James Bond can't use a Computer! Can't go into specifics, hush, hush, British Army military intelligence spooks and all that etc, but it got me wondering how important is the ability to use a computer to function in today's society let alone for communications use in an emergency.

I beg to differ. The latest Bond hacks M's password and uses the computer to find all sorts of stuff.

How important is it - not very in the long run. I mean if you can use a phone you can order stuff, or actually - horror of horrors, go out shopping. You can buy maps. The library is there for research, altho it may be dated.

I carry a stupid phone. It makes calls, and odd people I don't know text me and in return get rude texts in return, the only time I text. No camera, no internet, no high speed this or that. It makes calls.

Do computers make things easier, yes. Could I live without it, probably.

AFLM... our high school piloted a learning community (health and human services) for our district... I taught the 9th grade science component for it, and had many opportunities to talk with business partners in our local area... keyboarding skills was a highly sought after requirement for employment...when I first started teaching, the Apple platform was in use across the district, at all levels...the business department had a small lab of PCs.... by my retirement, we had two large computer labs, 50/50 Apple and PC.... as well as a 5 or 6 class sized Apple notebook portable computer carts I could check out for class use...

my county has a Senior Project requirement for graduation... it combines a research paper on an approved topic... mentorship by a member of the community that has expertise in the subject area.... with a 5 minute Power Point or other audio visual presentation to an evaluation board... followed by a question and answer session by the board...

To function in society? A few years back I did everything with a dumb phone sitting on a desk with a line running to the wall. Has society progressed so much that a handheld computer is now required to function? You don't need a phone at all, it's a convenience that some folks seem unable to do without, but I occasionally leave home without my iPhone and there have been no issues.

Then again, maybe I'm an anomaly; I use cash rather than Starbuck's barcode app. I don't text and folks who send text messages to me get nothing in return. I do use the phone to preview emails and send notes to myself, but it's nothing I couldn't do with paper and pencil. Occasionally I will also send myself mp3 files and listen to them when I have nothing else to do, but is that a requirement to function in society? No, it's not.

Ok, perhaps maybe James Bond was too fictitious as the fellow I had to deal with was more of a Colonel Ross type. (less well known in the US)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWnrfwiT-bY

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/l...ter-skills.html

In the UK the British Government has gone Internet/Paperless Mad in its attempt to save operating costs.

Unemployed people will soon have to apply for their Benefit entitlements using a Government Internet website and to continue receiving their benefit payments must submit their employment search records online as well. Payments will be paid directly into a bank account. Many people may not have either a Bank Account or an Internet Connection.

The Inland Revenue (Mr Tax man) have recently made it almost impossible to submit a paper Personal/Company Tax Return and Company accounts. Now a one size fits all online return in a Inland Revenue format, which in many circumstances does not work is now required.

The Banking sector has been closing most its local branches forcing people to use Internet Banking services or have a very long round trip to the nearest bank branch, which also in many circumstances does not work with bank to bank transactions due to cuts in its IT and back office departments.

Internet shopping has left the City Centre shopping areas through out the land almost desolate, leaving only charity shops, Pawn Shops, Pay day lender shops, Coffee dens, the last of the Bank Branches and Globalist Fast food restaurants

Not having an Internet Connection could pose a serious issue in the ability to function within society especially in the UK. For those that do have an Internet connection, the stress of having to deal with what is essentially corporate organisation back office web based IT systems could prove very frustrating especailly if you can't even use a computer keyboard.

I know exactly one person who can't receive or send text messages. While I know people who don't have smartphones, they are a small minority. Everyone I know has email and web access at home.

Me too. Everyone around me have gone e-mad.



Like Russ , except I don't do e-mails on phone, and I do keep a pen and paper in my front pocket !!

A few relatives joke about me, but I reply that in 2006 ( we had a stock market crash that year) I had absolutely NO money and lost nothing in stocks. So, I was the most relaxed guy in the area!!

I am slowly recognizing that, no matter where we stand as individuals on the continuum of electronic adeptness, we are beginning a revolution in knowledge accessibility. The data available to each of us through our devices is staggering, and the amount will only increase through time.

