I love how everyone is acting like this is a new thing. People have never been able to use computers.
This article looks like it is seriously a decade or older at this point. The writer goes on about how phones can’t be upgraded or repaired and go obsolete in two years but also buys a macbook pro.
Much of the article is some boomer going on about how they had no computers and they know computers better than people who do have computers. But I bet you this guy doesn’t know how to make laundry detergent but they rely on it all the time. Bet you need manufactur-dad to the fucking rescue for you eh?
I feel like he addresses this quite well in the conclusion. In regards to cars, “this is not a new phenomenon” and admits to his reliance on salesmen and mechanics.
Ultimately, he’s asking that the people who make decisions about how our world is shaped have some knowledge about the things that are going to shape the world. And that essential issue is still unaddressed. Remind me, how many years ago was it that US Congress was asking Google why the bad articles show up when you search their name?
Oh, and our car-centric society in the US largely sucks. That may or may not have anything to do with our general understanding of a motor, but maybe it’s worth considering how much thought has really gone into the implications of these massively affecting technologies.
she maintains a facade of politeness around them, while inwardly dismissing them as too geeky to interact with
Reeks of “incel” attitude.
The entire thing reads like an edge-lord self aggrandizing. If they were an english lit nerd instead of a computer nerd I’d bet they’d write fan fiction about themselves being a god.
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I’m going to go a bit further and say that kids today are not worse than in the past. It’s been 20 years since I taught computers but the doom and gloom here could have easily been posted in 2002 with only minor rewording.
GUIs got good with the launch of the Mac in 1984, and by the launch of XP & Mac OS X in ‘01 good GUIs were cheap. This brought computers into way more homes and exposed them both to kids who liked them for their own sake and to kids who saw them primarily as a tool.
I think people like this handwringing about kids not understanding computers on a deep enough level for their taste are just being obtuse.
I write software now instead of teaching and I write the kind of software that people should be able to just use as a tool.
We’ve had 20 years where the vast majority of computer users understand latin better than they understand their computers. It’s fine. It’ll continue to be fine.
Every one learns something for the first time. Expert to noob all start in the same state of knowing nothing.
I’m seeing this with my oldest niece and nephew. They’re okay with navigating their android tablets; but if you ask either them of troubleshoot a problem on the PC, they both just end up coming to me. Neither of them know how to research solutions either. Ugh.
This is some “I am very smart and sexy” cringe.
- Dump on
tl;drs - Subject your readers to a minimally-edited 4000 word rant
You get to pick one.
- Dump on
I am 28 and i have always thought that the as long as you know how to operate a search engine you can find out what you need. The reason computer people know computers better than you do is because computer people can use a search engine better than you
I learned how to use computer since i was 5 years old, mostly through video games, then by playing with the Microsoft office, i’m 25 now going computer engineering, and i’m teaching my dad how to use a computer lol
Good thing search engines are optimized for advertising instead of utility!
I use searx and DNS level adblocking. Online ads are almost a completely foreign concept for me as 99.9% of the time they just never even load.
Can you recommend me a searx instance that doesn’t break every week?
I use xo.wtf most times. If it breaks i try searx.be and if neither one works then i will use duckduckgo
I remember when Google used to be perfectly functional as long as you knew the right search tools. Now it thinks it knows what I’m searching for better than I do, and that almost always means pointing me towards something someone paid for lol
Is advanced searching any better? I wouldn’t know now because searx but when I used it before it helped to keep the results focused.
It’s better, but sometimes google will decide you didn’t really mean to type the string inside the quotation marks. Advanced search tools used to be rock solid!
They even know how to use Word and PowerPoint and Excel
Oh how poorly has this sentence aged in the last 10 years. There’s another nice article about this phenomenom of kids not understanding folder structure here.
