"Computer license and registration please."

Some people may believe that being "computer illiterate" is a victimless crime, but I am here to dispel this belief, once and for all. I will say however, being computer illiterate, and also not having a computer, is much less dangerous.

The problem lies in the fact that most people that do not believe they have time to spend learning how to properly use a computer, also believe that the rest of the world that does know how to use a computer, is forever in debt to them, and therefore must act as their personal slave of technology. It almost seems as though the ideology is that they would rather spend their time talking to tech support, then actually exploring/learning/using the device they bought. Now you may say, "But James, don't people learn things when they call tech support?", and the simple answer is "no". People seem to click their brains off when they call for help. Suddenly the person is unable to make any decisions for themselves, let alone even process what they are seeing on screen. They must now have extremely detailed descriptions/instructions on how to close the active window!

So, we have now determined that computer illiterate people effect those in the IT field. However this "effect" is minor, and some would argue is "part of the job". So lets look a little closer at how this all pans out.

There are people that legitimately need tech support for the products that they own. However the bulk of Internet related, phone service calls, go from "Tech Support" to "Computers 101" in the blink of an eye. Instead of troubleshooting a supposed "internet problem", suddenly you find yourself teaching someone how to use bookmarks, or how to set up email rules in Outlook, or giving a lecture on spyware and spam, the list goes on and on. The main problem with this scenario, is that troubleshooting problems with an internet connection is a relatively basic procedure, with minimal variables, and the problem can be determined quite quickly in most cases. This all falls apart however, when the person needing tech support, suddenly also needs a personal computer tutor.

So what is the end result of all this? Besides frustrated phone tech's, and lots of time on the phone? I believe it has been one of many contributing factors to businesses outsourcing phone support over-seas. As more and more people that are unfamiliar with technology are getting involved with it, this problem intensifies. Suddenly service centers are needing to double and triple their staff, or offer less effective tech support, with more on hold time. In general, if all calls to a given tech support call center, actually had a legitimate problem, and both ends of the phone had people that have a basic understanding of their respective computers, then tech support call centers would be drastically smaller, and more effective.

Of course in the real world, it is a lot easer to pay a whole building of people from India to do your job, and for a lot less. The companies don't care, they are paying less for support then ever, and don't have to listen to you complain about it, because they don't even run the show.

Obviously there are many, many, many reasons for outsourcing jobs. I believe this is one reason for the large scale move over of tech support related jobs. It is a sad truth.

So what will come first, a required license (or training at least) to operate a computer on the internet, or a couple generations of people using computers from childhood?