The initial spurt of Google Chrome enthusiasm seems to be wearing down. Of course, even with this, the moment anything is released onto the Internet, rapid dogs continually descend upon it from every corner of the world.
One thing that has certain people uppity are automatic updates. That is, Chrome will automatically update itself with security patches without user intervention, checking in every few hours to do so.
And, in all honesty, I think these people need to get smacked in the face with a shovel.
Power Users’ Perception of the User Population
There are quite a few people (outside of IT) who want complete dominion over their computer, making and authorizing each and every decision about it. Well, that’s just awesome for you. But 99% of all users don’t care about that. They just want their computer to work, get things done, and keep their identity safe.
And, you know why I’m pretty sure that most people don’t care? Because I watch them use computers. Because I listen to what they say whenever the subject comes up. Because I have to fix their computers whenever something breaks down far beyond what they can comprehend. Because they talk to me about what they feel is important about computers, and don’t talk about what’s not important.
Let me tell it flat out.
People don’t read messages on the screen. A pop-up message comes up. They scan it a bit to see if it’s a virus or spyware or adware. If it isn’t and they have a good feeling about the message, they hit OK. If they don’t feel comfortable with it, they hit Cancel. They never really understand the message, which vanishes from their memory within fifteen seconds.
You think people really want to know about each and every thing? Look at Vista’s User Account Control and the reaction to that.
Normal people don’t like having to maintain their computer. In this day and age, you have to be wary of all sorts of things. Viruses. Hackers. Adware. Spyware. Trojans. Security flaws. The solution? Anti-virus scanners. Firewalls. Adware cleaners. Popup blockers. Spyware sweepers. Security patches.
That’s quite a lot of things for someone who just wanted to read their e-mail, look at stocks, read the news, and do an Internet search on something. And a lot of it could be automated to give people back their time, money, and peace of mind.
Normal people just want the thing to work. Surprise, surprise! For many people, computers are a means to something, not an end in itself. They use it at work so they can get their job done and get paid. They don’t need it to work exactly like they want it (their expectations tend to be rather low), but if it does its job with the minimal amount of hassle, that’s fine.
Getting things done quickly gives people more time to do more entertaining things. Like watching a movie, getting drunk, and/or going to sleep.
And so…
Normal people don’t want to worry about manually updating all of their programs. They don’t want to be bothered with messages they don’t understand, but they just want the thing to work. Those are their priorities. Not “user control.” So, a company working with those two interests in mind would want to implement updates that don’t requires a user intervention. Hell, you could argue complete automation because if the user could just end up cancelling the update because they “don’t feel like it.” And this creates a worse problem: a program with proven security flaws.
The problem that a lot of people have is that they try to impose their own rules of their hobby onto the day-to-day lives of normal people. This rule by the computer elite dictating the workflow of “normal users” just sickens me. Lives shouldn’t be forced around it. Computers were made as enablers to human life, allowing us to do things that were impossible or impractical without this digital revolution.
Oh, and for the people who don’t agree with my view of the user population…
Normal people are too busy to comment on blogs and articles about computer minutia. They’re too busy doing their jobs, playing games, socializing with friends (in REAL LIFE), doing chores, and getting sleep to go comment on some random thing they might see on the Internet.
Yeah, I’m not one of those normal computer people. But I want to make the computing world a better and easier place for them. Not like the out-of-touch digital elite.
