[school-discuss] OT: Failure to unsubscribe properly: a case of learned helplessness

[Ben Armstrong <synrg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 2006-04-13 at 15:53 -0500, Darryl Caldwell wrote:
> And the amazing thing is that this behaviour still occurs 12 years
> after the internet became popular.

Not so amazing if you consider it a case of "learned helplessness" due
to the head-spinning pace of change over those twelve years.  In spite
of the fact that list unsbscription instructions are simple and are
usually readily accessible, we are worn down by the anxiety caused by
the great number of things we don't understand about computers.  We have
learned to not even try whenever we need to find out how to do something
on our own.

Ben