Carolyn got an iPad for Christmas and like many electronic devices nowadays, it came with no instructions at all. Hold it, there may have been instructions on how to charge the unit. But as to how to turn the machine on or off, run applications (or as they're now cutely named "apps"), or communicate with the world, the user is left to "intuit" the answers. The interface is so natural and intuitive that additional training would be superfluous. Ha!
I should have known this would happen 35 years ago when one of the more popular games on the Apple ][ was called Blackbox. The object of the game was to find out the object of the game and that in turn was to figure out how the Blackbox "worked" or treated input. And while PC makers and their related software producers haven't exactly been perfect trainers or documenters, they don't assume you'll just "pick it up" as you use the hardware.
It influences the younger generation's view on life. My son was teaching his nephew how to use the Tennis emulator on Wii with the advice that the younger boy swing his racquet any way, any direction and he'd soon pick up what was happening.
I'm sure it's just a sign of old age but I need a little instruction so that I don't feel like I'm flailing my tennis racquet in the air.
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