People Share The Most Vital Computer Skills That Everyone Should Learn

In this day and age we all rely on our computers for a myriad of tasks.
Not only do we use it to respond to emails and order things online, we also use it for gaming and streaming media content.
With the indefinite global health crisis still limiting physical contact, many of us have also mastered utilizing Zoom to connect with friends and family, even though our clumsy search for that elusive logout button at the end of a call dictates otherwise.
The point is, we have all to an extent become technical wizards.
But when it comes down to basic computer skills, even the most proficient user can be oblivious.
Redditor sujhkonen wanted to know:
"What is a computer skill everyone should know/learn?"
Cleaning
"How to clean their computers, software and hardware. It's amazing how much some of the machines out there are struggling due to dust and unused software."
"I just dusted my pc for the first time in over a year. Now it doesn't sound like a jet when I play Skyrim."
Tab Button
"Some years ago, I was watching my mother input values into a web form."
"For each field, she went and moved her mouse over the new field she wanted to add info to and then click on it. After a few times of observing this behavior, I asked her if she knew that tabbing would move to the next field."
"She didn't."
"So tabbing."
– demoran
Advance Searches
"How to advanced search and reverse image search on google."
"Advanced search example: put quotes around your phrase. It gives you results of the exact phrase rather than 100,000 irrelevant 'related searches.'"
– mp2900
Hitting CTRL F
"I was surprised to learn that there were people who didn't know ctrl f (or cmd f for mac users) was a thing. Extremely useful for finding a particular word/phrase in a large wall of text."
"I once had a coworker who didn't know this and was surprised on how I could complete certain excel lists so quickly or find information in them. She always zoomed them up to 300% and then read each column one by one..."
The Time Waster
"I was once given an excel sheet someone had made where they didn't know that pressing alt+enter would create a line break within a cell. This dude had held down the f'king space bar until the cursor moved onto the next line in each cell for a document with a couple thousand entries. Any time you viewed the sheet on a monitor with a different resolution or zoomed in/out everything would go out of alignment. I almost had a heart attack thinking about the astronomical amount of time it took to do that the wrong way."
– Xeibra
Failure To Excel
"After being trained in my current job (billing clerk) we had someone leave, and she'd been working there longer than I've been alive I think. One of our accounts that she billed to had us keeping excel sheets tracking PO numbers and how much money was left on them. The sheet had lines where you would put in the invoice number, the order number, and how much it was. Formula told you how much was then left on the PO. Super simple. I took over her responsibilities when she left. I discovered soon after that all the sheets on it were out of date by a few months so the POs were reflecting the wrong amounts. Thought she just stopped caring since she was leaving. Nope. I discovered in one of the drawers of files that she had been printing out physical copies of the sheets and writing the information in by hand. And would go and copy everything back onto the excel sheet whenever the account would ask how they were going.... Why would someone make twice the work for themself???"
– ArdentC
Incognito Broswer
"How to use incognito browser. Not only for porn, but to log into an account on a computer that isn't yours so the information isn't saved."
"Adding to that, if the computer is yours and you are inviting guests who need your computer often, you can set up a guest account for them. I personally use it for preserving my desktop."
"I personally use it to preserve my dignity."
Security
"Recognizing phishing attempts. Hell, recognizing any sort of incoming scam."
"I was pretty proud, and surprised, a few months ago."
"I got an email from a pretty legit looking address, but something about it felt fishy, so I forwarded it to our phishing department. Everything looked good, but the person it was from had literally never asked me to click on a link before, so it got my spidey senses going. The filter always catches that stuff, so I was really surprised that something like that got through, so I fully expected them to tell me it was legit."
"They replied back almost instantly that it was a test, they'd sent that email to around half of our 50,000 employees (spoofing the from to be a person in your reporting structure, and the email address was our company name with a hyphen and a word related to our field.), and I was one of only 50 or so that actually forwarded it properly. Over 2000 people clicked on the link, and another few hundred put their email and password in when prompted."
"Needless to say, we've had a lot of training on picking out phishing attempts since... (though it likely won't do any good)."
Getting Snippy
"Windows key + shift + s to create a new snip. Very handy to share just a bit of your screen and quicker than screenshots."
Such a useful shortcut! Cmnd-shift-4 for Mac!"
Research
"How to google the solutions to your basic computer problems. I'm the youngest person in my office by about 10 years, and everyone comes to me for IT advice. But all the expertise I have is knowing how to google the solution, because I don't know sh*t about computers."
Listening To (Or Reading) Your Computer
"To actually read what the computer is 'saying' to you instead of clicking on OK or Cancel right away without thinking."
"It's an advice that my step father gave me when I was young and it helped me a lot over the years."
