similar interests and a common code of standards/preferences of civility... Is a bad thing?

It's kind of how social clubs exist irl.

This used to be what people said about digg and then about reddit

It totally is. That's why I'm here. Depending on the server, you also get a side of non-authoritarianism and strong privacy beliefs.

About the time they get a list of services to pick for sign up, they lose interest or freeze, exhibiting decision paralysis. That one time they installed ImagineDragns.exe and the computer had to be taken to be cleaned, set them down a path of I don't know what this is, I won't touch it that keep us employed.

The average person nowadays could not create and reliably access a Facebook account if they didn't have auto complete/password save.

The worst is twenty-year-olds that have never used a desktop. They just stare at the mouse, keyboard, and monitor like they have no clue what to do.

i don't claim to have much computer knowledge, but people look at me like I have two heads when I suggest using a YouTube client without ads or download Blokada. Hell, the amount of people who don't use Firefox (or a fork of it) and uBlock Origing are insane

since the front page consists of linux and survillance hate

Very much so, when I brought up that I am a software developer who just loves using their Macbook, because it just works, I was told I stupid because I am now locked in and what if I want to compile my own flavor of window manager, like with no sense of fucking irony.

"Whats the best tool for..."

"Linux!!!"

"Haven't yet said what I'm trying to build"

"Pls just upvote me and tell me I'm good"

I can live with that.

Most internet forums are this way. Reddit users are also on average more technically literate than average. In fact I'd say it's the more purely social media platforms where it gets back to close to normal. Twitter/Instagram/Facebook/etc etc.

My mom is a tech literate echo chamber lmao

I'm currently trying to usb boot an old Motherboard from 2011 that has a very early version of UEFI. Modern disk imagers do fancy partitions that aren't recognized by this ancient artifact. Just saying it can be challenging.

Well that sometimes keeps the conversation clean though. Most computer people seem to be a little more intelligent than the average person.

I use Linux because I’m too tech illiterate for Windows, I needed something that just worked out of the box

Me being like "what does it mean to boot from a USB 👁️👄👁️"

Fr though, the account thing is not too far off. When I made my first account (when the Reddit thing happened, it was on lemm.ee) I absolutely didn't understand jack shit and what I was doing. I was very ready to throw in the towel. I didn't understand how to add communities, how to search for communities, anything. I still have problems grasping the whole server thing. (Or what a server is.)

So a lot of times I feel excluded here, or at least like an unallowed invader, or a feral maniac just running around, throwing stuff at a wall and looking for what sticks. But that's ok. I'm happy I'm still here and one day I might even know what a command line is.

in a simplified phrase, fediverse is the linux of social media. I'm not saying this is good or bad.