Back in uni I was the smart guy whom everyone would ask for help, both with tech and non-tech issues:
“Hey nudny ekscentryk, my phone won’t connect to the campus WiFi”. Oh yeah that happens I said, you probably didn’t fill in the login credentials correctly. This was actually rather tricky, because it used your.student.ID@separate.uni.subdomain.edu for logging in and required changing the default password at least once since registering, for database reasons I guess. They tried it, didn’t work. Are you sure you know your password? No, they don’t. Let’s check in their password manager. They have an iPhone, which I haven’t used since I indefinitely switched to Android a couple years back. Took me 20 seconds to find the password manager in Settings though. The password is not there. “Oh you mean my university password? It’s in my notes”. We go to Notes app. There’s nothing here, do you use Evernote or something else entirely for that?. They use a fucking Google Docs document for notes. It’s not very handy is it? Like you have to zoom in to edit, it’s all clumsy because it’s a document and the text’s formatted weirdly. Not a problem to them, because “well at least it syncs so I can access it from my iPad.” Okay, whatever. It’s not like your built-in iOS password manager doesn’t sync. We managed to connect to the WiFi network. “could you also do that for the WiFi in the other building?”. But it’s the same network, it will connect automatically to either. They know better: “nah it can’t be, the range is too far”. I explain it’s not the same hotspot but the credentials are shared and in fact since it’s eduroam, a global network, it will work in pretty much any university campus in the world automatically. “wow that is crazy, will that also work for my iPad”. Well if you log in with the same credentials. “could you do it for me? i’ll fetch my iPad”. No, I’ve shown you how to do it, you can do it yourself now. They can’t use a computer.
A different time I was proofreading a classmate’s thesis, see quadruple x’s next to each heading. hey, what’s up with these? I ask her, she replies: “oh I put them here so I can easily find each heading when formatting text. If I make any changes I can just search for <xxxx>” and it will automatically let me go through all headings easily without scrolling manually :)". I open the Navigator (I use LO Writer) and it’s empty. She wrote an 80-page document without ever using Styles. All headings, title page etc. were formatted manually. I enable the Formatting Marks. Holy shit. She uses spaces and tabs to move text around. Loads of line breaks to move text to the next page. I could tell the document looks off but I never though this was due to so poor editing skills. Or rather lack thereof. You know you’re doing everything the hard way here?. “What do you mean?”. There are tools for all that you’ve done here. Like you can use Styles to mark headings and then edit them in bulk. You can add automatic numbering, which will later let you create an index within a second. To move next to the next page you can use page breaks. “Okay cool but this is how I do it”. Alright, then you are just giving yourself extra work, what’s the point of not doing this correctly once and then never bothering with formatting ever again?. “Could you do it for me?”. I can show you all these tools but I won’t be doing that for you, as I’m already proofreading your paper factually. “Okay whatever”. Guess what, she never bothered and when handing it the finished paper (probably around 120 pages), her instructor made her do it anyway. She asked me to help her with that. I said no, because I offered help before and she didn’t bother. After submitting the paper, the reviewer returned it and made her re-do all citations in an, at least, consecutive style. “Oh fuck that guy why would he give me so much work!? You know how many hours it took me to insert all these in here.”. It was around 280 citations total, out of 30 different pieces of writing. She obviously did all of them manually by typing out footnotes. You know there are bibliography managers which do it automatically in a consecutive style for you?. “Will it automatically fix what he asks?”. Well, no, because (again) you originally did it incorrectly. This one issue was even stranger for me than her not using styles for formatting: one year later we both attended a “methodology of scientific publishing” class, where they introduced us to Google Scholar, Zotero, Impact Factor and other stuff she could use now. We even had a take-home project to create a bibliography in Zotero and she did it (with online help). But she didn’t bother to retain it in her skillset, so when needing to actually apply that skill, she wasn’t even aware this was exactly what she learned a year earlier. Crazy; she can’t use a computer.
Off topic here, but do you speak a slavic language? Your username means boring eccentric right? I speak some Czech (am American) and I definitely miss the Czech subreddit
But forreal, I think it’s really interesting how people who aren’t familiar with computers never think to themselves, “there has to be a better way to do this.”
Like, I’m an EE, and electrical engineering software is notoriously terrible (I like to joke it’s because it’s written by EEs). Even knowing that, if I run into a problem where I want to accomplish something where the default option is to click and drag something 200 times, the first thing I do is google “how do thing Altium.” Sometimes the answer really is to do it the hard way, but I at least check first.
