History Main / HopelessWithTech

* ''Literature/GoodOmens'': Newton is so hopeless with anything involving electricity he once managed to short out the power to his neighborhood. Weaponied in the climax when he's told to "improve" the computerized [[spoiler:launch system for NATO's nukes]], utterly destroying it.

* In ''Fanfic/FateGenesis'', Rin reluctantly has to concede part of the reason [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Eggman's]] technology keeps trumping over Magecraft is because most magi can't conceive the idea of their abilities being outmatched by technology, such as with his tech being able to detect Bounded Fields and Magecraft because most magi don't believe such precautions are necessary. It's also pointed out that while they do good at hypnotizing bystanders or wiping out physical evidence, they tend to miss out on little things like security footage.

* ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney'':

* Creator/AngelinaJolie has [[https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2013/11/movie-stars-shunning-social-media-twitter admitted]] "I don't really know how to turn on a computer", and that she and then-partner Creator/BradPitt were [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/angelina-jolie-and-brad-pitt-got-lost-on-amazoncom/2011/12/13/gIQACn9mrO_blog.html completely perplexed]] when they once tried to use Amazon.com. And this is from someone who [[Film/{{Hackers}} played a hacker]].

* ''[[WesternAnimation/HotWheelsBattleForce5 Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5]]'': The Vandals, a savage culture of tribal warriors, are shown to be this. Makes you wonder why they have all their crazy vehicles.[[spoiler: Season 2, “Fused”, reveals the answer to that. As it turns out, the Vandals owe the technological side of their arsenal to a race of super-scientists aliens they enslaved called the Kharamanos. When the Battle Force 5 discovers the Kharamanos and slowly begins liberating them from the Vandals, their vehicles slowly begin falling into disrepair.]]

* ''Series/WandaVision'': Played for Drama in [[Recap/WandaVisionEpisode5OnAVerySpecialEpisode "On a Very Special Episode"]]. [[spoiler:Thanks to Wanda's mental influence]], the people of Westview act like sitcom characters. Norm acts baffled at sight of a computer, and thinks that an email needs a letter opener to be read. Then Vision reverts him [[MoodWhiplash which makes him desperately beg to go home]], only to wonder how to put a stamp on the email.

* When ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' is {{Uncancelled}} in 2015, Opus stuggles to adjust to the modern world. In his first attempt to use the net, Oliver tells him to put "words that make you smile" into a search engine; Opus inputs "suds" and "nuns", and suffice to say, [[RuleThirtyFour it turns out bad.]] Later, he mistakes Twitter for a chat room for birds and accidentally posts a video of Steve having sex with his girlfriend (later ex-girlfriend) to the entire world.

* If you thought this was a problem with just older people, a lot of younger people, used to mobile devices, [[https://www.theverge.com/22684730/students-file-folder-directory-structure-education-gen-z apparently have troube understanding how file systems work on PCs]].

* If you thought this was a problem with just older people, a lot of younger people, used to mobile devices, [[https://futurism.com/the-byte/gen-z-kids-file-systems apparently have troube understanding how file systems work on PCs]].

* Plays a surprisingly huge part of ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub''. [[spoiler: NotLoveInterest Monika gains MediumAwareness and the ability to edit and delete game data at some point, and a large part of the SurpriseCreepy aspects of the game come from the fact that, while she can and does change things to try and make a route for the player to romance her and drive him away from the other girls, she's not very good at it and ends up causing things like various creepy bugs and glitches, and causing characters to go insane as their personalities are rewritten and even kill themselves. To be fair, though, DDLC is a particularly ''extreme'' example of WorldLimitedToThePlot (the four girls and the main character are literally the only characters that exist, which contributes to the SurpriseCreepy), so Monika had to basically teach herself how to code from the ground up.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Fathom}}'': Aspen is a Type 2. Being [[ApparentlyHumanMerfolk a member of the Blue]] in her childhood and a marine biologist who spends a lot of time in and underwater, this is to be expected. She's gotten better about it in more recent volumes, even making a broadcast from her laptop in Volume 7.
* Roger Fox of ComicStrip/FoxTrot, is a type 2. He can work the basics of most tech, but anything more complex than that, particularly with computers, results in crashes or worse. This is a result of {{Flanderization}} since the 1980s, when computers weren't as ubiquitous as they currently are.
* When ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' is {{Uncancelled}} in 2015, Opus quickly becomes a type 2, [[EpicFail not adjusting to the modern world well at all.]] In his first attempt to use the net, Oliver tells him to put "words that make you smile" into a search engine; Opus inputs "suds" and "nuns", and suffice to say, [[RuleThirtyFour it turns out bad.]] Later, he mistakes Twitter for a chat room for birds and accidentally posts a video of Steve having sex with his girlfriend (later ex-girlfriend) to the entire world. He hasn't caused any true disasters yet, but it's only been five months, give him time...