– Eaglooo
"The first bit of advice I can remember my father giving me is 'Don't keep clicking expecting that to make anything happen faster. Click once, and wait.'"
"They replied back almost instantly that it was a test, they'd sent that email to around half of our 50,000 employees (spoofing the from to be a person in your reporting structure, and the email address was our company name with a hyphen and a word related to our field.), and I was one of only 50 or so that actually forwarded it properly. Over 2000 people clicked on the link, and another few hundred put their email and password in when prompted."
"Needless to say, we've had a lot of training on picking out phishing attempts since... (though it likely won't do any good)."
How To Type In A Website
"Typing in a website. I'm not kidding."
"I work IT for a healthcare org who contracts us as IT for hospitals throughout the US. There is an uncomfortably large amount of healthcare workers and doctors who can't comprehend what 'go to the internet and type in ________.com' means."
"Is that the E?"
"Where do I type it? The box at the top?"
"What do I do after I type it in? Hit enter?"
"Your new password is _______"
"I type that in the username section right?"
Troubleshooting
"How to troubleshoot problems without bothering other people first. You have the largest collection of curated knowledge in your pocket or at your fingertips, maybe it can help you solve your problem."
Don't Look At The Keyboard While Typing
"Typing without seeing the keyboard. You don't need to be fast, just type consistently without seeing screen and keyboard back and forth. Just focus on what are you typing on the screen."
For YouTube
"You can click anywhere on a youtube video to pause it."
"Or 'K'. Then 'J' to skip back 10 seconds, 'L' to skip forwards 10 seconds. Left and right arrows are skip back/forwards 5 seconds and comma ',' and period '.' skip backwards/forwards a single frame."

Some people like sweets, some people like alcohol, some people are willing to spend extra money a month just to have full access to all 14 seasons of their favorite obscure Canadian detective show.
You don't judge us, we won't judge you.
Reddit was asked:
"What is a guilty pleasure for you ?"
...and ... like ... we honestly feel kind of bonded in non-shame over this stuff.
Because it's all just SO GOOOOOOOOD!
It's Britney ...
"Playing Britney Spears’ music on 11 when I’m in the car all by myself. Especially 'Work Bitch' when I’m on the way to work an extra shift."
-nancydrew1224
"Toxic is an undeniably fantastic song."
-TheBrontosaurus
"It's such a weird mix of elements. Obviously you have Britney's pop singing, but it also mixes harsh strings with synth electro and a lot of rock elements. It blurs several genres together, and accordingly fits well next to other genres of music."
-Nambot
Those Golden Arches
"McDonald’s"
"I regret my choice right after finishing my meal. But not enough to prevent me from going back the next week lol"
-Candidmirror12
"Why did you say the word? I've been clean for three months straight!"
-realfoodman
"Yep."
"I get a craving 2-3 times a year. Same damned order every time. Large #1 value meal with a coke and a cheeseburger."
"I love their little chopped onions"
"Did you know that the Coke syrup formula for McDonald’s is different than what you get at home or other restaurants? It’s actually sweeter per McDonald’s request and specifications"
-mlgbt1985
Can't Run
"The Tremors anthology. Bad B-rated horror but god DAMN do I love me some graboids."
-BolognaIsNotAHat
"The first movie is legitimately excellent. The rest are stupid syfy level movies that are still a ton of fun."
-Taynt42
"The second one is also not terrible. Felt like a well measured escalation. The 3rd one on, though... SMH."
-Hotarg
"You ever have something be so bad that it loops itself back around into being awesome? That's this."
- [Reddit]
Perfect Mood Lifter
"Watching kid shows or disney movies even though I'm an adult."
-BanGinGDreams
"Phineas and Ferb."
"I honestly love to cruise the country side with my biker group, smoke half a pack, get home crack a beer and see what Phineas and Ferb did today."
"I'm a 28 year old man."
-Tiger_In_Maine
"Cartoons are good for the soul. Visually pleasing to watch. Good stories. Usually have some safe humor. Always end on a feel good tone. The perfect mood lifter when you're feeling down."
-GingerJayPear
Go Go Power Rangers
"Power rangers lore."
"I'm 28, can't get myself to sit through the kids shows anymore. But man did I love the series growing up and like keeping up with the new stories and seeing how it's going."
"My significant other would pretty much leave me if she found out how much I'm still addicted to keeping up with a show that I should have dropped 20 years ago."
-PN-DUBS
"Full stop, check out the comics. They were made for people that watched it as children and are adults now and they are honestly nothing short of incredible between the art and storylines. They do some really rad stuff."
