I work electronics in walmart and you would be shocked at the questions I get on things like laptops from collage age kids. A very frequent one is 'if it isn't touchscreen then how do you work it'. One of my favorite ever was a girl who went down the line asking can you type on them because i need to be able to type. Every time I told her you can type on all laptops but she just kept asking.

I know a huge part of it is some kind of 'location bias' because the kids who know something about computers are shopping online or at microcenter or something.

About the app thing. The other day I had to download from the Google play store. The app you search for is NEVER the first app in the resulting list. The first slot is always sponsor slot. I consider myself quite tech literate and I have accidentally installed that sponsored app because I searched for an app (with very specific search terms) and without thought selected the first. Google is one step away from that trope of the moving X button to close the ad. It's infuriating. Now imagine a tech illiterate trying to get an app.

Once upon a time I worked for a company where I would be called with requests like "I can't work because my computer is broken". I would go and ask "Where is your computer" and the employee would point to her monitor. I would then press the power button on the monitor and they looked at me like I was a magician. I would point to the actually PC under the desk and say "btw THIS is your computer" and they would stare with confusion and disbelief.

You are absolutely right. I completely forgot how dumb people are. Thank you for the reminder. Time to make my distro install itself without buttons and read their mind to make a user.