In this “CBS Evening News” report from May 22, 1995, a first-time personal computer user was featured to underscore the challenges in adopting the new technology. Former CBS News correspondent Reed Galin reports.
@@coolak7293 Everybody laugh at Bill Gates for saying that (if he even said that), but maybe he was correct at a time of saying this phrase. It's like saying 1 GB of ram is plenty in early 2000s.
Had a potential employer for an IT role on the phone a while back asking if I has basic CCNa qualifications? Such as can I insert a USB? I'm like. "I have a Bachelor's degree in computer maintenance and systems support. I've built pcs since my twenties, installed operating systems, and configuration of cisco routers and switches"
as someone that got out of the IT field, it was a live saver. i couldnt imagine working so much for so little. it paid nothing. i dropped it and went straight to finance. best decision i've ever made.
That's me, as a real IT guy, all my family members call me for their computer problems. My mom literally txted me and ask me to make a video of how to turn her iPhone off....... she said every time she does it it's always siri.
@@Commander_HW As a previous Android user it also took me a couple of tries to turn an iPhone off. Simply holding the off-button activates Siri instead of turning your device off, not intuitive at all..
That's not fair, that's very condescending, and that was uncalled for. Jamie suffers from acute boomeritis, even though she's not really a boomer. While paying for groceries recently at a nearby grocery store, our local CBS station field reporter, Tricia Takanawa, asked if she would pay using cash, credit, or mobile, but Jamie gave a confused look. Instead, she pulled out a check book.
I'm born in 97, but still had a PC sience i was quite young 5-6 years old. And i remember specific things of how awful the pc interface was, thanks god i was blessed with windows xp, cause 97 and 00 was extremly awful. I remember when you had to go in Total Comander or what was it called, or when a dude gave to my parent a thing for PC that had like 260 games in, sonic, alex kid, jaz rabit, road rage.. Jesus was so nice, i used to be so happy playing. But having to conect the cables is hard, especialy when you don't know what damange you can bring to a pc, with Usb's now and jacks, is sightly harder to destroy something, but with the cable the lady used you could break the pins, plus what if you connect something wrong and burn the circuits ,etc. Is just the same vibe when you build a PC, and you have to put the CPU into the pc, which mean 1 sightly mistake and avoiding to read where to put the cpu, you'll just easly lose 400-1.000$
nah, my mum used to call the computer "he" ,"he's telling me to press a key" , "But what does he want?" , "why is he blocking the srcreeeen, what did you do to him? (I was alway guilty of soing something evil to "him" )", now she's even more addicted to technology than I am, she can't disconnect for half an hour.
Nearly 30yrs later, not much has changed. Gen-Xers and younger grew up with tech, but we still have A LOT of ppl in the workplace that have simply memorized the steps to their job on a computer, and anytime anything happens outside of that sequence, their whole world gets flipped upside-down.
Operating systems are more complicated than ever, so it would be impossible for most people to be savvy about things that don't apply to their day to day role (not to mention a waste of their time learning things that they almost certainly would never have to know, and a lot of which would be rendered useless by the frequent updates to Windows). What's more Windows and the computer world in general seems to be have been pushing the consumer to be more reliant on Microsoft, Google etc. to let them do everything, control everything. I am less confident and able now than I was when I first got an IBM compatible in the early 2000s (I had owned a couple of Commodore Amiga computers in the 1990s as well as using IBM style PC at school, so was already computer savvy). I used to be comfortable installing mods for games and so forth on my computer, but things like Steam and Windows from 8 onwards took these things out of my hands (Windows 8 even made it hard for me to make changes to files in game folders on my own computer...).
@@danyoutube7491 This 100% Up until 2005 or so I could mod things pretty easily, install my own stuff manually, and it was easy. Now the OS either does it for you or you have to be in IT.
Sure young people grew up with technology, but they have zero idea how any of it works. It's a struggle for them to get a new social media app running and they don't even know how to work word or excel or any tool for that matter. Staring at a screen != learning about the technology.
I can still clearly remember when we got the first computer to my job, I was 37 years old, and a guy came to teach us how to use it. We sat in a circle just staring in disbelief, he picked me first to come and try it. He said put your hand on the mouse and start moving it slowly, I first asked what's a mouse??? After he told me I asked "like how"??? He said oh, you have never used a computer? I said NO I HAVEN'T, WHERE WOULD I HAVE USED ONE??? No one had them at home yet, and I thought I'd never ever learn how to use it..