Edit: I’m just remembering a story where I was asked to review a PCB and schematic design for a client. I think they had hired like someone’s kid to do the design work to save money as there were problems all over the place.
Probably the most glaring was with the component markers or “reference designators.” In Eagle CAD, when you place a component (resistor, chip, etc), it comes with a little label to be printed on the PCB. This label has a default location next to the part and moves with the part, but you can’t move it relative to the part without using a separate tool to allow that. This is important when designs get dense as labels might overlap each other or other parts.
Any way, rather than searching for how to move reference designators relative to components (it’s called the “Smash” tool), this kid deleted all reference designators from the design and just manually placed labels. That means that when you move a component, you have to manually move the label. Also, normally, reference designators are hi-lighted when you select components so you know which one goes with which component. These manual labels had no association with the parts. The only way to tell if a label was next to the right part was to select the component to figure out its name, and then visually scan the labels to look for the one with a matching name.
There were hundreds of parts on the PCB. This was $1500 software, and they assumed that this was the correct user flow. Place parts, delete labels linked to parts, make new labels not linked to parts.
I think it’s really interesting how people who aren’t familiar with computers never think to themselves, “there has to be a better way to do this.”
Sort of a communal learned helplessness. Years of abusive user interfaces and faceless corporations providing an all or nothing platform instead of modular tools leads to a mindset of “that’s just the way it is and I have to deal with it”.
I’m pushing 50 and when people ask me how I know so much about computers, my first comment is that I had to program my first computer for it to do anything.
My second is that I actively sought to learn, and you can too.
Later in life Linux played a huge role in understanding how these contraptions work. Ironically, I’m a human factors engineer, so I’m also guilty of creating part of the problem. User interfaces that “just work”… Until they don’t.
🤓🤓
Website: coding2learn
http site only
Lmao
I giggled at that too, especially when combined with the blogger’s quote “Ask them what https means and why it is important and they’ll look at you as if you’re speaking Klingon.”
Well, your comment just shows your tech illiteracy. https is useless when you don’t need to deal with sensitive data.
It’s definitely not the case that it’s useless. A MITM can embed malware into the page it returns if you aren’t being served over HTTPS. It’s not just about snooping on sensitive data going one or both ways, it’s about being sure that what you’re receiving is from who you actually think you’re receiving it from.
(Edit to add:) I actually went to look at some of the rest of the site and it confirms what I suspected: not using HTTPS here puts the reader at risk. Because this website provides code snippets and command line snippets that the user is to run, by not presenting it over HTTPS, it becomes susceptible to malicious MITM editing of the content.
For example, this line on the site:
- Install Homebrew (ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/go/install)”)
Could be intercepted, since it’s not being served HTTPS, and be replaced with utf-8 lookalike characters that really downloads and runs a malicious ruby script! Even easier, perhaps, they could just insert an item into the bulleted list that has the user run a malicious command.
HTTPS is not just for security of personal or private information. It is also for verifiable authenticity and security in contexts like this.
Yeah, it’s also easy enough to set up that a coding website not doing it is almost embarrassing.
Indeed. See my edit on the parent comment–I noticed that the website provides commands to the user to run, which makes it ripe for MITM attacks: if the user is copying-and-pasting commands to run into their shell, those need to be served over HTTPS.
Computers, math, cooking, cleaning, exercise, eating properly.
It’s just another in a long list of things that some grown-ass adults act like is somehow beyond them because that’s easier than trying.
Definitely not unique to any generation.
It sure is getting worse, though.
lol it’s really not, at all. every generation tells themselves this and it’s always bullshit.
The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.
- Attributed to Socrates, ~400 BC
There are objective metrics one can use, rather than basing your opinion on your personal observation window.
There are, sure. And you are going to cherry-pick the ones that allow you to feel a smug and very much unearned sense of superiority.
I’m old and educated, so sorry.
No need to apologize to me, I’m not the one making a fool out of myself.
Educated indeed. Lmao.
