Trends and Friends: Access, use and benefits of digital technology for homeless and ex-homeless people

Trends and Friends
As these categories are self-reported, people may exaggerate their competence or their
incompetence. Certainly some staff reported that people’s stated confidence sometimes
exceeded their technical skills. ‘Sitting next to Nellie’ as a way of acquiring skills tends to result
in the replication of Nellie’s limitations and misunderstanding as well as her attributes. The
majority of people learned through practice and frequent use of digital technology. The next
largest proportion had been taught by friends or family. Just 8% said they learned their skills
through training at a service. This method was more popular with older respondents: 75% of
those who took this approach were over 30 years of age. See further Charts 3 and 4.
Below are some examples of respondents’ descriptions of their abilities, reflecting the
considerable range.
• ‘Pitifully inadequate’
• ‘I’m not advanced, but I’m in the middle. I have average knowledge.
It’s better than having none.’
• ‘100% confident for the things I need’
• ‘Good at what I want to do’
• ‘I’m a whizz on computers’ 15
A common theme was confidence in handling those programmes that respondents most
wanted to use and conversely a lack of confidence in their ability to do other tasks, reflecting
a strong link between levels of motivation and skill. This typically meant people felt confident
in their skills using Facebook and other social media sites, but found Microsoft Office and
Word processing programmes more difficult to use – with obvious negative consequences
for job seeking. Of the 65 people who specified a programme or activity which they were
most confident using, 30 (46%) identified Facebook or other social networking sites. Among
those who specified a programme or activity where they were least confident, 47% (26 of
55) named Microsoft Office or a particular Office programme (PowerPoint, Excel or word
processing software). As one respondent noted:
• ‘It confuses me. Everything on the internet apart from Facebook.’ 16
The popularity of social networking was also evident among those with little confidence in
using digital technology and the internet in particular. One person commented particularly on
the limitations for socialising imposed by her relative lack of skills or knowledge.
• ‘Lots of programmes I am not good at - how to do Twitter, Skype, how to see relatives on
the screen.’ 17
15
All Lemos&Crane questionnaire respondents answering the question, ‘How would you describe your level of knowledge
about the internet and any computer programmes and online tools that you use?’
16
Female, 26 ( Lemos&Crane questionnaire respondent)
17
Female, 39 (Lemos&Crane questionnaire respondent)
22