How to Be a Below-Average Computer User / Normal Human Being
How to Be a Geek Goddess came in a bright yellow cover with a sleek new-age design. As someone who desperately wishes to be a geek goddess, the jacket and title held immediate appeal to me. Alas, I was outsmarted by the marketers and the content of this book is catered more towards my mothers’ generation and older.
The book starts out with a “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” sort of pop psych perspective on technology. Men? They like technical specifications. Women just want to use technology to get things done. Casting aside that a geek is someone who enjoys the tools as much as the task, the book does not include enough information to make one a geek. Buying a computer, setting up one’s wireless, buying items online, using social-networking sites, and protecting both your computer and your children while using the computer, these are really the basics.
Beyond the educational content, the narrative includes witty metaphors involving stilettos and other stereotypes in a woman’s arsenal. This makes it very readable (though personally makes me cringe as I hate stilettos) and combined with the pictures, boxes, and well-organized text is incredibly accessible to the novice user. The lists it draws up of anti-virus software, browsers, networking groups, instant messengers, et al. are comprehensive and included a few programs I hadn’t heard of before. But sometimes the advice seems askew. Norton was mentioned first as a popular anti-virus software while AVG was mentioned last “for an older computer you might not want to spend money on”. Really?
I think this book has a place for a computer novice, but I hesitate to even re-assert that it is of my parents’ generation. The difficulty is that when my mother and most of my friends’ parents, who are not tech savvy individuals, already have a Facebook, MySpace and sometimes an eHarmony account; have downloaded anti-virus software, browsers and Microsoft Office; have set up their own networks and printers; and regularly use Craigslist and e-Bay, there is little information left in this book to make it worth the read. Perhaps it would be a great book to give to an Amish girl upon entering Rumspringa? $17, available widely.
