Software, technical skills and learning by trial and error

Denis, a chaplain in a west London further education college, took hundreds of digital photos each month and shared them with photographic groups on Flickr. He was typical of many participants in this age range in believing that they were the first wave of people to be comfortable with computers.

Denis 40–50: I guess I’m probably the beginning of the generation that is quite at home with computers. So they’ve never held any particular fear or worry for me, so I just get in play around and see what happens. […] I’m always developing my technical skills. I’m always looking to do new things, pick up new tricks.

Tom used to work as a paramedic and helped his colleagues when they had problems with their computers in the 1980s. This led to him to set up his computer technical services business. He expressed a view that he has had a natural attraction to technology and gadgets all of his life.

Tom 40–50: I was always the kind of person that when I see something I want to understand how it works. I was taking tape recorders apart when I was I was seven. […] I’ve always had a natural affinity with computers. […] Basically I have to develop my skills because of my job. But, having said that, I find it no effort at all. I’m always aware of what’s coming out, you know; call me a geek (laughs).

Several also found that the ability to explore technology and software was engaging. Ray, who produced YouTube videos of his amplifiers and guitar playing, enjoyed examining all the programs on his computer to see how to utilise them properly.

Ray 40–50: It literally is a case of investigating stuff, trying things out. You know when you get a Mac you get a suite of programs and you say well what’s iCal, what’s iMovie, you know. “Oh iMovie. Oh so I could use my stills camera. It takes video as well. What am I going to do with that?” you know. And that’s what I’m like, I investigate and [I learn them through] intuition and initiative.

Two of the participants recognised that the process of learning software and digital technology could be taken further and stated their position on learning programming languages.

Tom 40–50: Obviously I could branch into other areas. I could, for instance, learn a programming language or something like that and make more money but I don’t like programming, it’s really boring. I quite like things the way they are.

Don 40–50: I do [find the technical process easy] but I can think of some things that that aren’t easy. […] I’d always like to develop. I’d do some development as well. Languages I wouldn’t mind getting more involved in.

Yet it is not always the technical side of learning that was the issue. Robbie expressed, “My technical skills are fine, I’d rather develop my ability to make better content”. Nevertheless, not all participants conveyed their ease with the technical process. A number of participants found certain processes difficult and time- consuming. Fern, a language translator and artist, found the process of setting up websites demanding.

Fern 40–50: I think the [technical process of] setting up [a website] is not easy. If you want to start a website it’s irritating. It takes a couple of days of pressing the wrong buttons and all of that but I think once it’s set up it’s not too bad.

Rich also emphasised the time-consuming nature of using online web media, particularly in his introduction to the web in the first few years of 2000s.

I’m sure. I would spend a whole evening on a website and then press the wrong button and you’d lose everything and I would start again, whereas it’s much easier now. Stuff like Blogger, which auto-saves every 10 seconds or something and you don’t lose everything you’ve written. […] But yeah you learn through trial and error really. Just put stuff up and go “well that looks terrible” and you have to take it down and try again. I wasted hours and hours doing that.

One of the participants expressed her lack of interest and complete disinterest in technology although, ironically, all her content was produced for publishing on the web. Tracey is a political blogger who uses collaged images juxtaposed with written posts to make a comment on local issues in north London. She confesses to being technologically inept and often acts as a sort of art director when using her son to create the images she wants. Tracey uses the web and digital technology as a means to get her ideas published.

Tracey 40–50: I’m very, very easily bored by technological things. I don’t want to know how something works, I want to be able to do it. If I buy a camera I throw the instructions away because I know I’ll never read them. I want somebody else to tell me how to do it quickly. […] I’m not interested in how something works I just want it to work. So if I want to know how to upload images or change the fonts, it’s normally a bit of a struggle for me but I’ll do it if I really want it.

She was asked whether her self-professed ineptitude and boredom related to the type of technology that she’d grown up with, which had led to her inability to learn or care about digital or whether this was a result of her own disposition.

Tracey 40–50: Oh it’s me as a person. I’ve got no patience. […] I am actually dyspraxic. When I was a child I couldn’t do things, I couldn’t follow instructions. I mean I don’t drive I don’t do sport or things like that because I find it quite hard to remember and to follow. I’m a reasonably intelligent person but certain things I can’t do easily and so different technological things are difficult for me and I do tend to get quite easily muddled with things so I’ve learnt just to cut them out

But for Tracey it was not just about her difficult relationship with technology, it was about what the technology represents.

