[A Common Story] "I'm Bad With the Internet, Hopeless With Gadgets, an Analog Person..." [Just a Belief]

From ACIDHOUSE, INC., this is Tetsuya Ashida.

From small business owners, people who suddenly became the person in charge of the website, women, and others who describe themselves as "not good with digital tools," I sometimes hear words like these.

Well, I've always been an analog person by nature, it's unfamiliar to me, and I'm not used to it...

I'm hopeless with gadgets, so I don't understand it at all...

Certainly, some people may have strengths and weaknesses.

But I am convinced that anyone can master digital tools as unconsciously as their own hands and feet, and fully enjoy their benefits.

This article is for people who find themselves saying things like the above, and people who feel they're not good with digital tools.

Why people feel they're bad with digital tools

There seem to be all sorts of reasons, but it's roughly like this, isn't it?

Let's dig into these three points.

Because they reflexively assume "it looks difficult" or "it's not for me"

First, let me state it flatly: the (general-purpose) digital tools out there in the world are not difficult.

There's no need at all to think they're difficult, and in fact you are already using digital tools well.

Indeed, you are able to view this site. You probably use a smartphone to some extent, and you probably have social media accounts too.

You may say, "Even so, using them for work is different...", but basically you only use a mouse (trackpad) and a keyboard.

What's more, software and websites are advanced programs that would require difficult operations, but they are designed so that the simplest possible operations will do, on the principle that "anyone being able to use it intuitively is what's right".

It's not as if you have to make full use of the algebra, geometry, and calculus you learned in high school math class, or that applied physics is required.

If you think of it as only requiring operations that are an extension of browsing the web or using smartphone apps as you usually do, doesn't that take the pressure off?

And as with anything, if you decide "this is impossible for me," your brain judges it impossible and you end up taking actions that produce exactly that result. You must not assume it's impossible.

If you think of even software with a few more menus, or software that's been upgraded and redesigned, as no different from using a calculator, you'll feel it isn't difficult.

Because they've lost sight of the purpose of using them

This goes along with the assumption above: because the thinking gets swapped for "can I take on the challenge of using it or not", people tend to lose sight of the purpose of using it.

What do you do it for — the web, digital tools, and the technologies around them?
Needless to say, because they benefit your business.

One aside.

My mother is over 70, but she uses the internet, a MacBook Air, and Facebook every day, albeit at a beginner level.

The reason is simple: we made it a rule to communicate with my brother's family and me through a Facebook group, with no phone calls or letters (my brother and I basically don't answer the phone, lol).

She also understands the advantage of not needing the troublesome process of putting her grandchildren's photos and videos on DVDs or printing them and mailing them.

When she was attending a computer class in town, she couldn't view photos, watch videos, or type. But now, although she's still somewhat halting, she can type well enough to communicate without any problems.

Because the pace of change is so fast

The things that change mainly refer to the following:

The look and usability of software and tools change frequently because updates are made constantly. They're made because a product, as first released to the market, always has room for improvement.

This is perfectly common with physical products too.

The same goes for changes in the mainstream services and tools.
People who used flip phones in the past use smartphones now. The more convenient things take over the position.

Changes in user reactions and trends naturally happen in step with the changing times.

What determines the pace of this change is ever-evolving technology.

Certainly, we live in a world where the pace of change is faster than ever in our long history.

But while this can't be avoided, it can be dealt with.

In this day and age, getting information is very fast and easy.
You can pull most of the information you want from Google for free, and there are mechanisms that gather it for you automatically even if you don't go looking — Google Alerts, following Facebook pages, app alerts, and so on.

You do have to sort through the information yourself, but that has been the same in every era.

If you can't handle it, you can easily ask outside experts.

Just because the pace of change is fast, it by no means follows that you can't keep up at all and are doomed to self-destruct.

This is a fundamental point: humans fear and shy away from change.
Change itself isn't limited to the digital world; it's a given in business.

In other words, it's just a mental block.

The essence of the digital world isn't "difficulty" but "the flow of money"

This is a bit of a digression, but there is currently an overwhelming shortage of (mainly web) engineers, and it is a profession where you can expect an overwhelmingly high income (600,000 yen a month or more as a freelancer) relative to the barrier to becoming one.

If you google a little, you'll see that engineer training schools and staffing companies have increased like never before.

Some engineer training schools even offer "a guaranteed job offer at an annual salary of 4 million yen or more, or a full refund of tuition." Yet there are no entrance exams for these schools, and the courses aren't long or expensive.

Compare the process with that of a doctor, the representative high-income profession. It's overwhelmingly easy.

In fact, there are many people from non-IT service industries who don't use a PC at work at all, who learned at engineering schools, changed jobs successfully, and achieved high incomes.

In other words:

If you keep this "big opportunity" in mind, your sense of being bad at it may disappear just like that.