I’d argue that quantum physics is genuinely difficult, but also not very applicable to most people’s daily life. The stuff that computer illiterate people struggle with tends to be both relatively easy and very applicable to daily life, and many of these people aren’t as dumb about all other parts of their lives.

Somehow, most changes I’ve seen in the last ~10 years seem to be enshittification …

It’s hard to motivate yourself to make an effort when the hot new tech is stuff like LLMs.

Being completely uncritical of it. This ties into being unwilling to learn, if they’re introduced to word processors via MS Word, many people are completely unwilling to move to something else like LibreOffice Writer, even if it’s not actually that different.

Back to the first sentence, too many people just aren’t willing to consider the ramifications of living in a walled garden made and maintained by foreign far-right groups, or if they are generally aware and critical of it, it usually still not enough to actually do something against it. That includes people who are generally tech savy, most of my millenial-or-younger friends and relatives aren’t on Signal, including one who is a software developer and vocally critical of Trump and US tech companies. Meanwhile my parents and grandparents have no issue using Signal.

And what makes so many people so willing to look at ads? I know way too many people who could easily use adblockers if they wanted, but just don’t.