@@DugrozReports well,for me it took a long time to even think I'd be able to learn how to use a computer,it wasn't until I bought one for my home that I really came over beeing so acared to touch it😁 here in our schools the children taught themselves in no-time and then they taught the teachers! I remember seeing on the news how children age 10 sat and gave computer-lessons to their teachers😁
@@luivalentino8520I went to school in the 70's so no, we had no computers, I can't remember if there was one in the teachers room, but I don't think there was, there was typing machines and when "word" came(I think it was called that?) I remember it was a big thing; not to have to start from the beginning,just erase that ONE misspelled word and continue!
To this day my dad’s mind is still blown over the fact that he needed training software to learn how to control his cursor and I was able to naturally figure it out as a kid.
Have you heard of the hundredth monkey effect? That might explain how you knew, but I'm still wondering how he got the software installed if he didn't know how to use the cursor. 😁
@@Beegeezy144 back then you installed everything from the command prompt, lol. I’m a web developer and still install everything through a bash/zsh terminal on my Mac ssh’d into a Linux server. You just install from a repo whatever app you need. Tons of open source frameworks to speed development.
I remember my parents setting up our first PC and when I tried to help my dad yelled at me so I left. Later my mom told me what I had suggested actually worked when they tried it an hour later 😂
@@Beegeezy144 I think it was at his work. My guess is his IT department set it up and where training him. By the time we got a home PC he knew how it worked.
Describing computers as pain and confusion has to be the most incredibly well aged quote of the century. I swear to god every time I have a "small" problem there's an iceberg under it the size of long island.
i feel you. something randomly breaks and i have to go down a rabbit hole to find a solution, and often to no avail. then it adds up and i have to reset windows entirely. computers should be working for us and not the other way around; i dont need to be a computer scientist just to use it.
In 1996 I was 8 years old, pcs were just coming into India, only the rich people could afford to own one. My parents sent me to computer classes thinking it was the future. All I learnt were some DOS commands as well as MS paint. Now so many years later I'm an experienced software engineer. Smart move mom and dad. Thank you
4 years of undergraduate mechanical engineering courses at the university - and computer literacy was what I ended up learning - more than anything else. I became my parents' tech support.
In fairness, there was more tech jargon and programming knowledge needed back then to operate a computer. Now there are less ports, devices are found automatically, apps install quickly, startup time is minimal.
I find it funny and a little silly how people often think the kids of today are great with tech as show them pre 00's tech not just computers and they get stuck, tell them to do many non plug and play things on a pc and they don't know what to do. All they really know how to do is use apps.
@@revengenerd1 yep, my grandma thinks im a tech genie cause i changed the aspect ratio on her tv, even though it is just pressing one button ( to be fair, the remote had everything labled in English and she does not speak English)
Right? That's what's amazing about technology now. This stuff is far cheaper now than in the past and yet even more powerful and feature rich. It's insane.
@@jackkraken3888 Well, yeah. Computers are tens of thousands of times faster at computing now. It wouldn't make sense if a 5000 investment back then would be multiplied tens of thousands of times linearly with the compute ability. You'd end up spending many many millions of dollars for todays modern high frequency, high IPC, multi-core processors. I think that would be more insane.
i dunno how old you are you, im 38 but lemme tell ya when i was 7-14 years old my parents were like this. My dad was a computer scientist working in the army space program office, and military intelligence for 22 years in the army, but his first personal computer he bought himself was a pc in 1994-95 and he didnt know how to use it. He had to take computer classes to learn how to use a personal computer.. he knew electronics and satalites in space but didnt know how the new computers worked. My mom was the same thing, in 96 she had a computer its still in storage btw lol. and i remember her on the phone with tech support for 4 hours one night trying to get it to work. Computers back then were not simple like they are are.. Once you get the cords all plugged in just installing stuff on a pc back then through floppy disks was complicated. Windows 95 was new, DOS was the main thing.. and to install stuff you had to go into dos and type commands everything. Like CD:/INSTALL DOOM. then to load it you needed to type in commands.. and thats just for CD's.. imagine doing this on 10 floppy disks.. The commands for things were complicated for new users... If youre in your 20's or younger you dont know how easy you had things, you put in a CD and things install immediatly you grew up with windows xp .. you just select the hard drive to install it. Now adays for teens they just download things online and install them through steam or what not.. computers now dont even have a dvd or cd drive.
