Member-only story
Scary Messages on Your Computers
It’s no wonder old people are afraid of computers.
Old people sometimes are ridiculed because of their unfamiliarity with technology, or their outright fear of it. But upon further review, some of those fears might not be totally unfounded. Or in some cases, the terminology that has popped up on some computer monitors has been terrifying.
We will take a few minutes to consider a few of these technological terrors, starting with scary messages.
A Fatal Error Has Occurred!
I saw this on occasion when I was first using computers. When I saw this I immediately wondered, “Who died?” “Who’s responsible for the fatality?” “Do I need to wipe the prints off my computer and keyboard?”
Imagine some poor grandma at her computer and seeing that message. It might cause a heart attack, or cardiac event if you will. If she survives the initial shock of the message, she will probably start calling her kids and grandkids to see if they’re okay.
Then maybe she calls the cops to report a death. She doesn’t know who or where, but a fatal error has occurred somewhere.
Bad Request.
Who wants their request to be judged as bad? And who wants a judgmental computer? If get this message from your computer, you…
