Meanwhile, in the real world
Disclaimer: The following is a theoretical analysis and does not reflect the personal opinions of ThatOne. Switch your knee-jerk reactions off before reading.
You have to see the larger picture. All right, people are ungrateful, and will soon (or even have already) forget the contributions of IT. But ask yourself the question, what is that "IT department" inside a large (non-IT) company? For the normal people, the IT crowd are those bothersome and slightly incompetent people which prevent them from doing whatever they want/need to do. "Incompetent"? Yes, of course: Take some other necessity like lights or heating: A professional installed those, then left, and it might be many years before you might need to call them back because of a problem. Not with IT: Those people need to stick around to prevent their fragile system from collapsing, isn't that a sure sign of bad craftsmanship?... Once again, this is the point of view of the vast majority of people who haven't a clue about IT, and most importantly, aren't interested in having any (hard to imagine, isn't it...).
So, what does "IT department" mean for the normies inside a big company/administration/whatever? It's a service, like the cafeteria or the cleaning. Like those, IT is there because you need it, but the less you see them the better. Much like most of the cleaning staff, IT staff speaks a funny language and is clearly not like "us". Unlike the cafeteria staff though, IT staff is always under your feet, unfriendly, crabby, and only there to make your life harder with their stupid useless procedures. Every time you see them you go "uh-oh, not again"...
So, what's the conclusion? It's a clash of extremely different cultures and a total lack of comprehension: On one side the normies, who don't want to be bothered by this "IT stuff" which should work reliably and simply, like the aircon or the telephone; On the other hand the IT staff who usually does want to do a good job, but has to wage this constant uphill battle against both the management and the users. Some even get bitter, or even start nurturing dreams of revenge...
And the solution? Well, that's a hard one. The normies won't ever be interested in computers, for them it's just a tool, much like their coffee machine. Also, they are the vast majority, so I think the only solution would be for the IT people to communicate better, and try to use the same language as the normies. It's pointless and counter-productive to bury them under something which sounds like "Yada yada self-caused problems yada yada unnecessary expenses". Yes, it will be more difficult, even beyond the reach of some, but it's IMHO the only way.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
