My thoughts on…Net N00bs
These people have been getting on my nerves for some time now, and I feel that if I don’t vent I will surely strangle one of them. You know who I’m talking about. They’re the people who flood your inbox with chain letters; the people who laugh aloud at the absurd emails their friends send them, and feel the need to nag you to see it, whether you’re interested or not; the people who still think instant messaging is the coolest thing ever; the people who actually click pop-ups expecting to win something. I like to call these people “net n00bs,” and I have encountered a lot of them in the school computer labs, giggling or expressing disgust at the latest serving of crap from their inbox, disturbing myself and others peacefully surfing the Inter Web. The guys spend most of their time ogling hot girls on social networking sites, clamouring to be their “friend,” deluding themselves that those girls will give them the time of day.
It has gotten to such a point that the lab have blocked users from browsing popular social networking sites and instant messaging. But forever devoted to the cause of idleness, they have found ways to circumvent these restrictions, undoubtedly with the help of technophiles, who took pity on the forlorn n00bs and bestowed some of their techspertise on them. Now they infest the labs more than ever, to the detriment of students with assignments to complete.
Just this week, I asked one of them to direct me to the school’s online catalogue, as I didn’t know the path to get there. He and his friend chuckled, and said in a condescending tone, “click on the big blue E.” An amateur response if there ever was one. These two, who I bet couldn’t even construct a decent hyperlink, talk down to me? I opened Firefox, but the fool minimized it and opened IE. About a day before, a classmate of mine excitedly called me to his machine to read one of his emails. It was about a Nigerian princess who blah, blah, blah, you know the rest. I held back the laughter and informed him about the scam, after which he hesitantly deleted it.
This may come off as elitist, but I was once a net n00b. I forwarded chain mails in fear of dying mysteriously or that my account would be deleted, or in the hope that Bill gates would send me a dollar, Nokia or Motorola would give me a phone, or my true love would return my affections. Silly I know. To date, my true love has shacked up with a jerk, I’m still rolling with my beat-up, monochromatic Nokia, broke as ever. But I grew out of it. Nowadays I take a more business like approach to my browsing. I enable spam filter on all my emails, I rarely open attachments, I ignore pop-ups, spend far less time in unproductive activities, and guess what? Now I create my own content, instead of hopelessly relying on others’. If I were Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web (not Bill Gates or Al Gore retard), I’d ban these obnoxious people from the Internet. But I guess they do serve a purpose. I mean, who would us geeks get rich off of?
Older people who refuse to learn about this new fangled internet thing but would like to use it!
It wouldn’t annoy me if they took in some of what you said or tried to work things out themselves but no they’d rather be lazy and stubbornly not remember how to send an email.
This is not a reflection of course of an entire generation a lot of whom have embraced the internet and would leave a lot of younger people in their wake.
(My mum makes me proud that way she took it upon herself to learn a lot about the net - mind you she still looks at every scam there is online!)
First time commenter here too - just saying I like reading your blog - you might like checking out http://www.crypthunter.com - you might get a laugh out of it!
Noobs are annoying..no doubt. Have you ever tracked how many you get in a day? I haven’t but I bet it’s dozens. As if I need another stock tip.
Your blog is weird. Tried commenting on the Firefox Party … window comes up empty but this one comes up just fine!!!
Anyhoo, net n00bs … never heard the term but they need to get with the times, no matter how much there is to be done with the internet.
Congrats on your 200th post … I stopped counting mine after 100. Is having you linked on m page good enough?
Totally agree with you there. The annoyance for me is definitely the mails that friends forward to me but since I never respond to them, they have finally got the message but it took years!
Yeah CoolDestiny. That’s a flaw in the template. Sometimes pages don’t show up well in Firefox, but they work fine in IE. And yeah, the link is good enough.
I feel your pain Leon. I hate those damn annoying spam, chain letters and ^#%@#@^ pop-ups! I can’t believe I still have friend who keep sending me those damn chain letters, attimes I’m tempted to block them!
Well said, Leon!
I rather like your blog.. lots of original content, which seems like a rare thing these days.
MySpace is the biggest n00b-magnet and should be avoided by anyone with a soul.
OHHH!!! I hate that crap!!!
I hate blind forwards, jokes and people soliciting information! Waste of time and energy!
I’ve now reached a point where I’m almost afraid to give peeps my email address. People without asking assume that everyone shares their enthusiasm about fwds.
This is a very interesting post (and an interesting blog)! Thanks for sharing, I will definetly check back! Nice to see you active on blogexplosion as well…:-). Won’t you return the favor?
http://frustratedauthor.blogspot.com
Am at the stage where I rarely open fwds. As to fwd in the hope of getting something-well forget it.
net noobs,I like the name.lol
The problem with the term ‘net noob’ is that most people who fit your criteria have been using the internet for ages. All the people I know who send tons of forwards have been doing so for years, and love it when they get hundreds of forwards.
I must agree that it’s certainly some type of disorder though!
I have to agree with you whole heartedly!!! These are the same people who wonder how come they got this virus, and ask for you assistance on the simpleness of things.
Do people really still believe in chain letters? It would seem so by the numerouse JUNK mail i get from frens in my box.
I’ve told of bunch of people to just stop send me FWD’s mail already that I’m not going to read them as i see them i trash them. Some of them have not been to happy when they’ve heard that but hey most of that stuff has been online for AGES!!!
There is also another purpose they serve. They let us know we aren’t the most stupid person on Earth!
He and his friend chuckled, and said in a condescending tone, “click on the big blue E.”
That part was funny, but they did wanna “help” in their own clumsy way. Some parts were mean, ’cause so many Fwd offenders & chain-letter senders have been on de net since wappy a kill fulloop, yet U’re apparently blamin’ de newcomers & tech-challenged.
there is a guy I have not spoken to or even seen in about 3years who INSISTS on forwarding me bu!!$h!t almost daily. Forwards drive me nuts.
PS. Sorry about your true love shacking up with that jerk.