Is today’s tech too hard? Do you understand your megapixel from your bitrate

As a journalist-cum-commentator in the tech industries – especially consumer oriented stuff – I’d like to know something. And it is an easy question. Here it is.

The average consumer review, tutorial, feature or opinion piece you read on anything from computers to sat nav/GPS system to TVs, DVDs, Blu-ray players and so on; do you understand it? Do our writers in Australia for newspapers and specialist magazines make it easy for you to read a review and think, “Hey I can use that”. And you go and buy it.

Or, as is my opinion, on average, you read something, and unless you are an absolute geek / gadget follower think, “I have no idea what that meant and why it is better (or worse) than the one I read about last week/month/yesterday”.

In other words, you are no wiser as to which is the best gizmo to buy.

So you go to the local store – whether it be Harvey Norman, Clive Peeters, Good Guys, Retravision, Rick Hart, JB HiFi, whatever – and seek advice. There you are confused by geek talk that has your head spinning within seconds.

But.

And here is the nub of it.

The last thing you want to do is show ignorance so you feign understanding, and nod your head sagely at the positive points brought up. No matter what you are being flogged is the one with the highest margin and therefore the highest commission. You guess this, but don’t know it. Oh sure you haggle for a few dollars here and there, but not knowing their margins, to a large degree you are shooting blind.

You don’t  shop around as the last thing you want to do is go through this scenario time and time again. So you sign and bolt with the goodies, hoping like hell it will do the job you are told it will.

And now you look forward to wiring it all together with instructions from a manual that make less sense than the salesperson did.

How close am I to the truth? Let me know….