** Played with in ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder''. The protagonist is a rather mediocre mage and is implied to have had a decently "normal" upbringing, so their tech knowledge is about on par with the average everyday person. The mage staff in Chaldea ''have'' to be good with tech since they use it so much themselves and collaborate with {{Muggles}} who do too. However, it's implied several of these mages are more of a Type 2, as while the mighty leader of the Crypters, Kirschtaria Wodime, definitely knows how to use a computer which would put him on top of the usual portrayal of an aristocratic mage, [[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish "password security" still clearly eludes him]].

** Phoenix Wright is a Type 2; he can work a computer and do the basic functions, and he knows what a computer virus is (as shown in ''Trials and Tribulations''), but little beyond that. When he gets a computer to do what he wants, there's generally a lot of luck involved.

* UsefulNotes/{{VCR}}s included a digital clock, which in many people's homes [[StoppedClock simply blinked "12:00"]] because no one could be bothered to figure out (or wanted to figure out) how to program it after hooking it up or after a power failure, because the clock wasn't necessary to watch movies - only to program when to record things. This became a common [[StockShticks Stock Shtick]] for someone who was Hopeless With Tech.

* Shouko from ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'' is stated to be this by Yuuji.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':
** Yuki Nagato starts out this way. She's a RealityWarper genius space alien interface device, but she's used to (or designed by/for) such a high level of technology that working at lower levels is initially very difficult to get accustomed to. Sort of like how most people who know how to use a cigarette lighter would be lost when given tinder, steel and flint.
** Mikuru Asahina as well. She's from the future, where technology has become non-physical, so modern technology is nigh-incomprehensible to her at times. She's generally fairly competent with tech from her own era, though we don't see her use it much (most of the time it isn't obvious that she ''is'' using it).
* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Several Magic-side characters are unfamiliar with modern technology. Index can't figure out how to work a vending machine with a touch screen until Hyouka Kazakiri patiently walks her through it all while Hyouka comments that the touch screen should be fairly intuitive, but she grows out of this in time and eventually is able to start playing and winning online puzzles for prize money to support the income of the Kamijou apartment. Kaori Kanzaki and her peers can't figure out how to work a washing machine.

* ''Fanfic/FateRevelationOnline'' has two omakes where Rin accidentally kills Shirou due to not understanding the dangers of [[LightNovel/SwordArtOnline NervGear]]. She also gets Ilya the second time around.

** [[LightNovel/FateZero Tokiomi Tohsaka]], Rin's father, had what amounted to a magical fax machine, and his student Kirei Kotomine wondered if a normal fax wouldn't be more efficient. Irisviel von Einzbern is a little better, having been taught about modern tech by her husband Kiritsugu Emiya, in that she knows ''about'' it, but still fumbles with a cell phone and DrivesLikeCrazy. In contrast, Waver Velvet seems to at least have a clue about modern tech, as he knew how to work Iri's phone when she didn't, which is one reason that marks him as unconventional by the standards of mainstream magi. [[spoiler: Later he comes to really love video games in memory of Iskander, so he probably is proficient.]]

** [[LightNovel/FateApocrypha Kairi Sisigou]] of the Red Faction also weaponizes this, having become a successful BountyHunter of rogue mages after abandoning the studious path and combining his trademark {{Necromancy}} with modern weapons like shotguns and explosives. On the Black Faction, Caules Forvedge Yggdmillenia is the ''only'' member of [[TheAlliance Yggdmillenia]] (including his sister) who actively uses technology like laptops due to the fact [[TheUnfavorite he sucks at magecraft and originally abandoned the path before being pulled into the war]], so he never bothered to conform to tradition.

** [[ExploitedTrope Weaponised]] by [[LightNovel/FateZero Kiritsugu]] [[MageKiller Emiya]]. As most Magi are so completely ignorant about the capabilities of modern technology they don't know how to defend against them. So instead of confronting Kayneth's elaborate magical defenses, he drops the building down around his ears with some well placed high explosives as just one example.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', the game's character creation allows for players to equip the 'Gremlins' quality, causing technology operating by them to inexplicably malfunction at varying degrees of severity. This can become problematic in a Cyberpunk world dominated by technology.

** In the first anime Minako (Sailor Venus) is also shown to be lethal around Rei's (Sailor Mars) music player which she manages to somehow ''blow up'' whilst trying simply play a cassette. Fans of the show then [[CharacterExaggeration exaggerated this trait in fanfics]] to the point of Minako destroying any electronic device she touches in some instances.