Tracey 40–50: I’m just not interested in technology for its own sake, it’s only as a tool. […] It’s not the technology that interests me, it’s the final effect. If I could get a really interesting or surreal image or something from a Box Browning then I’d use it if I liked it. […] I think [the fact that it is digital is] irrelevant really. I want something to be effective and I want it to look good. […] I think you have to move with the times but you don’t have to be a slave to new technology just for its own sake. Everything should have a purpose and a function, and I think it’s a particularly male thing to fall in love with technology and ignore the final end of what you want to do.

Unlike the majority of the participants in the age range, Tracey’s comments show how people without natural aptitudes still manage to learn technology, no matter how rudimentarily, because it is a means to an end. The proliferation of digital media and the internet has had an impact on many of the participants’ lives with regards to how they spend their free time. Robbie was asked what he had stopped doing in order for him to spend more time on the internet.

Robbie 40–50: I’ve stopped typing as much or maybe I don’t read very much these days. I read more online than I do in print form. I haven’t really read a book for more than four years. Five years ago I was made redundant and I decided that I would do all these things. I knew it was coming up because I got six months’ notice and bought a guitar. I thought if I get bored I’ll learn to play the guitar and I bought a lot of golf balls. I can’t play the guitar and I never went to the golf course. I didn’t get bored because I spent a lot of time online and not watching TV but communicating with people online while they’re at work and I’m at home and then in the evening we’d meet up physically. So it’s a real enabler of communication tools, social media. It’s allowed me to live alone but not alone.

While some of Robbie’s comments could be considered overstated, they exemplify several in this age range who became conversant with communicating via social media and saw a change in how they use their leisure time.

5.3.5 40–50 Summary

Family life is one of the features of this age range, and the computer and digital technology has become part of the home. The adoption of broadband and Wi-Fi in the family home has enabled portable devices, such as laptops, to become more prominent throughout the house. This has been particularly prominent in the living room, consigning the television to more of a background entertainment role. In some cases this has allowed participants the capacity to create and share content while interacting with the family rather than using a ‘wired’ desktop computer in another room in relative isolation. Caring for children has, in some cases, restricted or required careful planning for the practice of creating content and, therefore, the ability to create and share with spontaneity. The effects of technology on children were an issue on occasion. Two participants expressed differing views as to both the use and perceived effect of technology on their children, and concern was raised as whether they should be the subject of their shared content.

Formal education was a distant memory for many, and basic knowledge of computers was acquired in the workplace. This has allowed their learning to progress incrementally through investigation, and the adoption of ‘trial and error’ learning as digital technology has evolved. Many of the participants cite either their perceived natural affinity or ineptitude at learning technology. In the case of the latter, learning technology and creating and publishing digital content has been endured purely as a means to achieve ones personal creative goal. There is also evidence that some participants found the process of creating content ‘frustrating’, ‘irritating’ and ‘time- consuming’, and struggled to master certain complex aspects of the process.

What this last passage shows is the diversity of skills and knowledge within the twelve participants. Many suggest that the abilities that they may or may not possess are innate and are not part of some generational or social conditioning. This is at odds with the arguments of Tapscott and Prensky. Indeed several believe they were

‘millennials’. What is important, as Tracey, describes, is the desire and motivation to create and share, which is a area for explration in chapter 8. What the participants revealed about their home, family life and children has been fivefold.

1. Broadband and Wi-Fi assisted some participants in functioning as a closer family unit, particularly in the evenings, as they were less isolated than before when tied to the ‘home office’.

2. Television had a lesser role among many content creators, although there was evidence that the TV still plays a ‘winding down’ role.

3. Participants are old enough to remember analogue technology and have experienced the introduction of the computer. For several, this has helped - not hindered - their learning of computers and digital technologies.

4. Many learned to use digital technology in the workplace where they were introduced to the internet.

5. Participants without perceived natural aptitudes to learn digital technology persevered, sometimes at a rudimentary level, because they are motivated to express themselves creatively and it is a means to a creative end.

5.4 18–28 Introduction

The Office for National Statistics (2013a) report shows that adults aged between 18 and 24 create and share the greatest amount of content on the web than any other adult range. Indeed, the report shows that in the UK this age range produces over half of all self-created content uploaded to web. Although the type and definition of the content is not defined, it is reasonable to assume that this self-created content is wide ranging from simple text-based comments and messages to more sophisticated media, such as videos and designing blogs and websites.

