Basic Trope: A character who is not good with technology.
- Straight: Alice doesn't know how to use a computer. She types by using the "hunt-and-peck" method, still unironically uses AOL, has to ask her teenaged (or adult) children how to use The Google, has inadvertently downloaded several viruses, and her connection is still dial-up. And instead of using a smartphone, she still uses a flip-phone.
- Exaggerated: In addition to all of the above, she has mistaken the aquarium screensaver that came with her PC for an actual aquarium, and gotten visibly distressed when the fish went away upon jiggling the mouse, and has mistaken the CD-ROM drive for a cupholder and the mouse for a microphone or a foot pedal. She either uses a very basic home phone, or one of those "brick phones" from The '80s.
- Downplayed: Alice knows the basics of using a computer, but when it comes to something like fixing it, or starting a blog or website, she needs a little extra help.
- Justified:
- Alice is living (or grew up in) a time when computers and cell phones and the like were non-existent, or only available to the wealthy, and never learned how to use the tech.
- Alice is a Fish out of Temporal Water.
- Alice grew up poor, and didn't even have an Internet connection in her home. And since she went to a Sucky School, she really wasn't taught on the technology there, either.
- The technology really is new in the time and place in which Alice lives, so she really is learning as she goes.
- Alice believes technology is evil and corrupts.
- Alice isn't too bright in general, so it makes sense that she'd find technology difficult to use as well.
- Inverted:
- Alice is always up on the latest technology. She might even be a Hackette. She types 100 words per minute, uses the highest-speed Internet available, and has never downloaded a virus. And her phone is the latest smartphone.
- Alternatively, it's older forms of technology that Alice struggles with. (For example, Alice doesn't know how to use the fax machine, but she is great with her computer.)
- Subverted: Alice seems like a fumbling beginner but she is using Bob's highly customized device that everyone but him has trouble using
- Double Subverted: Alice is revealed to have trouble with any device.
- Parodied:
- Tech support has blocked Alice's number.
- Alice is on a first-name basis with the Operator from India, and has him/her on speed dial.
- Alice calls her adult children several times daily, just to ask how to use The Google.
- Alice is in a profession that relies heavily on tech, yet has no idea how to use it.
- Alice calls tech support, and they can see immediately by her AOL email address that this is a case of PICNIC. note
- Alice is still amazed that when you put bread in a toaster, out comes toast. She even has to call tech support for help with the (simple, slotted) toaster!
- Even the wheel is too much tech for Alice!
- The computer explodes as soon as Alice touches it, because it's just that finicky.
- Zig Zagged: Some forms of technology bewilder Alice, others don't.
- Averted: Alice is reasonably good with technology.
- Enforced:
- There needs to be some sort of technology mishap for the sake of the plot (whether it's for Rule of Funny or Rule of Drama), so there should be a character that doesn't understand how technology works.
- The show is an edutainment show that has an episode focusing on how technology is used; a character not understanding technology would be a useful way to teach it to the audience as well.
- Lampshaded: "How do I use The Google?"
- Invoked: Alice grew up in an era where everything was handwritten (or, at best, done on typewriters), and suddenly, all this new tech is thrust upon her, and she's expected to know it inside and out intuitively.
- Exploited: Bob, the "Prince of Bulungi," takes advantage of Alice's Genre Blindness and technological naivete to scam her.
- Defied: Alice takes computer classes at the local community college or adult education center.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
