People who don’t understand computers often see them as tools of voodoo, capable of magical — and sometimes cursed — behavior. Longtime IT veteran Jaime Henriquez, who holds a doctorate in technology and culture, recently compiled a list of common computer “superstitions” for TechRepublic.com.
“These are the users who have memorized the formula for getting the computer to do what they want but have no clue how it works,” he explains. “As in magic, as long as you get the incantation exactly right, the result ‘just happens.’ The unforgiving nature of computer commands tends to feed this belief.”
For example, refusing to reboot is a major superstition. “Some users seem to regard a computer that’s up and running and doing what they want as a sort of miracle, achieved against all odds, and unlikely ever to be repeated — certainly not by them,” he writes. “Reboot? Not on your life!”
Another example is believing the computer has a personality. “This is the user who claims in all honesty, ‘The computer hates me,’ and will give you a long list of experiences supporting their conclusion,” Henriquez says.
Or believing the computer is all-knowing. “Things this user says betray the belief that behind all the hardware and software there is a single Giant Brain that sees all and knows all — or should,” he writes. “They’re surprised when things they’ve done don’t seem to ‘stick,’ as in ‘I changed my email address; why does it keep using my old one?’”
“Once on the path to magical thinking,” he continues, “some users give up trying to understand the computer as a tool to work with and instead treat it like some powerful but incomprehensible entity that must be negotiated with. For them, the computer works in mysterious ways, and superstitions begin to have more to do with what the computer is than how they use it.”