The Reason for Our Current Economic Sorrows

One of The ( Many ) Crazy things that i believe;
Is that One of The Principle Reasons for The Current Economic Turndown,
Is that There is a Disconjunct between The Expectation of Our Economy being driven by ‘On Line Services’ & The Actual Usage of Computers by Ordinary People.
In Other Words;
Our Economy has become ‘Oriented’ towards On Line Services,
& Opposing that; Is that very few people are actually using computers.

This Idea is based on a Root Idea that The Friendliest Computers available today ( October 2012 ) are Still only for Geeks, Nerds & Hackers with an IQ that is Excessively Past 110.
Your ‘Average’ Person with An IQ between 90 to 110 may own a computer; At least for a few months, until it starts acting ‘Wookie’ & then it’s effectively Broken & beyound their ability to get it fixed. The idea of returning it to The Store to have it repaired, usually for some ‘Issue’ that is So Minor that it can be fixed in less than 30 Seconds by a Knowledgable Technician, will only fortify The ‘Average’ Users resolve to Avoid that level of Humiliation if it breaks a second time.
Those that do buy a computer & are able to get it up & running for a few months are only going to be able to get it to do One Thing.
That one thing will probably be something like E-Mail or Possibly get On-Line to Use something like Face-Book.
They will Never learn to Use Garageband, iMovie or SketchUp.

i base this belief on The Simple Observation that since i have an IQ of 130 & i struggle to use & keep my Computer Operational ( MacBook ), i can not possibly Imagine how Someone with An IQ of 100, could do this.
If we allow that A Person with an IQ of 100 considers someone with an IQ of 70 to be Mentally Retarded; Then for some task that is on The Brink of my Ability to Use it is at 130, Then a person with an IQ of 100 would be Far too Retarded to Accomplish this.

The One thing that may provide some ‘Outage’ from this Belief is The Nearly Ubiquitous Use of ‘Smart Phones’ which reduce many of The Functions of Computers to ‘Appliance Level Functionality’.
This allows many functions to become as easy to use as a Toaster,
But remove any possibility of Using these ‘Apps’ to perform any function other than The One very specific task which they have been designed for, & requires only that The User turn The App On or Off.

These Smart Phones have also removed nearly all ‘Service Functions’ from The User’s Capability to Screw them up.
Keyboard Driven Computers still allow The User access to The System Files, Which is Completely Crazy. And they still require innumerable interactive decisions to be made by The User that they couldn’t possibly make with any degree of competence.

Why is this Situation being allowed to Persist ?
i know that many of The People that know how to use a computer are in denial that computers are still very hard to use. Perhaps they think that they are useful enough, & that ‘dumbing them down’ will mean that they will lose much of Their ‘Productivity’.
i suspect that this may be What has happened to computers in The last 20 Years or so; As they try to make computers more ‘Fool Proof’, Considerable functionality of The early computers have been removed from them.
Users can no longer program computers for their own purposes, They can no longer customize The General Appearance of The Computer’s Interactive Graphics, Many of The Fine Tuning features have been removed, & in so doing, allowed only The most obscure & confusing elements to remain.

One of The many very annoying trends that i’ve noticed is that there are No Instructions to many of These Appliances anymore. My recent purchase of A Kindle Fire HD literally contained NO Instructions WhatsoEver !
Apparently their thinking was that it was so simple to use, it didn’t require any.
Of course; This is completely Crazy.
And when i went looking for some Instructions or Overview of The Device’s Capability, they were fragmented & spread out over The Internet in tiny little pieces.
The Macintosh & it’s many Applications & Programs are The same Way.
Specifically; Garageband & iMovie for my iPod Touch. The Instructions for these very Complicated & Feature Laden Apps are Non-Existent.
What i would Love Love Love; Is if Each Application had a Nice PDF that resembled an Old Fashion Instruction Manual that had everything you’d need to Operate & Service it, In one Finite Package.
When This Information is On The Interweb; It’s in a Decidedly UnDefined & Amorphous Form that leaves one wondering; Is there more that i could or should know, but i am missing out on, because it was hidden in an obscure Link, Website or Page that i Neglected to Find.

On The Macbook; There is a Help Menu; But many of The Pages are only accessible while OnLine, ( Connected to The Interweb ), but even so; The Greater Problem is that All The Articles are hidden in Folders that can only be Accessed through A Search Engine, which Requires that The User is Completely Familiar with All The Technical Names for All The Features before they can Ask about them.
The very Skimpy Introductory Pages do not list any of these Terms, & this is True for All The Applications as Well.
There are NO Manuals for Any of The Applications !