I’m Not a Tech Person…YET

I hear it all the time: “I’m just not a tech person.”

And every time I hear it, part of me wants to say, Are you sure about that? 😂

Because most of the time, I don’t think people are really saying they’re incapable of learning technology. I think they’re saying, I don’t understand this. I’m afraid I’m going to break something. Everyone else seems to know what they’re doing.

Or maybe simply: I don’t know how to do this yet.

And that little word yet can make a huge difference.

Nobody starts out knowing

I’ve loved teaching beginners for a very long time, and I think some of my patience for teaching adults came from my years teaching kindergarten.

When you teach kindergarten, you learn quickly that everybody learns differently. I remember kids learning to spell their names. I always felt a little bad for the ones with really long names. 😂 Some figured it out quickly. For others, it could take almost the whole school year.

But you wouldn’t look at a five-year-old in September and say, “Well, apparently you’re just not a spelling person.”

They were learning.

Technology really isn’t that different.

Let me take you WAY back

One of my first jobs after my divorce was long before the internet was part of our everyday lives. We were using DOS. Yes, DOS. 😂

I worked in Boston, and one of the men I worked for was in Rochester, New York. I was given the job of teaching his wife how to do his word processing over the phone.

There was no Zoom. No screen sharing. I couldn’t see what she was looking at. And when we started, she didn’t even know how to turn on the computer.

The program was called Samna Word, and even keyboards could have different functions back then. So while I was teaching her, I was also calling Samna’s support people to figure out what functions she had and how they worked.

Eventually, the support people got curious about why I kept calling. When I explained what I was doing, they told me that if I actually succeeded, they wanted a letter from my boss confirming it because they wanted to hire me as a trainer.

And yes, we succeeded.

She was afraid she’d break the computer

Around 1989 or 1990, a temp agency called me with what they described as a very strange assignment. A local chiropractic office had purchased billing software, but nobody in the office knew how to use computers.

They hadn’t connected well with the trainer who came with the software, so my job was to go in and figure it out.

Except I didn’t know the software either. And I didn’t know third-party billing.

So first, I had to learn both. Then I could teach them.

The receptionist was in her late 60s or early 70s, and she was petrified of the computer. She truly thought she was going to break it.

But little by little, she learned. Watching her become comfortable with that computer was so much fun.

She wasn’t “not a tech person.”

She just didn’t know how to use it yet.

Yes, I’ve made someone sit on her hands 😂

Years later, I had a coworker who would ask me for help and then start clicking things while I was trying to show her what to do.

So I made her sit on her hands. Literally. 😂

I’d show her a step, then say, “Okay, now you do it.” She’d do it, and then her hand went back under her leg while I showed her the next step.

It worked!

One question I like to ask people when I’m teaching them is: Are you better at driving or are you better at watching?

Because people learn differently. Some need to watch first. Some need the mouse in their own hand. Some need to do something three times. Some need to ask the same question again.

And sometimes we don’t even know what question to ask. I’m actually terrible at that myself sometimes. I know I need help, but I don’t know enough about what I’m trying to do to figure out how to form the question.

That’s part of learning too.

Technology has changed. The fear hasn’t.

Today we’re talking about AI instead of DOS, and I understand why some people are nervous about it. There’s a lot we don’t know, and people hear plenty of scary stories.

There are things about technology, and especially AI, that we should be thoughtful about. But fear of what we don’t understand can also keep us from discovering what a tool could help us do.

When I first started using AI, I probably spent about five minutes thinking, Okay, what the heck is this thing?

Then I started learning. 😂

Learning how to use ChatGPT has helped me find a voice I’ve wanted to share for a long time. AI hasn’t done the work for me. The stories, experiences, knowledge and slightly scattered thoughts bouncing around in my head are mine. 😂

AI gives me a tool to organize those thoughts and communicate what I’m trying to say in a way that makes sense.

This blog is actually a pretty good example.

You don’t need to know everything

I’m comfortable with technology, but I’m on the user side of it. I’m not doing the advanced technology some people do, and I don’t need to.

Usually, if I’m learning something new, I’ll find a quick getting-started video. I’ll Google things. I’ll take a class if one is available.

And yes, I’ve broken things. 😂 So far, I’ve never broken anything badly enough that it couldn’t be fixed.

The more technology you use, the more you start noticing common threads. Programs are different, but there are patterns. Things you learned in one place often help you figure out something new.

I could sit at a computer for hours learning. I don’t think I’ll ever know everything I want to know.

I’m okay with that.

The day I stop learning is the day I die.

Maybe it’s time to change the sentence

If you’ve been telling yourself, “I’m not a tech person,” try adding one little word to the things you don’t know:

Yet.

I don’t know how to use AI yet.

I don’t know how to make something in Canva yet.

I don’t know how to use this program yet.

Then figure out why you want to learn it.

You don’t need to learn technology just for the sake of learning technology. Maybe you want to make something, stay connected with someone, organize your photos, grow a business, try AI, learn Canva, or simply make something in your everyday life a little easier.

Start there.

Have patience with the technology and, maybe even more importantly, have patience with yourself.

Because even the best tech person you know started out not knowing.

They learned.

And so can you.

You just haven’t learned it yet. 🌻