Being technically bilingual
being 55, I got in on the tail end of the internet revolution. Understanding the terms I need to be familiar with in properly constructing a website is the equivalent of speaking English and learning Spanish as a new language. Googling terms and surfing the web or asking some kid with who internet technology IS his language to explain sundry tems and he gives me MORE internet speak is like only knowing English and needing an interpreter to translate Spanish into English and....God love him...he only will speak in Spanish. I have to remember while I came right on the coattails of the birth of the WWW ........that the WWW is HIS world. Hell.. A 10 year old could hook up my wifi in 10 minutes.
This is what it's coming down to..in five maybe ten years at the most surviving in the mainstream of society without being able to assemble and understand the terms of webpage technology will be impossible. To pay bills to set up appointments to gain employment not just running a business....knowing how to assemble and navigate on a webpage will be expected. Those who remain computer and webpage illiterate can still learn....but it's going to cost them. Time is money in today's world and as those who don't get this fall further and further behind...they'll be seen as slowing others down and be met with "where have YOU been over the past five or ten years?"
I will have an advantage that neither computer savvy or computer illiterate folks will have. That's being the equivalent of bilingual. I can translate the old from the new and the new from the old.
Will I learn how to do this? If I want to run a successful business, it's no longer an option.
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Chuckling to myself - you are right on the money (no pun intended) it really is a different language.
I've been playing on the internet for longer than I really care to admit. Anyone remember the beginnings of AOL? I wasn't there at dawn, but strolled in somewhere around 9:30.
While I have a rudimentary understanding of html code, my education began a few versions back and is a bit out of date. At one point I was looking solely for a piece of software that did not require me to gain a certificate or college degree just to post "HELLO!"
Which explains how and why I came to WordPress a few years back. :)
I don't come from a sales or entrepreneurial background, so that language, too, is foreign to me. What I found here was not only information, but explanation and instruction that makes sense. I may not grasp it immediately, but I will - and if I don't there are a lot of people I can ask who will help.
All in all, I'm glad we can take this journey together.
However, whether or not I want to learn how to build a page on WWW, will be irrelevant in another 5-10 years. I'll have to know how to do it anyway. There will be no niche for those who don't know how to construct and navigate a webpage. Everything will be done through it. Not just operating a business. Applying for jobs, having a bank account, heat, running water. If they're fortunate enough to gain employment, it'll be the jobs nobody else wants. And there will be nobody who will educate you without it costing you a fortune. And by that time, those who are WWW illiterate will be just struggling from day to day. That's why I'm doing this NOW. I already see how the number of sites willing to break down these terms are going bye bye. They don't have the time. Things in the WWW are changing daily. New terms are coming out daily. Soon our society will no longer be a viable place for the WWW illiterate.they're going to start seeing a series of shutoffs in their lives. It's not pretty.