I asked a relative to look for RealVNC on the Play Store and install it. Once they were done, I asked them to fulfill a basic task inside RealVNC and they were really confused by my instructions. I took a look at their phone, lo and behold, they had installed a different app. I asked them to repeat the install procedure while I watched. They punched in “realvnc” in the search box, two identically formatted results appeared. Their finger instinctively clicked the Install button on the top result. It was an ad. 🤦♂️🤦♀️🤦
Is that really the average user? Especially not having internet service at home? I can reluctantly but relatively easily believe the “no computer” bit but, average or not, I don’t think I know anyone without some kind of non-mobile Internet.
To this average person, they have an unlimited plan because that’s what they sell you in the carrier store, and they go do a quick cost benefit and go “nah I don’t need to pay for another internet plan for my home when I have unlimited data on my phone” Mobile data has gotten good enough and cheap enough that they don’t have to care really.
I agree its very hard for us in tech to imagine. I had a similar discussion with one of my colleagues in IT who was in a similar state of disbelief (in this case it was a person who was recently fired who had been with the company for over 25 years and used his work email for a bunch of personal accounts because he “doesn’t have a personal email” a couple of us pointed out some of the thought processes and cost/benefit analysis one might make that can lead to that point)
Nobody in my wife’s family has a laptop. Not a single person. They are tech illiterate to the point where I’m not sure they know how to use a keyboard.
That’s probably not the average user either, but they certainly help to set the average as low as it truly is…
It’s entirely plausible that this is the case for your wife’s family and others, but it’s hard for me to imagine a household without at least one non mobile computer. However, I can.
Without non mobile internet, though? Again, I can imagine it … But it seems wrong.
It shouldn’t be so hard; I was around before the internet was prevalent. My life now involves constant internet access, though, so I guess it’s weird to me that some people have lives that don’t - and especially that that might be the average.
One must always remember the words of George Carlin, I suppose.
We use a fair few shared mobile phones at work and while it has WiFi / unlimited mobile data is used solely as an absence line number because some of my fellow colleagues don’t have home internet, actively disable their mobile data (because they use a SMS / Call package only), and really can’t get their head around “the nets”/Whatsapp and don’t, want to, either.
Which I agree with to an extent since Whatsapp can suck my plums too. They exist and quite a few of them apparently.
There is a bonus to this thou since I get to call them names because of their neanderthal ways…
