Michael Santos was in prison from 1987 to 2012. Imagine how much the world has changed in that time. Computers, smartphones, and the internet present a mountain of things to learn, if you hadn't been with it all along.
Technology has changed considerably during the 25 years that I served. I read extensively during my term of incarceration, but reading about technology felt a bit like reading about typing. Regardless of how much I read, I wouldn't grasp the power of technology until I started using it. Forget the power, I don't even understand the language of technology. For example, I never understood what people meant when they spoke of a "browser." In fact, I just asked my wife to define a browser, and when she described it as a program that would allow me to access the Internet, I gave her a blank stare.
"But I thought the browser was the little text box on top of the screen, where I type in what I'm looking to find on Google."
"No honey," she said. "That's the URL bar."
Actually, you should type what you're looking for into the Google search field. Which all reminds me of young people who grew up using computers making fun of grandma's slow learning curve. The huge amount of information needed to learn anything new is so much easier when you get it little by little, instead of having to confront it all once. Read more about Santos' learning curve at Gizmodo. Link -via Digg
BTW I use firefox as well and typing in the URL goes immediately to google search afterwords. Love that i can just type anything into my URL and it looks it up for me.