There are four stages to technology literacy; ignorant, tolerant, instructor, and researcher. When you look at each of these categories it can mean a wide verity of concepts. Let’s take a look at each of them to see where you might fit in.
The first stage I call the ignorance stage, the person will often say things like “I don’t care how it works; I just want it to work.” This group is often scared of technology as they have no idea how it functions. The people do not want to do anything on a computer because they are afraid they will break it.
Tolerance is the next stage of geekdom. These people have grown used to technology and usually think they know more than they actually do. The above groups are often scared of this one as they try to fix their own problems and quite often break more than they fix.
Instructors are the teachers of technology. This is where most “computer guys” fit in. They are the ones who fix the issues with the technology and teach others how to use it. Quite often this is the group of people who love technology and love solving problems.
The final group is researchers. These people are often scared of technology, not because they do not understand it, but because they understand it too well. They are the ones who create new concepts and know of all the problems with technology.
I am an instructor who is slowly moving into the researcher realm. The things I learn on a daily basis are often scary. We are the ones who are trying to push security to an audience who could care less for the most part.
The ranking of a person can vary by who does the scale. Most of the time a person ranking themselves will rate differently than by someone else.
