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.