While I understand this frustration (I've asked the same question myself many times), I feel that we who understand these topics have a duty to try to explain an assist those for whom the computer is still a "sufficiently-advanced" magic box. I'm sure most of the people in the medical profession are regularly frustrated having to explain for the Nth time why we should all eat better.
The scientist who discovers new laws of nature and the engineer that assembles simple pieces into complex and useful tools have only finished half of the process. The other half is explaining these news ideas to everybody else, so they can actually be utilized (and maybe inspire other discoveries and innovations). This was one of Feynman's greatest talents - taking the time to explain the important parts of a topic, in a way that was a lot more accessible.
I generally feel that if an audience is not understanding something (and assuming there were no trivial issues such as lack of time), the fault lies largely with the teacher. While have also met with limited success in explaining these issues, I keep trying in new ways. Pedagogy is a hard problem, but I personally have learned a bit by studying those that seem to have successful methods (such as Feynman, Sagan, Burke[1], Vi Hart[2]).
As for this specific problem of businesses collecting massive amounts of personal data (and the associated "free (as in beer)" culture), I suggest showing people the talk by Aral Balkan that I linked at the top of my previous post. He has given variations of the talk before, but this recent version is particularly good at explaining the entire picture, from simple gmail/facebook doublespeak, to the "free" culture that has taken over the tech industry, the internet.org style imperialism masquerading as "helping the poor", and more. This talk has been more successful than of the explanation, essays, cartoon, or videos that I've used in the past. YMMV, unfortunately.
The scientist who discovers new laws of nature and the engineer that assembles simple pieces into complex and useful tools have only finished half of the process. The other half is explaining these news ideas to everybody else, so they can actually be utilized (and maybe inspire other discoveries and innovations). This was one of Feynman's greatest talents - taking the time to explain the important parts of a topic, in a way that was a lot more accessible.
I generally feel that if an audience is not understanding something (and assuming there were no trivial issues such as lack of time), the fault lies largely with the teacher. While have also met with limited success in explaining these issues, I keep trying in new ways. Pedagogy is a hard problem, but I personally have learned a bit by studying those that seem to have successful methods (such as Feynman, Sagan, Burke[1], Vi Hart[2]).
As for this specific problem of businesses collecting massive amounts of personal data (and the associated "free (as in beer)" culture), I suggest showing people the talk by Aral Balkan that I linked at the top of my previous post. He has given variations of the talk before, but this recent version is particularly good at explaining the entire picture, from simple gmail/facebook doublespeak, to the "free" culture that has taken over the tech industry, the internet.org style imperialism masquerading as "helping the poor", and more. This talk has been more successful than of the explanation, essays, cartoon, or videos that I've used in the past. YMMV, unfortunately.
[1] http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hdg0b
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gZ5rsAHMl4