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Indeed, I think it's insulting to old and young alike to assume that the young know more about "technology". At this point my sister-in-law (10 years older tha

Indeed, I think it's insulting to old and young alike to assume that the young know more about "technology". At this point my sister-in-law (10 years older than I) and my mother-in-law (30 years older) know more about social networking and Facebook than I do, because I do not use these things and they use them almost daily. Plenty of old people know how to use computers and technology. Plenty of young people do not. Furthermore, just knowing how to use Snapchat is not really knowing about "technology," any more than knowing how to drive a car makes one a mechanical engineer or knowing how to plug a gizmo into the wall means one knows about electrical theory. So there are some newer things out there that use a smartphone. So what; knowing how to use them does not make one knowledgeable about technology or smart. If this writer wanted to know how to use Snapchat, good. Find someone who knows how to use Snapchat. One's Snapchat abilities has nothing to do with one's age.

TeMPOraL 10y ago
I think it's a good moment to bring up the immortal essay: http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/ http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-co...
- teekert 10y ago
  Haha, one to keep around: "The parents seem to have some vague concept that spending hours each evening on Facebook and YouTube will impart, by some sort of cybernetic osmosis, a knowledge of PHP, HTML, JavaScript and Haskell." And it's so true, you know, you learn about computers when you need a floppy with drivers for the 4x cd-rom drive you just installed yourself (or when you later install Slackware and then Gentoo... also helps). You don't learn about computers using a modern smartphone. I like this part a lot: I've messed up, as I'm sure many of you have. When we purchased an XBox it was Techno-Dad to the rescue. I happily played about with the mess of cables and then created profiles for everyone. When my son's MacBook was infected with the FlashBack virus Techno-Dad to the rescue. I looked up some on-line guides and then hammered away in the terminal until I had eradicated that bad-boy. When we purchased a 'Family Raspberry Pi' Techno-Dad to the rescue. I hooked it all up, flashed an OS to the SD-card and then sat back proudly, wondering why nobody other than me wanted to use the blasted thing. All through their lives, I've done it for them. Set-up new hardware, installed new software and acted as in-house technician whenever things went wrong. As a result, I have a family of digital illiterates.
- mixmastamyk 10y ago
  Enjoyed that thanks, his point about the 'kids know more than you…' resonated. They probably know more about snapchat.

TeMPOraL 10y ago

I think it's a good moment to bring up the immortal essay: http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/ http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-co...

teekert 10y ago
Haha, one to keep around: "The parents seem to have some vague concept that spending hours each evening on Facebook and YouTube will impart, by some sort of cybernetic osmosis, a knowledge of PHP, HTML, JavaScript and Haskell." And it's so true, you know, you learn about computers when you need a floppy with drivers for the 4x cd-rom drive you just installed yourself (or when you later install Slackware and then Gentoo... also helps). You don't learn about computers using a modern smartphone. I like this part a lot: I've messed up, as I'm sure many of you have. When we purchased an XBox it was Techno-Dad to the rescue. I happily played about with the mess of cables and then created profiles for everyone. When my son's MacBook was infected with the FlashBack virus Techno-Dad to the rescue. I looked up some on-line guides and then hammered away in the terminal until I had eradicated that bad-boy. When we purchased a 'Family Raspberry Pi' Techno-Dad to the rescue. I hooked it all up, flashed an OS to the SD-card and then sat back proudly, wondering why nobody other than me wanted to use the blasted thing. All through their lives, I've done it for them. Set-up new hardware, installed new software and acted as in-house technician whenever things went wrong. As a result, I have a family of digital illiterates.
mixmastamyk 10y ago
Enjoyed that thanks, his point about the 'kids know more than you…' resonated. They probably know more about snapchat.