>She might be a talented pop star, but surely she has encountered spreadsheets at some point in her life? For example: checking over notes from her accountant, planning tours, purchasing houses, reviewing marketing plans for album launches, etc.

Put together by other people who work for her. All she likely has to do is glance at it for a second and move on. She might have seen those spreadsheets, but she doesn't have to know that it's 'Microsoft Excel' nor how they function. And when you're at the level she is (or was) at, I'd even argue that you have less exposure than a glance when it comes to that stuff - your team will brief you and not necessarily bother showing it to you.

>Also, does not knowing about Excel also imply that she's never heard of Microsoft Word? That seems too farfetched.

This is where HN often falters - assuming average Joes/Janes or people not in tech know more about tech than they actually do. I'd wager that you'd be surprised at the number of people who don't know what Microsoft Word/Excel are.

You're missing the point; it's not that she doesn't know about Excel, or this phone, or anything else, it's that the usage of Excel in that video has been a "meme" for years, that she's been asked about it a bunch of times over the years, and that she STILL says she has no idea what "Excel" even is, and seems to be proud of that.

If she had said "Yeah, don't know much about computers, it was just a prop someone gave me" then that would be completely different.

You see this on e.g. HN too, some time ago "FizzBuzz" was discussed and some people seemed to be proud to be ignorant of the % operator. This really has nothing to do with "tech vs. non-tech" – it's just an attitude. It could have been about her holding a guitar wrong too: "whoops I held that wrong" is different from "I don't know what a guitar is, why should I care about guitars?"

Even if she's been asked about it numerous times, context is key here - how was the production of the music video shoot handled? How much input into that scene or clip did she actually have, or provide, when it was shot? How long did she hold the phone for when shooting? If the answer to many of those is little to none, then I don't expect her to remember shooting that scene. To then be asked about it numerous times years later would be surprising to her, especially if you don't necessarily know that it's been going around as a meme (not every celebrity enjoys paying attention to what's said about themselves online - we don't know whether or not she does, but I won't assume she's up to speed on everything written about her).

It doesn't impact her life at all, it's just noise on the internet to her, so why should she care?

I mean, that's actually a great question for you - why do you think she has to care about what Excel is, and why do you find her not caring about it so egregious that you would call her an idiot? And further, is it not OK to be OK with being ignorant to some things you just don't give a damn about?

Edit: Can people also not be flippant when an otherwise throwaway moment in their life is suddenly seized upon by hordes of people, some who call them an idiot for it? I don't think I'd fault someone for that reaction, myself.

> and that she STILL says she has no idea what "Excel" even is, and seems to be proud of that.

Good for her, she’s not a computer nerd like you, basing a large part of their worth in Internet forum comments. Has some other things going on in her life.

Touch grass, seriously.

> I'd wager that you'd be surprised at the number of people who don't know what Microsoft Word/Excel are.

Presumably, anyone who has never had any kind of a job in any field ever, or been to any kind of school.

>Presumably, anyone who has never had any kind of job in any field ever...

You do know that there are tons of jobs that don't ever require interacting with spreadsheets, let alone a computer, right? This is exactly what I was talking about regarding how many HN users view the rest of the world.

>... or been to any kind of school.

"When am I going to need to use this?" is a common refrain for more than just attitudes towards math. I have met many people in professional environments who have no experience with it and don't even know what it is until you explicitly remind them what it is/does.

Even though schools are rapidly moving to using Google Sheets?

I met someone younger than me (~23 or so) who's a very bright intern, whom never used Microsoft Excel (after seeing this thread, I had to ask). They know what Google Sheets is, but know nothing of Excel.

Is she really claiming she has no idea what a spreadsheet is?

I can believe she has no clue why nerds think the scene is wrong. This was a music video. She was handed a phone and told to type something. She did. Why would she care what phone model or app was used?

Somebody else said up in another comment... do you expect Daniel Craig to know what brand of suit he wore in a Bond movie he shot 15 years ago? At best, I'd expect him to know what watch brand/model Bond wears.

Corporations are "training" their people in MS products by showing them how to save and open documents. A half day of being shown that gives you some useless certificate or other that is often even required you hold (by corp rules). This is for people who actually work with these programs, and I assure you there are employees who need this information.

Of course billions of people who never have to use spreadsheets professionally will not realize what you can or cannot do with them. Or even recognize them if shown a few cells. Just because literally every one memeing on the internet cannot imagine a life without computers and beginners' knowledge about the common tools doesn't mean such knowledge is actually a common baseline in humans.

And honestly, what kind of fucked up wish is it for people to suffer Excel if they don't need to?