Computer Literacy: Learned Helplessness

Twenty-five years ago, technology did not have the all-encompassing grasp on society that it has today. Since the advent of personal computers and the internet, humans have become increasingly dependent on technology.  Computers have become more and more immersed and essential in our day-to-day lives.

Now, as COVID-19 begins to subside, forecasters predict that more companies will allow their employees to work remotely, from home.  As much as 40% of the American workforce could be virtual by 2021-2022.  

That migration from an office building to a home office raises many concerns, but none more significant that computer skills and proficiency with digital tools.  If you want to work remotely, you have to embrace technology.  And just because a computer was on your desk in your office cubicle, and you used it every day, doesn’t automatically translate to computer literacy.

In a world that's increasingly dependent on technology,  it’s easy to get lost in the technological jungle.  Just ask anyone who has worked in a Tech Support department of a company trying to keep the workforce functioning. So how do you develop the necessary computer skills to stay ahead?

What is Computer Literacy?  Let me start with what causes many employees to bristle… suggesting that many folks in today’s workforce are not as computer savvy as they think they are and should be. You can speak a language, maybe even more than one.  Can you speak “computer?”

Computer literacy is the basic understanding of how to operate computers and similar technology, such as tablets and smart phones. Many people, especially those who didn't grow up immersed in technology, have trouble understanding the systems necessary for computer literacy. 

Though not always obvious to people with an intuitive understanding of how to use computers, computer usage requires problem-solving skills, the ability to process text and symbols, which leads to the development of various technical and cognitive skills.

To fully understand the concept of computer illiteracy, you first have to understand what it means to be computer literate. Computer literacy is being able to complete tasks on a computer without assistance, including performing upgrades, scanning for viruses, connecting to a virtual private network (vpn) and the basic functions of software applications. If you use a computer in your job, then you must be able to solve common problems when they arise without calling in tech support to do it for you.

This inability to fully engage with a computer and solve digital problems in the workplace is more pervasive than you imagine.  I would suggest its almost equal to a phenomenon—where an intelligent, otherwise competent worker proves strangely unable to use digital tools to address workplace needs.  I would suggest it is a form of learned helplessness.

What do I mean by learned helplessness? It’s that deer-in-headlights response that adult users of computers get when an interface changes, a system upgrade is required, a new application is installed or they are asked to do something new on a computer. A condition in which a person suffers from a sense of powerlessness arising from a persistent fear of potential failure to get the computer to work as you think it should.

These are the folks who call tech support and then don't really know what to ask because they haven't a foggy clue as to how to articulate the problem. You know the phone calls… "The Internet is broken." "I can't print." "My computer won't turn on." "Where is the any button?”  No joking here!

Computers have become the enemy, the unforgiving behemoth out to destroy careers and ruin the workday!

The worker has learned, through many negative interactions with digital tools and technologies, that these tools are only to be used in particular ways to solve particular problems.  

Experimenting with different ways of using computers and applications often leads to unfortunate consequences: confusion, failure, or even a “bricked” (frozen) device.  This reinforces the natural tendency to stick to known, habitual, “safe” tools and methods of use. 

After accumulating many such experiences, a worker may come to believe themselves incapable of navigating the complexities of a new digital tool, or even the digital workplace in general, without being explicitly taught how to do so, and consequently, give up trying.

Learned helplessness in the digital workplace is an increasingly serious problem not only for frustrated workers, but also for the organizations for which they work. 

Today’s workplaces are saturated with and often defined by digital technology. Much, if not most, of an individual’s work requires interacting with digital tools, and these tools will become ever more prevalent as the American workforce decentralizes over the next few years. 

Knowledgeable use of digital tools can often make the work easier, but also yield a superior result. But the more complex the digital environment becomes, the greater the danger it will evoke learned helplessness, even as the technology becomes more and more crucial to organizational success.

It’s tempting to frame learned helplessness as a problem stemming from a lack of knowledge and skills. However, this is not always the case. Instead, it’s more accurate to think of it as a problem of unknown knowns.  Most reasonably competent workers do in fact know how to use the digital tools at their disposal—or at least have enough knowledge and skills to be able to figure them out. 

However, when learned helplessness comes into play, a worker cannot make the connection between the problem in front of them and the tool’s ability to help. It’s not that they don’t know how to use the tool, it’s that they don’t see why they should use the tool now.

To highlight the distinction between knowing how and knowing when and why, consider the catchphrase “Why remember what you can google?” In a world where (more or less) all the world’s knowledge is at our fingertips if we just know how to ask for it, why try and remember everything that we might need to know? Why not treat the internet as an extension of our own memory?

For many of us, across a range of work and personal situations, “googling” can indeed be a productive strategy for finding information we don’t know or can’t remember. 

Most of us think that we know how to use internet search engines, as they’re one of the first things we encounter when we discover the internet. Furthermore, if someone doesn’t yet know how to use a search engine, it’s easy to teach them how to take a question and transform it into a search query. However, what we don’t—and perhaps can’t—teach so easily is what questions to ask, for what purpose, and when it is appropriate to ask them. We can show workers how to use a search engine, but we can’t remain by their side to point out when and why they could or should use a search tool.

It’s this failure to recognize the when and why that characterizes learned helplessness. What the worker with learned helplessness lacks is the capacity and desire as an individual, to act independently and to make their own learned pathways to productive choices in the digital workplace.

What is the future?  Tech Support teams cannot and should not be expected to hand-hold employees in the everyday use of their computer necessary in the performance of their job. All employees should know as much about their computer, including operating systems and productivity applications as possible.  

Attempting to deal with the reality of the evolving digital workplace by teaching workers more and more new skills is akin to running on a continuously accelerating treadmill. That’s a challenge when considering a decentralized virtual workforce.

As the digital workplace grows in complexity, so must our level of digital competence and independence, with richer literacies, skills, and predilections. 

Only then will we be able to equip our workers and our organizations with the adaptability and abilities they need to thrive in a virtual digital world.