MITCHELL WIGGS You say that because you've grown up with a PC but for a lot of people back in the day, using a PC was a massive change and a steep learning curve. Put yourself during that time and I'm sure you'd be struggling too. You don't know pain and torture until you've tried learning to work DOS. Back then there wasn't even a user-friendly user interface. That didn't come until Windows 98. It's all much easier now because of usability.
@@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305 I mean...DOS ain’t that hard to use. You just need to know the commands. I can’t imagine someone selling you a program without giving you an instruction manuel...
What many people also forget that back then there was no Google and internet was very limited. Now it's so easy when you can google absolutely anything, any technical problem, 1 second of googling and bang, you have an answer.
I don't think people were dumb. It was new technology and it wasn't as beginner friendly as it is now. Compare installation of windows XP with windows 10 and it will be a very different experience.
Very wrong, we live in the year of information. Unlike our parents, we will have no problems keeping up with new tecnologies since we have easy access to/information of them.
It's not completely sad. Some of us just weren't raised during the time. Where it wasn't the prominent thing or like me? I didn't have all this crazy tethe logical stuff. You kids have to, day. It's very different. Some of it's really neat and helps out a lot if you know what you're doing but some of us just get really frustrated because we don't know how to use it.
@@hurricane_valence In 2024, nearly everything is connected. I'm the type of person that if I use something, I learn it. Everything from repairing my car, home, AC, heating, everything. I can understand older people maybe not jumping onto it, but we have young people who cannot use a computer, and that is ill preparedness!
I agree, I think everyone should at least try to learn. I'm just speaking more from the perspective struggle. Of using technology as an older person or even as a middle-aged person who didn't grow up with all that stuff, but I do have a lot of modern. Text that I use, but sometimes I forget how to use certain things or when I buy a new thing. I have to learn and it sometimes may be harder for me or less. Interesting to me. Then say a kid would be because it's cool or it's what they grew up knowing. I love that we're able to be more connected now. Life can sometimes be more easier now because of technology. Sometimes it's a little harsir.
Until now, a significant portion of my life has revolved around computers. However, after watching this old video, I found myself unexpectedly moved, with tears in my eyes. I thoroughly enjoyed reading through all the comments on this video and even the replies to those comments. Everything about this experience brings me a sense of peace, and it feels really gratifying. Thanks to RU-vid for suggesting this video. 🖥📺😌
And im wondering what you could've used it for that its with the money at this point. At least as a normal private Person without any interest in technology
ISA, PCI, PCIe, parallel ports, ribbon cables, dip switches, IRQ settings, sound card, modem and video card conflicts, configuring the BIOS, IDE...the days of building white boxes! Anyone else remember the "good old days"?
I had a job once where we needed to plug in a dongle to use an application. And, OF COURSE, the dongle would go missing and then we would spend 2 hours trying to find it so "Mike" could create a visual for his 2:30pm presentation. Good times
lol duuuude... It must have been around 1995 or so. My dad, who was a software developer at the time, had purchased a new computer: a pentium 75! This bad boy had a 4x cd-rom, 8 colossal MB of RAM, and wait for it...a freaking _GIGABYTE_ of hard drive space. I remember inquiring about the video card because the one we used in our family computer was an ISA card (it didn't even have a PCI slot lol, it was a 486 33mhz) and I loved playing Doom in "hi res" mode, but it was so slow and laggy on the family computer, I was curious how the new computer would handle it. My dad told me that the video was on board, so it was basically just as fast as a PCI card and I think it had a 1 MB allocation of video memory. Not only did Doom play faster, it could even handle it in hi res mode without an issue! And it even had sound instead of the PC speaker sound I was accustomed to with the family computer!! The plasma rifle was my favorite sound for a long time. I could go on and on with stories like this lol
I did Tech Support for NatWest (UK bank). 90& of my conversations went "I can't connect to the Internet" "Do you have a box with flashing lights on your desk" "I have a box, but no lights" "Can you switch it on?" "Yes, I am connected now, thank you"
Cool flashback! It would be neat to see a follow-up interview with her. The first computer I ever remember interacting with was a Macintosh at my elementary school right around this time in 1995. The first home computer I ever had was a IBM PS/2 Model 25 that my uncle gave me. I learned alot about DOS!
Still common nowadays. People who work in PC services or internet providers' technical supports can tell you hundreds of stories about dumb clients who can't handle plugs and on/off buttons of their PC.
I mean in 1995 a UI like windows 95 was completely unheard of to the vast majority of people. It's like if you took someone from 1700 and told them to fly a plane
Those are the best book there's one for everything subject including stocks. Is the best informative book series that why is still selling like hot cakes or drugs.
