I wonder how so many people can “have a life” without having a job to support that life. Which means having actual ... employable qualifications ... like knowing stuff, or being able to work it out ...

because I currently work in a UK shop selling all manner of electronic gadgets and accessories to Joe Public.

The sales staff here are quite computer and electronic literate so we're not talking Currys/PCworld here.

But I was stunned when I joined by the amazing lack of knowledge by the customers.

I've saved the lives of 2 customers already as they tried to save buying a PP3 battery by wiring up a Mains lead across the tiny 9V battery terminal.
(They came in complaining the Mains fuse kept blowing no matter how large a value they put in!)

I'd get customers asking for 'A Wire' to power a computer or to connect their TV to the Internet.

They rarely know what a HDMI or DVI connector is let alone what a 'RCA' is.

They don't know how batteries work or how a phone does it's job.

I often spend ages trying to guess what they're after.

Kids (under 20) are no better, they ask for a 'splitter' or a 'cable' and I'm suppose to be clairvoyant. :-)

Amazing the number of people who think hard drives are robust and can't understand why their computers stop working if they are dropped or moved about when being used.

This is turning into a rant so I'll stop here...

Must apologise for my fellow uneducated countrymen. How sad that we now have one of the worst education systems in the world. Apparently we only bother to teach people how to claim benefits at school now !

I'm even more amazed that 75% could speak enough English to understand the question!

and the friggin Doctor Who wiped memory at 100 words per minute... well that and the Dewey Decimal system. Spiffing world's not going to save itself, now is it?

Truly great article. Had me laughing at times, not often I can say that while reading about IT.

I'm with Z on this, out of a random sample of a 1000 Brits, 750 knew who TBL is? Somehow I doubt that. I just conducted the same survey in my office and out of 10 random people no-one knew who he was...

be the other way around '75% of brits know of some obscure tech bloke'. I bet if you asked people 'who invented the diesel engine' you wouldn't get 75% knowing the surname. I can only guess the PR company was hired to trumpet the story that we need to know about tech issues, but even though when they did the survey the opposite was true they still carried on with the same PR. Name any other top 10 world wide company where the CEO is known by more people than Gates. Probably only Branson gets as much into the public domain.

I believe that most people have a broader view of life. That god I.T. is a smaller part of what people think is important.

Get a life, see the world, open a window. There is a larget world out there than IT.

Who knows, you might get to kiss a girl before you die, or go blind playing with your Dongle.

75% know of Berners-Lee? I find that extremely improbable to believe of random Brits.

All though I am tech savoy the truth is it's not important. IT changes to fast.
Life was much more simple before all these new tech stuff that was supposed to make our life's simpler turned us into slaves of our gadgets. While the internet is a tool to find knowledge it can also make us stupid. IF I had my way all the computers would just away. The truth is most things worked better and there where more jobs before computers took them.
Why in the Hell does my car need a computer, they worked just fine when they didn't have them.

and will remain stupid

heck some people are dead!