My wife just completed a research paper,using foreign archives (much help with Google translator), all without leaving our study. About twenty year ago, extensive, and expensive, travel would have been required. Now costs are negligible.

We correspond regularly with distant foreign family members. I can quickly summon a copy of a USGS topo map I wish to examine, and download it. Examples go on and on. Just look at the interchange on this forum, and many others.

What will tomorrow bring??

If you are using a phone, it's just an interface for one or more computers somewhere. So, sorry old school guys, you're technically using a computer if you use any phone nowadays. Now, you might be able to construct a valid argument with ham radio. I'd like to see some hard head get by with a ham radio and no use of any phone or any computer.

My current job is impossible to do without a computer. Also, any dream job of mine requires a computer. The killer is what somebody said above about the Tax Man requiring a computer. That really ends any argument right there. Either you need to know how to use a computer, or you must pay somebody who knows.

Computer skills are a survival skill in that they help ensure you are employable. While it's true there are still jobs where these skills are less important, having these skills will help ensure you are qualified for a wider range of jobs and, when you are employed, are able to qualify for promotion (e.g., moving from skilled labour to management).

I honestly would not want to find myself unemployed in a tough market without these skills. Both finding potential work and qualifying for it would certainly be more difficult.

Rex Malik compilation from 1982 BBCs TV Computer Show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYI7Hernosw

The emergence of the total electronic surveillance awareness society that even George Orwell couldn't imagine I suspect and the inevitable dumbing down to an idiocracy using a form a electronic communications Newspeak where reality perception is skewed to suit those who control and dominate the electronic communications domain even leading to a new form of Ludditism from those that recognise the dangers they are venturing into.

As I am doing my master's degree online, I need the InterWeb. After that? We'll see...

Dude, are you serious? In today's world it is extremely difficult to function at a high level without access to a cumputer. Any one who says otherwise is kidding themselves. Also note that anyone who reads this thread, let alone responds, is using a computer. And I find smart phones and texting to be extremely useful.

Change happens. Deal with it.

Then there is the generational divide - my mom has never used a computer let alone a microwave. She doesn't own a cell phone. She is among the happiest people I know, having led a most fulfilling life. She still sends letters.

I am 51. I started computing on high school on a time share computer wired to a local college. My first programs were on punch cards. I spent college tapping out papers on a typewriter and my thesis was written in Word 1.0 on my Dad's brand new IBM PC. My first email was on a vi editor. If some of this is Greek to you, there is probably the generational divide between you and me. Today I am fairly typically outfitted with all the trappings of technology and communications. But increasingly it makes me uncomfortable and asks me to make personal concessions I won't make.

Personally I can take or leave all the technology at this point. I have to question whether every advance is a good thing for us all. My goal now is to retire early and disconnect the tech from my personal life. Keep the cell and sat phone and ham radio for my Red Cross. Keep a pc humming in the background somewhere for government agencies and vendors who don't accept letters or personal visits to pay them. Expect folks to call, visit, or write me letters to draw my attention. Its not anonymity alone that I seek, but a reasonable amount of control over what people know about me. I am not a maniac about my personal privacy but too many are ceding that concept in return for very minor personal gains. Once its gone, the status quo has changed, and an important tenet of American society may come into question and be lost. I prefer to live out the rest of my life without all the alluring technology, doing things with people, not to them.

I think a difference needs to be recognized between the necessity of technological competence and the enjoyment of technology. I am highly competent & my professional life demands this. And, to a lesser degree, my skills allow me to manage my volunteer efforts and even some personal aspects (e.g., media, communications) more easily.

That said, I increasingly do not enjoy technology as an end itself. It is a tool I know how to use well, and things like coding are still fulfilling professionally for me, but when it comes down to it I'd rather be outside & unplugged. I don't desire the new toys but I do sometimes need more effective & efficient tools. And, for me, this is the key: technology is a tool and being able to use current technologies is required to function well and successfully in our society.