People are surprisingly ignorant of basic technological terms ⁰

One of the assumptions we might make about people in our increasingly digital world is that everybody has a pretty good grasp of what some of the more basic technological ideas actually mean. That cosy assumption is challenged by a new study from IT firm Daisy Group which claims that a fifth of the UK population don’t know what WiFi is, three quarters have no idea what is meant by VoIP, nearly half (43 percent) don’t know what The Cloud is and a similar number (44 percent) are baffled by the term ‘fibre broadband’. Even business owners and managers, for whom a basic grasp of this kind of stuff would seem essential, are at a disadvantage. Nearly a third (29 percent) of 1,100 surveyed couldn’t define fibre broadband (29 percent), a quarter (26 percent) hadn’t the foggiest about The Cloud and pretty much everybody is left cold by data centres.

Kate O’Brien, Marketing Director at Daisy Group, said: “Technology evolves on a day-by-day basis, and the benefits for business evolve alongside it. Whether it is efficiencies in business operations or the ability to make savings, technology is an enabler for any modern day organisation, no matter what their size. Like a utility, businesses can no longer operate without it. Our research highlighted that there is a gap in understanding the technologies that have been designed for business. In particular, we were shocked to find that 75 percent of people didn’t know what VoIP is, especially considering it is a billion pound industry which has been rocketing in popularity over the last five years, due to its ability to dramatically cut businesses’ phone bills.

“Those working in the fast-paced arena of IT and digital have a duty to cut through the jargon and educate UK businesses on what technology can mean for them. Otherwise businesses will continue to waste money and miss out on growth opportunities simply through ignorance about what is available.”

Daisy Group has published a series of videos to help people develop a better understanding of these basic ideas.