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You think that 10 and 20 year olds growing up with computers and even smartphones available for all of their life, know less of computers than people in the pas

You think that 10 and 20 year olds growing up with computers and even smartphones available for all of their life, know less of computers than people in the past? Most of them don't know a thing about computers. It's a magic box with a small selection of shiny buttons on. They use it for passive media consumption. Even a 7 year old that plays games can almost run circles around a 1980s propellerhead computer programmer in using a GUI. Well, they clearly forget by the time they're twenty. http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/10/millennials-arent-as-tech-savvy-as-people-think.html http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/10/millennials-arent-as-tech-sav... http://www.millennialmarketing.com/2010/04/millennials-tech-dependent-but-not-necessarily-tech-savvy/ http://www.millennialmarketing.com/2010/04/millennials-tech-...

coldtea 10y ago
>Most of them don't know a thing about computers. It's a magic box with a small selection of shiny buttons on. They use it for passive media consumption. You'd be surprised. Except by "know about computers" you mean they known about interrupts, and cache lines, and filesystem design, and other stuff that are completely inconsequential to using their computers. >Well, they clearly forget by the time they're twenty. Actually the linked article states the opposite: >"This current generation of young people has never lived without tech," said Linda Rosen, CEO of Change the Equation. "It's second nature to them." Yet, using technology for social reasons doesn't make a person adept at using it in other settings, she said. So it's not that they "forgot" something, it's that they never bothered to learn it in the first place, e.g. Excel or whatever. But computers, for what they do like to use them for, are "second nature" to them according to TFA.
- EliRivers 10y ago
  You'd be surprised. I disagree. The catalogue of complaints listed in this article are the norm. http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/ http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-comput...
- homingbrain 10y ago
  It's not that they're bad at what they do with computers. It's just what they do with computers is not worth doing.
  - potatolicious 10y ago
    I've often wondered at what point HN would cross the rubicon from "old people, so bad at tech!" to "young whippersnappers, so bad at tech!" It seems that this happened somewhat recently. Suffice it to say - just like you felt when you were younger - most thoughts that boil down to "damn kids these days!" are almost certainly not true.
    - erelde 10y ago
      I'm a young (24) dev working in a very large org (tens of thousands large), I often feel like most people should never have been allowed to use a computer in their office. Young or old. Of course it's silly because of the global productivity gains. And it may just be my innate misanthropy which made me a nerd when I was younger now manifesting in this new form. I'm already an old man annoyed by people my age and annoyed by older people. But truth is, I'm annoyed by most non technical people. PS: I like discussing technics with people from non tech fields though, luthiers, masons, cooks etc...

coldtea 10y ago

>Most of them don't know a thing about computers. It's a magic box with a small selection of shiny buttons on. They use it for passive media consumption. You'd be surprised. Except by "know about computers" you mean they known about interrupts, and cache lines, and filesystem design, and other stuff that are completely inconsequential to using their computers. >Well, they clearly forget by the time they're twenty. Actually the linked article states the opposite: >"This current generation of young people has never lived without tech," said Linda Rosen, CEO of Change the Equation. "It's second nature to them." Yet, using technology for social reasons doesn't make a person adept at using it in other settings, she said. So it's not that they "forgot" something, it's that they never bothered to learn it in the first place, e.g. Excel or whatever. But computers, for what they do like to use them for, are "second nature" to them according to TFA.

EliRivers 10y ago
You'd be surprised. I disagree. The catalogue of complaints listed in this article are the norm. http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/ http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-comput...
homingbrain 10y ago
It's not that they're bad at what they do with computers. It's just what they do with computers is not worth doing.
- potatolicious 10y ago
  I've often wondered at what point HN would cross the rubicon from "old people, so bad at tech!" to "young whippersnappers, so bad at tech!" It seems that this happened somewhat recently. Suffice it to say - just like you felt when you were younger - most thoughts that boil down to "damn kids these days!" are almost certainly not true.
  - erelde 10y ago
    I'm a young (24) dev working in a very large org (tens of thousands large), I often feel like most people should never have been allowed to use a computer in their office. Young or old. Of course it's silly because of the global productivity gains. And it may just be my innate misanthropy which made me a nerd when I was younger now manifesting in this new form. I'm already an old man annoyed by people my age and annoyed by older people. But truth is, I'm annoyed by most non technical people. PS: I like discussing technics with people from non tech fields though, luthiers, masons, cooks etc...