Basic Computer Skills – 6 Tips You Need to Know!

Within the past century, a lot has changed as far as what technology is concerned. Within 20 years, computers have gone from slow and bulky machines into streamlined machines that have power and speed to degrees that we never thought possible at the time. 

The internet itself has evolved much since its Inception, going from a slow loading program into a fast pace device that everyone uses every day, especially on their phones and on portable laptops.

With technology, we've seen a lot of advancement within a short amount of time and as a result oh, a lot of people who were present during the time in which these devices got first created, are finding themselves left Behind due to the nature of how quickly our technology evolves. 

Thankfully, you can easily re-teach yourself how to utilize the current systems, and you'll find that while it may seem complicated, technology is geared to be user-friendly to reach the masses. In this article will be going over some of the best necessary computer skills you can learn to stay on top of technology and all of its advances.

What Does It Mean To Be Technologically Behind?

To be technologically behind means different things for different people. As far as work experience is concerned, you could have 20 years in a field but still, find yourself incapable of running specific software because you didn't get trained or you didn't have previous experience with it before.

This problem is a wrong area to find yourself in, especially since the 20 years that you've put into your field will mean little to nothing if you can't do what's needed to be done to work correctly. 

The same is true if you are a business, not being able to predict and play off of the advances in internet searches and online payment systems can destroy businesses and a short amount of time.

Being technologically behind can ruin careers, and destroy businesses quickly. Even if you are not employed what's a company that yours is a lot of technology, you're still going to find yourself in a position where having excellent technical skills can either open doorways or provide easier access to promotions.

Being technologically behind can be expensive as well. Everyone enjoys getting the newest gadgets that come out on the market. 

However, what a lot of inexperienced consumers don't realize is that a brand name product that we feel are good simply because they're recognizable could cost us more money then brands that you may not be familiar with but provide better specs as far as what they can afford.

For example, when it comes to purchasing a brand new laptop either for school or for your leisure,  you'll have to consider some of the primary uses that you'll have for your new laptop. Will it be a gaming computer? Or are you content merely searching the web and playing small games that don't use a lot of processing power?

These questions also apply to tablets, which are a popular substitute for a laptop, and often are more convenient to carry around. If you don't know how much processing power a device has, you could end up with a machine that slow and hard to operate. The same is true if you intend to on a mechanism for the sake of watching movies and storing books.

Having a good understanding of what you will need as far as the components of your new device are concerned, we'll save you a lot of money and a lot of frustration when it comes to finally picking what you want. 

Security is another reason that a lot of people need to keep up-to-date with their technical knowledge. If you go to a cafe or a public Hotspot with your laptop or other wireless devices, without the proper safety features and place your information is easy pickings for any predator who happens to be on the same network as you.

That means all of your credit card information as well as Social Security numbers and any other sensitive information that you might have stored on your computer is at risk. You can find yourself facing identity theft, which is one of the most damaging events I could happen to your financial life. 

That doesn't just affect your bank account, but it also affects your credit score, which in turn affects your ability to purchase a car or a new home. 

Why Is it A Good Thing To Be Up To Date With Technology?

So, if the technology is continuously changing, then why is it so important to keep up with everything new about technology if it's just going to be obsolete later on? The answer to this question is simple: you're going to need to keep up with technology simply because technology gets integrated into every aspect of our lives. 

If you're looking set a promotion or learning new skills, chances are you're going to need to have a good grasp of current technology used to function at your job correctly. 

Likewise, if you like keeping up with what your children or grandchildren are doing, then they are going to be using social media more frequently, and that's an excellent way to keep updated with what they're up to. 

There are a lot of different reasons as to why you should try to keep up with technology even though it is quickly evolving and it never stays the same for very long. Not to mention, cars are becoming smarter, and if you intend on purchasing a new vehicle shortly, you might need to know some necessary information in regards on how to operate it properly. 

While learning necessary computer skills is it necessarily going to prepare you for everything that technology has to throw at you, it's a great beginning to make to become well acquainted with what you're dealing with today. 

Beside,s people who are better acquainted with technology will be able to make informed decisions on their next purchases when it comes to Everyday household items that do require a basic understanding of technology in general. 

The Most Basic Computer Skills To Keep You Up To Date

To be considered computer literate oh, there are a few things that you need to know. These are skills that you can take and utilize anywhere, and they make things easier once you have a good understanding of how they work. 

The most basic and commonly used aspect of a computer is learning how to use a search engine properly. Anyone can plug in an essential phrase in Google's search engine bar, but how often do you try to search for something and the result that you get is not what you were looking for at all? 

Knowing how to do an advanced search is a skill that you will need to learn to become competent and utilizing search engines properly. To do that you need to have a basic idea of how search engines work and what to look out for as far as your results are concerned. There are many search engines you can choose to use, but the most popular ones are:

All websites of any kind utilize something called SEO to Show up more prominently when you search for a product or a bit of information. You can use this concept to your advantage if you want a more precise listing of things that you're looking for instead of relying solely on the algorithm present within the search engine itself. 