29 years later legend has it, she's now a baby boomer who still can't figure out how to use it or her smart phone, so she now has her grand kids as IT support!😭😭🤣🤣
It's summer of 2024 and we've had a computer in our house for 40 years, and my poor 73 year old mother is still confused. You would think after all that time she would understand a little bit more than she does but she does not.
I'll never forget the look on my moms face when i told her I've got the reply to an email send to my/our cousin(s) in Canada in the same day (I'm European BTW). Mail even had pictures and it moved across the ocean instantly... It was like sci-fi for her.
Yup .. I still remember the telegraph's office building in my hometown, It was about the same size as the Postal Service one, they charged you per letter. The closest we had from instant communication was the International and National LADA phone calls from a land line. Calls were terrible quality and extremely expensive! I remember in 1985 after the earthquake in Mexico City, we were unable to communicate to our relatives living there until a few weeks after the event. And I was possible thanks to the "Radiodifusores" People who owned large CB radios with huge antennas on top of their roofs who communicated with other people in other regions as a hobby. (An expensive one!) What is really amazing is that even with all these limitations, we still could fly in about the same amount of time as now, is just that plane tickets were more expensive.
Same. I'm especially amazed, because I'm in Gen Z and also particularly tech savy (Comp sci major, linux user) so it's interesting to see such a different world
Words can't describe the touch, the smell, the sounds those computers were making. And the brochures and magazines with whole overpriced sets including printers, speakers and CRT monitors. I got my first PC when I was 18. As far as I remember I had a whooping 512MB HDD.... I consider myself lucky to have experienced both worlds in my lifetime.
This is wild. I was 1 in 1995. I don’t think my family had a computer that early, and I’m sure they were confusing, but it’s so strange to see people struggling to use these relics considering how easy and stress-free computers are today.
Was there ever a point in computer history, where printers just worked? 99% percent of the computer related problems in my office and at home are printer problems. That Office Space printer scene felt soooo good!
@@zachsmith1731 Printers has always been like that. They never seems to evolve. It's like formating a an email. Sure you can use HTML and CSS but if you try to do something fancy like setting an image width it will only work in half of the mail clients.
@@trashyraccoon2615 yes, but the wide majority use windows, Mac is nice, but for certain printers, it's not like " ok it's a pain to get working but I can install drivers!" And then if your not lucky Mac can just not offer drivers... because Apple doesn't like 3rd party stuff... that's what happens when your computer is "virus proof" (not really hating on macs but they do have more flaws then windows compatibility wise...
People forget that user manuals used to be written like Technical Manuals...they were actually fairly confusing and full of jargon. Once manufacturers realized the average user didn't have a CS degree, they began writing tech manuals and explaining specifications for non technically literate people.
I think that's good! As much as I'd like to have manuals that are full of jargon and all the technical information that goes along with the device, I think that the switch to a more casually-worded manual was smart since it's more practical for most people. Thank you for sharing that fact!
@@Ascertivus I mean there usually are specs listed at the back page or on the back of the box and when you get into enthusiast pc equipment like high end graphics cards or professional-grade motherboards you will find that the manuals aren't really about how to install the the thing but more about how to diagnose error codes and which ports do what
That's because the manual was meant to teach you how to actually get the most out of the machine. Nowadays, a user is expected to use their machine the same way everyone else uses it, to accomplish the sake basic tasks, so 'manuals' are really just quick start guides. Which is bad, because how can you get the most out of your machine if you can't mold it around your unique needs and goals?
My Dad bought me a PC after much begging when I was about 18, so it was 1990 ish. I'd read PC Magazines for months and we finally bought a Hyundai 386 SX16 costing around £1400. Worked like a charm and I spent hours every day fascinated with what I could get it to do. Two yrs later after joining a company on work experience, I instantly became their IT Manager because my knowledge of PC's was God level compared to the staff already there... Thanks Dad :)
@@Rsconquest IK Hyundai is the obscure computer brand also sold by Fry’s Electronics as a last resort to stay in business here in the US and also a car brand.
I worked at a call center back in the late 90s and early 2010s .... Man was it hell sometimes. I got calls like, I turned it on, now what?? Another one, I can't restore the computer programs that came with it because I threw out all the cds... Luck for me, I enter the computer world when my father bought a C-64 so computer go easier for me. This person was someone that just started using a computer for the first time. The kids today do not know the struggle we had back then, their cell phone has more computing power than that laptop today.
