How to Actually Use Your Computer: Part 1
I’m deciding to start writing a series of how people can actually use the computers to their full potential – rather than staying ignorant of how they’ve blown over a couple thousand bucks on that metal box. I’m trying to stay relatively unbiased here (this means that I will also be platform independent), and I will try to write this in a way that can be understood by the most illiterate of computer users.
Before suggesting what you can do to your computer or to yourself to discover what you’re missing out on, I want you to consider what you actually use your computer for. In general, users fall into the following categories:
- Usage due to environmental requirement.
- Usage due to environmental pressure.
- usage due to personal interest.
The first, “Environmental Requirement” – means that your computer usage is due to your inability to survive without it. This can be due to your workplace forcing you to use a computer, your school requiring you to learn how to use a computer, or you have to visit a website to help a friend check something. The people most likely to fall into this category are satisfied with the ability to check and send email, browse the web, edit documents and store files. If you fall into this category, I would like to ask you who, in their right mind, would make it mandatory for you to read this post in the first place.
The second reason, “Environmental Pressure“, describes the computer usage that has derived from the environment around you using the computer. For example, everybody has an email account, or everybody also uses social networking websites (such as Facebook or MySpace), or even blogging is a way of life. This environment spurs a general need to participate in these activities. Users that fall into this category include the majority of computer users. Such examples would be students who blog, use facebook and surf the web, and computer gamers (Yes, gamers are not a seperate category).
The third reason, “Personal Interest“, is very often ignored by computer users that fall into the Environmental Pressure category or actually populated by people who think they fall into this category but actually do not. Therefore, I deem it important to differentiate the people in this category. People in this category actually make an effort to utilise their computers to their maximum potential. Such examples would be computer programmers (No, HTML is not a programming language – such an excuse is common for somebody to call themselves a programmer), and any individual who feels the urge to tweak their computer (in ways I will describe later and in future parts to this series).
Once you have identified which category you are in, the next step would be to find out what you use your computer for. Most common answers would be for web browsing, email, document editing, instant messaging, and file storage. Some of the less common answers would be for programming, digital graphics, servers, and PIM usage. I plan to go through each of these usages little by little in future parts to this series.
Before I click “Publish This Post”, I would like to emphasize the (well, my) general rule of computer usage: There is always more than one way of doing things, and most of the time, if you didn’t know there were alternatives, you’re using the worst one.
*cough*InternetExplorer*cough*
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p. says: (29 September 2008)
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