-ForSafeKeeping220
Digging
"Picking my nose. I know it’s a bad habit but it’s nostalgic"
-VictoryIsMudkipz
"Kinda same it's not just gross but I also feel like it makes my nostrils bigger so I feel even more guilty 😭"
-getawaycar7H13
"There are two kinds of people in the world. People who pick their nose and liars"
-energy_falcon
Terribly Delicious
"Bad coffee."
"Like you go to a chrome-plated diner by the interstate and the coffee is made of cheap, stale grounds that has been on the hot plate or 3 hours. Something about it is super nostalgic."
-MutantOverlord
"Hell yes. I'll get like 5 refills on that tiny ass cup, tyvm"
-stoncils_
"Just terrible enough to want another cup."
-caseyd1020
Later
"Procrastinating….I hate myself for it"
-Usual-Difference9135
"I was going to comment the same but figured it could wait."
-C0rnD0g1
"I usually have two or three things on the go at once. So when I feel like procrastinating, I switch to one of the other things. My job has become literally me always procrastinating."
-StGir1
T.Swift
"I, on some occasions, belt out Taylor Swift’s 'Our Song' when I’m alone"
-nenolpunk
"I do it too but with 'The Story of Us' "
-SoonlyXo
"Taylor Swift's old songs are the best songs"
-AwesomeSpindleberry
"It’s this or 'Teardrops on My Guitar' because wow. Hit me in my teen feels."
"Who is Drew? I don't know, but I’ll sing about them regardless"
-nenolpunk
Hipster ASMR
"Before I discovered ASMR, I used to secretly watch videos of makeup tutorials because they made me feel relaxed. I'm a guy who's never worn make up in my life."
-SXOSXO
"I'm a man in my 30s. I love the cosplay tutorials from Alyson Tabbitha."
-amadeus2490
"Literally same!!! I watch NikkieTutorials or Naomi Jon! Like I personally don’t wear make up but I love the art behind it"
-patzzxd
So tell us, what's your pleasure? And do you HONESTLY feel guilty about it?
Go ahead and talk about it in the comments, I've got a certain Canadian Detective to check up on.
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Love or money?
An age old question.
Ideally, you wouldn't have to decide between the two.
In a perfect world, you would be able to find the true love of your life and be incredibly wealthy all at once.
But, as the saying goes, you can't have everything.
Though if faced with having to choose between the two, people might have a different idea of what the obvious answer would be.
Redditor lulinghayaw was curious how people would decide when faced with this decision, leading them to ask:
"Genuine, true love or 5 million dollars? Why?"
My love is worth more than that.
"True love because my true love is 5 trillion dollars."- ImOnARush.
Freedom to do what you love.
"I'm gonna be really honest, I'd choose 5 million dollars."
"Having that much money means financial stability."
"It means not having to work for money - that wouldn't mean not working ever again, but doing a job you really love even if it doesn't pay well."
"I would be able to study without worrying about burdening my parents."
"I could achieve my dream of getting multiple degrees."
"Money isn't just money, it's opportunities."
"Without having to worry about money, I could focus on improving myself in every way - getting healthier, studying more, having a stable routine, reading a lot, overall becoming the best version of myself."
"I'll have plenty of time to find true love, improve relationships with friends and family and everything else."- lux_blue.
Money over love any day- no matter the amount.
"5 dollars."- SpaZzzmanian_Devil.
"SHOW ME THE MONEY."- _starvingartist.
How much is true love worth.
"Money."
"Love can't pay my bills."- LiteLit.
Money can't buy happiness.
"True love."
"Moneys cool and all, but I'd much rather be in a loving relationship."- WhiskersCleveland.
But money can buy a lot of other things...
"5 mil, I’ll wipe my tears with hundreds."- Weary_Gate7941.
True love...with a rich partner.
"Genuine true love."
"It didn't say my partner and I would be poor."- moonIightbaby.
"The greatest thing, you'll ever learn..."
"True love."
"I have been alone all my life."
"I’ve always had toxic friends because i told myself i deserved it, i told myself 'at least they want to be friends with me'."
"I have a narcissistic mother and a dad that isn’t emotionally there because of his own trauma."
"I have a sister that flat out ignores me when I talk and my other siblings are too young for me to have the kind of bond that i need right now."
"I have an amazing best friend but it’s different than having someone that loves me and i love back."
"If you had asked me a month ago i would’ve said 5 million."
"I would’ve been lying."
"If you had asked a year ago I would’ve said 5 million and I would’ve been telling the truth. true love is priceless."
"I’ll be winning 4 million on the lottery tho."- 76543210987654321.
Some might say being truly, madly in love feels like having five million dollars.
While others might feel that having five million dollars feels even better than being in love.
Others might simply strive for a little bit of each.
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It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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