Technological Incompetence at its Finest
When I first started working at the store and was completing my training I remember overhearing a return transaction taking place at the e-reader kiosk. An older man was dissatisfied with his device and wanted a refund because, and I quote, "I just can't wrap my head around it. I can't figure out how to use it."
It's a fucking touchscreen.
I'm so sorry that the e-reader isn't steam powered and doesn't take a binary punch card to operate, however these things are designed and marketed toward older customers with convenience and ease of use being the sole design factor.
There is no keyboard. There are absolutely no peripherals or tools that you would have to use to navigate the device other than literally looking at what you want and touching it with your goddamned finger.
And this guy couldn't figure it out.
I just wonder either how stupid or technophobic you would have to be to take one look at a touchscreen, press on it angrily a few times, and then give up on it. We've trained gorillas to associate pictured buttons with treats and actions and this guy can't even do that. He can't even look at a buttonized cover of a book and make the mental association of "I want this" with touching it. It's just lost on him. Poof.
Physical books have a certain charm to them. I get that. I prefer real books to downloadable trash any day of the week, but the fact of the matter is the technology isn't hard to learn. It simply isn't. Finding yourself unable to operate something as simple as this is the equivalent of undoing thousands of years of progressive psychological evolution. Language and usage of complex tools is what set us apart from apes yet something tells me this guy would be right at home throwing feces at his companions and banging on his chest.