In the US, Pew internet conducted a survey of 830 respondents aged 18 to 29 in a report entitled Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next (Taylor and Keeter, 2010), in which it describes this age range as “Confident. Connected. Open to Change”. It reports that 74% of the sample believes new technology makes people closer to their friends and family and “makes life easier” (ibid.:26). In this case, the survey asks the

more specific question of how many respondents had “posted video of themselves online” (ibid.:25), which, at 20% of the sample, is considerably higher than the next highest age range - 30-45 at 6%. The report also reveals that ‘millennials’ use technology and the internet to connect with people in new and distinctive ways. This enables them to be in constant and regular contact with friends through text messages, instant messaging, email, social networks and VoIP (Voice-over-Internet Protocol).

Manuel Castells asserts that “communication in the new technological framework is multichannel and multimodal” (Castells, 2009:130) and that the rise of mass self- communication has delivered a “culture of autonomy”. He particularly views younger users as having the ability to take charge of communication practices. Castells points to research carried out by Tubella Casadevall, Imma, at the University of Catalonia, Spain in 2007, where a focus group of 18–30 year olds was observed using communication technologies. The research revealed that this age range was connected to the internet on average four hours per day, watched less television than the average viewer while simultaneously being connected to the internet. Most importantly the research noted that:

They are not passive recipients of messages. A significant sub-group is also a producer of content. They remix videos and upload them, download and share music and films, and create and participate in blogs (Castells, 2009:133). The research also showed that this age range belied the notion of ‘prime time’ by managing their communication throughout the day with multitasking being a normal activity through different means of mediated communication.

5.4.1 18–28 Participant overview

Statistically, this is an age range with a far higher use of the internet and level of content creation and sharing on the web than the older age ranges. 18–28 participants tended to communicate mainly within their age range and had multiple peer networks. Therefore, they were able to learn, share, get technical help and solve software problems through peer recommendations, suggestions and links. An environment evolved, therefore, where information was disseminated at a fast and

regular pace. This age range grew up in a transitional period of change, from analogue to digital technology, and therefore, was able to learn and use them simultaneously, which in several cases has helped their understanding of the transformation of making and distributing media and speed of production.

What is clear, however, from the 12 participants interviewed is the varying levels of computer education, literacy and accessibility, which has both helped and hampered development of content creation and sharing. While many participants in all age ranges struggle to some extent with learning new technology, this age range adopted technology as a matter of necessity and compulsion but not necessarily ease. It would be incorrect to assume that all the people interviewed in this study have a natural affinity with and effortless adoption of technology. Of the 12 participants, five started using the internet in the mid- to late-1990s and the remaining seven in the early 2000s (see Fig. 5.3).

Several participants in this age range had a blurred distinction between UGC that may lead to them earning money. To some of them, making money was a by-product of making and sharing the content. Indeed, two participants made money unintentionally out of their online content. Several recognise that online communication is not just about reaching an audience but an active online community with a symbiotic relationship. Consequently they found it completely natural to link their numerous web accounts together. However, there was a clear understanding that, although they may be able to make money from what started as a hobby, being employed to make visual/audio content in a formal capacity may spoil the enjoyment of creating content for themselves at their own pace and in their own time. Only three participants started creating and sharing content before 2005, three in 2005, and the remaining six evenly spread out until 2010 (see Fig. 5.3).

Participants who had been creating content the longest were more inclined to develop the quality of their content with production values that emulated and mimicked professional standards. This was particularly apparent when shooting video. Several of the interviewees had had an online presence on picture-sharing sites, such as deviantArt9 for over 10 years. These are often viewed as digital diaries or scrapbooks of their earlier life and were considered by them as transitional

platforms to other networks. As they grew older, participants cultivated their online presence and shared their content in a more considered way and on more advanced platforms. However, there was also another level of content creation and sharing that was less considered and instant, which tended to be communicated through their network of friends. Self-promotion is a natural activity for several in this age range. Many see the value and necessity of self-promotion and are aware of the tools to accomplish this. The participants aged 18–28 were less concerned with time spent online and offline as they generally considered these to be part of the same experience, and several interviewees expressed that the digital world had been absorbed into their physical everyday life.

Fig. 5.3 18–28 Participants’ Adoption of Internet and Content Creation & Sharing

The youngest age group of participating adults in this study clustered within a 10-year period from mid-1990s to mid-2000s. Several were introduced through school projects and some were late adopters. The second graph shows how the 18–28 age range started to create and share their content from the mid- to late-2000s.