Yeah that does sound like hell. I haven't worked strictly a help desk job. My first IT job was almost 6 years ago at a dried fruit company. I very quickly realized that doing support over the phone was incredibly tedious especially working with certain people. I completely understand that people need tech support. That's fine by me, but holy hell some people are just very difficult to work with OR need a lot of hand holding (or virtual hand holding).
That bit was so good, if only they had access to RU-vid back then. She'd know, from watch countless videos, that the person holding the camera never offers any help but simply records the chaos unfold.
Nah, we’ll maybe idk. I first started using computers when I was 6 which was around the same time this video was made so I grew up with a lot of these old computers I find them easier to put together and work compared to what’s available now.
When I was a teenager, older people around me did not understand computers. Now I'm in my forties, older people still do not understand computers, but younger people do not understand computers either, because they use their phones! It seems to me it was just our generation that was really into computers, and that's it.
Yep - to this day is hard for my to convince to my aunt that she can check her post, or pay bill on the pc. no seriously she's looks at me like I'm from another planet.
opposite way too, zoomers and late gen z'ers weren't taught basic tech literacy because of phones, tablets, and chromebooks which simplified everything. there are some of us who dont even know how to make folders
@@skunksecond its funny you mention folders specifically because now i hear knowing HOW to make one on a computer classifies you as a power user nowadays
@Trippie Nxouch well she did look like a girl in the video tbh. What if she's still in shape & looking good though? ;). I've seen girls my age look more like big mamas than her. Hope you ain't one of em.
@@saadsajidul9001 ok , just fyi playing league solo (alone with random people) is very frustrating it feels like so hard and unfair people will just blame each other when they lose , it's just a stress
Having worked in a call center for a internet provider in 1999 myself I can guarantee you that back then the people trying to help you often were hardly qualified to do so. I remember my job interview consisted of them basically asking if I new what the internet was and if I was wiling to work on Saturdays. Thank god there were some guys who really knew their stuff because I was just hopeless.
what internet provider did you work for in 1999? I ask because in 1999 there was only aol, anything else was just a basic connect to internet explorer with a dial-up modem. I was 16/17 y.o. and not aware of any "call centers" in the u.s. at that time.
It's kinda sad that we don't generally do anything revolutionarily new with computers today. Just more and faster, but still games, entertainment, online surfing, documents. Perhaps there's less headbanging today than then, but when computers mess up, they really let you know about it.
A couple of things about this video. Even regular PC computers were relatively complicated by today's standards to install and use. Installing device drivers, getting online, understanding what you were buying etc. all relied on what was printed in the manual, what the salespeople told you at the store and your immediate social circle. You couldn't just Google something or go on RU-vid and look at 10 different videos which explain everything. If you got stuck with something, you remained so until you could find someone to help you with it. Installing new hardware required all kinds of compatibles components and installing drivers by hand. You couldn't just plug something into a USB port (didn't exist) and expect it to start working. And all computer stuff was *expensive*, especially new tech like digital cameras or CD-R drives. Then a year or two later they'd put out something twice as fast and good. It was brutal.
you get it. I think many here who have no compassion for the newbie in the story weren't there and don't realize how much easier things are these days. I was lucky in that I had a friend who held my hand while setting up my first PC. That was the only way to get a frustration free start in those days. I'd like to see young people today install a sound card in a PC from 93 and have to manually set the DMA and the IRQ or set up a LAN in Windows 3.1. Good luck.
it's only hard, if you expect to learn everything in 1 day. if you just have fun with it, play with it and don't give it too much expectation, you'll be well versed with it within year. there are a lot of amazing thing you can do with it. after all, there are things that only PC/laptop could do, that smartphone, tablet, etc won't be able to do. all the Companies around the world use PC and not Smartphone or tablet for work for a reason
I grew up with computers and disagree; these people are cognitively inferior nincompoops. Computers back in the 80's were simple compared to the stuff we have today.
@@QueenNebulous13 was just talking to my wife about using Napster and Aimster back in the day, and all the burned cd’s we used to have to carry around 😂
gotta give credit where credit is due, its not the computer scientists you have to thank for that, it's the electrical engineers (well, the ARM architecture also helps a little)
I feel so sorry for her. I don't know why, but if people can't use modern technology like phones or computers and are confused, it just melts my heart and I wanna protect them. I grew up with computer, and these days everyone sort of knows so I have no clue what it must be like not knowing. Personally I feel that if oyu can live without a computer, you're better off.
