From a conversation between Neven Mrgan and Dan Wineman on the ReadWriteWeb Facebook login hoopla:

The amount of information-ignoring here is just stunning. The degree of faith people put in Google’s top result makes Catholics look like hippies.

This is just the latest in a long line of articles bemoaning or celebrating the computing stupidity of the general public.  It apparently takes superhuman brains to login to Facebook, operate a blog, or even know the difference between a browser and a search engine.

Is this a problem with our user interfaces?  Or is this an increasingly obvious symptom of an aging baby boomer generation and their inability to operate anything above or including a clicker.

I think what we’re seeing now is a combination of both influences.  We nerds have successfully infiltrated every living room in the world with our windows and popups and input devices.  But we have also underestimated how many people – not just baby boomers – have ignored computers for the last 20 years and who are now completely unable to simply browse the internet.

Of course, unless we do something about usability, we may find ourselves in the same situation, perfectly fine with our computers but having ignored emerging tech and unable to use whatever my 7 year olds will have created, having grown up with a DS in one hand and an iPad in the other.