Conquer Your Fear of Tech

Conquer Your Fear of Tech

In this day and age, technology is everywhere, from the ubiquitous smartphone, to different cloud computing platforms that host most of the applications we rely on for work. Given the pervasiveness of technology in our daily lives, it’s understandable that we may not want to admit to a fear of learning new technologies, but don’t worry, we won’t judge. 

If you have been tech curious but were afraid to ask, now’s the time to dive in. Don’t be intimidated by new technologies or run from them.  It’s never too late, and ignoring tech won’t help your odds of finding a job or starting a business.

Here are some great resources to help you conquer your fear of new tech, whether you just want to understand what all the acronyms actually mean, or if you’re looking for an easy way to sharpen your tech skills.

Technology Resources

Grow with Google is a great place to start. Google has been quietly building out this online learning hub since 2017. It focuses on a wide range of topics, from basic free training to more specialized topics like learning technology in education, or training for veterans and military families.

Do you come from a traditional media and marketing background and want to sharpen your digital skills? Grow with Google also offers certifications like this one in the Fundamentals of digital marketing.

Through its EdX site, Microsoft also offers free online courses from a range of over 140 different institutions spanning topics like software development, data science, and engineering.

LinkedIn Learning also provides a broad range of content, some free, some paid. For example, here’s a good one on collaboration in the modern workplace. It provides a nice survey of different tools around file management, collaborative editing, and communication.

Want to go a bit deeper and learn about cloud computing and what you can do to start building and testing your own cloud services? Check out our post on the promise of ‘no code’, and then look at some of the training resources from the major cloud providers:

Cloud Computing and Amazon Web Services

AWS free training

Azure Training on LinkedIn Learning

There are tons of free courses on LinkedIn Learning (now owned by Microsoft).

Just looking to understand more about the different tools that can help you work remotely? Check out this article from Skillcrush.

There’s a world of options out there, but this should give you a good place to start and make your journey into new technology less intimidating.

Reviewed and Recommended

On a related note, here’s a great Ted Talk on myths about the future of work and the impact technology will have through increased automation. It covers fear of substitution, and the positive benefits through what Daniel Susskind calls the “complementarities” of new technologies.