Here are some easy ways to make the most out of using any search engine you choose.

Google especially has this Nifty little feature known as autocomplete, which automatically provides suggestions that specifically correlate with their search engines. This process not only a great way to guarantee your specific search results get met, but it also saves you the effort of typing. 

When you go to search for anything specific, you'll want to make sure that you're using only particular terms to describe what it is you're searching. If you use generalistic words, that's when you come across the thousands of results that may contain part of what you're looking for, but don't have what you're looking for exactly. 

The minus sign is a perfect way to specify your search further, especially when you're utilizing standard terms that might pop up with different results. When you are searching, and the result turns up something else altogether, you re-enter your search item and then add in the minus sign in front of the term that you don't want to see show up. 

When you're performing a search on a search engine, you don't have to worry about using capitalization while you're showing your search. The search engine will not distinguish case sensitive words, and it won't change how your search results end up. 

You don't have to typically worry about using suffixes in your search bar simply because of your browser search engine works best off of base words unless you're explicitly looking up the act of something happening such as walking or running as opposed to using the base words of walk and run. 

If you're looking for a specific phrase or perhaps lyrics from a song, it's easier if you put quotation marks around the particular line or phrase that you're looking up to get an exact result. If a sentence or web page does not contain what's in the quotation marks, it won't get displayed in your search results. 

While there are exceptions to this rule, you typically want to avoid using common words such as and, the, a, and other forms of filler words that compile complete sentences. Punctuation is also not necessary when you're searching on a browser. 

The exceptions that you might come across to get your search results are more for situations where you might be looking up the title of a movie or a book. 

Unless you never use the internet before or a search engine for that matter, using your browsing history is an excellent way of saving time, and it will get you back to the results that you got last time. To access your browsing history, you can look through the browser history settings in your web browser. 

Just like with the minus sign taking out words that you don't want to end up in your search results, you can use the + operator to add things that you want the search engine to look up.

Also, you can use a tilde operator in front of a word or phrase which your browser will then include synonyms for your words.

Putting in an asterisk is giving your search engine permission to fill in the blank using it's on operations to determine what you will most likely search for But ultimately the results could be very random. 

Using numeric ranges is also a great tactic in specifying your searches, and it's especially useful when you're trying to search for a specific price range for a product or even a product version.

Knowing how to put together your computer at least enough that you can get it out of its box and plug it in is an essential skill do you have if you're going to operate a computer. A lot of the cords that you have to deal with are pretty self-explanatory as far as the shape of the core vs. the way of the hole it goes into is concerned.

However, if you need help putting one together enough that you can operate it, it might be best to ask someone to show you how to do it so that you'll know for later correctly. Familiarizing yourself with your computer both in operation and in the physical sense is the best way to become more capable of handling technology in the future. 

If you're going to operate a computer or even a laptop in a public Wi-Fi setting, you need to have a security system in place. The internet gets filled with viruses and tracking code that will target your network and create a lot of problems for you in the future. To prevent this, you'll need a decent antivirus program as well as a spyware monitor as the basics for getting started. 

This software often includes add-ons that protect your computer when browsing to avoid sites that contain malware or other malicious code. It’s essential to keep the program up-to-date. Unfortunately, hackers are always finding new ways to breach data.

To claim any form of computer literacy, you need to know How to use a basic word processing program. There are free versions that you can get online from the Adobe suite or WordPerfect. However, a lot of people are more familiar with Microsoft Word. 

Either way, being able to familiarize yourself with a Word document program and find yourself capable of utilizing the different features that come with it are essential to being computer literate. 

Keyboard commands are reasonably necessary, and there a great way to save yourself a little bit of time while you're in the middle of using your computer. While there are quite literally thousands of different keyboard commands that you can use, the more basic ones are essential for considering yourself to be computer literate.

 Some of the more common keyboard commands are:

There are more than that, but those are the most basics to start yourself off within familiarizing yourself with keyboard commands. Thankfully was a quick internet search, you can discover and utilize many more as you go on.

Do you know what a graphics card is? Or what the difference between an HDD and an SSD are? Knowing the basic terminology that comes with owning a computer is essential to maintain it long term properly. 

If you end up having an issue with one of your hard drives, will you be able to compile your question? In a way that people who are familiar with computers can help you?

It's also an excellent way to save money if a bit of your hardware does end up dying. If you lose a stick of ram to age in constant use, it would be good if you knew what it got called and if you could potentially get an upgrade for it while you're replacing it. 

Conclusion

While you don't have to know how to code a program using a command prompt or how to jump in and go through detailed diagnostic procedures for a sudden spike in processing power, it is vital to know at least these essential skills if you want to get better at using a computer.

These skills are excellent for everyday purposes, and they carry the potential to benefit you when you use these skills to keep in touch with the advances in technology that we're living with today.