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Word for lack of understanding at scale?

English Language & Usage Asked on March 22, 2021

Imagine we’re back in the days when the Internet was born. Over the next few years, only a tiny fraction of the population understood how the Internet works.

How would an early adopter succinctly describe the flocks of people who don’t have a clue about the Internet?

Note: bonus points if the word refers to an asymmetry of information, whereby one party knows a lot more than everybody else.

7 Answers

I think 'unenlightened' could work here:

having or showing a lack of necessary knowledge or understanding
// ... an audience of unenlightened laymen.

(source: Merriam-Webster)

Laymen (or the gender-neutral laypersons) itself is another candidate.

Correct answer by Glorfindel on March 22, 2021

Digirati will sometimes call them

Hoi Polloi

In English, it has been given a negative connotation to signify deprecation of the working class, commoners, the masses or common people in a derogatory or (more often today) ironic sense.

Here's a recent usage which shows the asymmetry of hoi polloi.

America seems resigned to having a two-tierd workforce, where "knowledge workers" stay home and work via computer while the hoi polloi slave away in the trenches.

(from Fishing, Acupuncture, And Other Newly Virtual Jobs by John Queenan, Wall Street Journal, 8Aug20, p. C6)

or

Unwashed masses

(idiomatic) The collective group of people who are considered to be uneducated, uninformed, or in some other way unqualified for inclusion in the speaker's elite circles.

These terms convey an asymmetry, are both derogatory, and could encompass technology, ability, or knowledge.

Answered by rajah9 on March 22, 2021

Technophobe

someone who dislikes new technology, especially computers, and is not able to use it with confidence https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/technophobe

Technophobia (from Greek τέχνη technē, "art, skill, craft"[1] and φόβος phobos, "fear"[2]) is the fear or dislike of advanced technology or complex devices, especially computers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophobia

Although this word is not specifically about the internet, it's close.


You ask for asymmetry. The opposite of technophobe is technophile.

  1. a person who is enthusiastic about new technology: "he became an ardent technophile, buying every new gadget on the market" Powered by Oxford Dictionaries

Answered by chasly - supports Monica on March 22, 2021

Uninitiated

The word with the least negative connotation I can think of is "uninitiated". Although "unenlightened" is very similar, and both essentially mean the same thing as "ignorant", both "unenlightened" and "ignorant" are often used in a subject-independent way ("an ignorant/uninformed/unenlightened person") with the implication that the person's lack of understanding is at least partly due to their own unwillingness to learn or adopt new methods.

While these words can be used in a truly neutral tone when they're explicitly linked to a topic ("ignorant/uninformed/unenlightened about message board etiquette", for example), I think they still carry a slight pejorative emphasis compared to "uninitiated", which is always used in a domain-specific way and implies that the person's ignorance is no fault of their own - in this case, the user simply hasn't been "initiated" into the esoteric mysteries of the Internet yet.

Answered by pinkfrosty on March 22, 2021

What about "muggles"?

Those like Vernon & Petunia Dursley know nothing about the magic world in Harry Potter novels.

Answered by Pedant on March 22, 2021

What about Illiteracy e.g. People back then were not as computer-literate as today.

Or:

ingorance

Or:

unaware

Answered by user352103 on March 22, 2021

I just stumbled upon "arcane" today:

understood by few; mysterious or secret.

Fits the bill.

Answered by Paul Razvan Berg on March 22, 2021

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