Im a 6th semester software engineer student, back in first semester I had classmates that didn’t even know how to zip a folder
He was there to learn, right? Is a first semester student expected to know specific programs without explanation?
Zipping a folder is on of the most basic features of any os. It’s weird that he was so unfamiliar with computers and decided to get into compsci
It’s what happens when everyone says it’s a moneymaker. Most of them transfer out of the program after first year
Zipping a folder has 0 to do with compsci in the first place. Unless it’s a course on compression.
I was right in the edge of Gen Z and Millennial and grew up being the family’s tech kid. It still astounds me now that my younger sisters don’t know how to even look for solutions. They just get me. Having moved out I get texts and calls sometimes. I’ve had to explain that using a computer is a skill that is learnable. I didn’t learn by going to someone else. I had to learn how to learn. That’s the skill we should be teaching kids. Not how to solve the problems, but how to FIND the solution to problems.
As someone also near the border between Gen Z and Millennial, I relate a lot to this comment. I was also the family tech kid, and since like middle school I’ve always told people “I’m not good with computers, I just know how to use a search engine”
My “computer literacy” is literally just basic research skills; knowing how to formulate a web search and how to identify bad sources.
Right! This is why I say it has more to do with being stubborn than being smart. If you’re determined to find a solution and you’re half decent at research and following instructions, you can figure a lot out, but people treat it like you invented the thing with some magical knowledge that they could never possess.
I’m also between gen Z and millennial and was the family’s tech kid and still get calls. Are you me? :D
Just yesterday I got a call asking how to select all images in a directory… And then another call about how to get those images to Google Drive, which is literally just drag and drop… And one of the people involved was my gen Z younger sister.
the family’s tech kid and still get calls
I don’t know how you all get calls. I have literally never been called to fix a computer. People prefer to pay some random guy at Walmart who will scam them, instead of calling me and getting free help. And I’m not a troll, not an asshole, or an incel, I’m a regular guy, I’m friendly, but people don’t seem to care, they prefer paying for useless help.
Of course my family members call me. It’s the only way they get the tech support I used to offer in-house. :D
The late 90s Gen Z/Millennial DMZ is a painful place to exist. Constant and mandatory tech support.
The ones that is blamed for the ills of society by both the baby boomers and younger gen zs
Yep. I was born 1998. To Millennials, I’m a tiny baby Gen Z, to Gen Zs, I may as well be a boomer. It’s odd.
Growing up poor confuses things even more, because I have more in common with people born late 80s/early 90s than with people born only a few years after me. My first game console was a SNES and we had a VCR until we got a PS2, and kept using it well after.
Hah, are we the same person? My family was poor too. I’m a bit younger (born 2000) but I grew up using a VCR, and my first console was a GBA where I played a lot of SNES ports. The internet has existed my entire life, but I still remember before smartphones were a thing. It’s a really weird place to be socially. I don’t connect with Gen Z culture in almost any way, but I’m also distinctly not a millennial.
Interestingly my older sister (1998) who has zero interest in anything tech is actually pretty tech savvy for how little she cares about it. I think she crossed that threshold of learning how to learn, where even when she comes across something she doesn’t understand she knows how to approach the problem.
95 here. Started with the original GameBoy and an old Macintosh in the basement. My first computer was a POS gateway with the cow logo and 128MB of RAM. Finished up high school with the Xbox 360 and an iPhone. I’m a retrogrouch to Gen Z and some kind of hacker to most Millenials. My GF (same age) and I jokingly call ourselves “MillenialZ” (with an obnoxious accentuated zzzzzz at the end) because we don’t quite fit in with either generation.
I love it. I think that should be the official title for our mini generation.
Growing up poor confuses things even more
Yeah this is why generations aren’t actually a good metric. I might as well be from another planet lol
No one knows how to use computers! Computers dont even know how to use computers! It’s all made up anyways 😅
This is what I tell people when they get frustrated learning how computers work. Its not like math or natural science, it’s all just useful levels of bullshit people made up to make the electric rocks do things. Learn what helps you understand how the rocks work to make it think about the things you care about.
