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Yup. This article from 2013 captured it quite well, I thought: http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/ http://www.coding2learn.org/

Yup. This article from 2013 captured it quite well, I thought: http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/ http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-co... "A kid puts his hand up. He tells me he's got a virus on his computer. I look at his screen. Displayed in his web-browser is what appears to be an XP dialogue box warning that his computer is infected and offering free malware scanning and removal tools. He's on a Windows 7 machine. I close the offending tab. He can't use a computer."

watwut 9y ago
"Ask them to reinstall an operating system and they're lost. Ask them to upgrade their hard-drive or their RAM and they break out in a cold sweat. Ask them what https means and why it is important and they'll look at you as if you're speaking Klingon. [...] How the hell did we get to this situation? How can a generation with access to so much technology, not know how to use it?" Why the hell do we expect kids to know things nobody ever told them that they exist? That seems to me like a more reasonable question. Kids don't know how human body works till we tell them, they don't know how to read unless we show it to them, why would we expect them to know how to reinstall operating system when no one ever used the word operating system in front of them? If no one ever show RAM to kid, the kid wont be able to react on request to change it. That is the default state, the state when a kid knows a thing is a state achieved by somebody teaching the thing to kid.
- ido 9y ago
  Do you think the average driver is more knowledgeable about their car than the average computer user is about their computer (for the sake of argument lets limit both to the same age group)? Computers are now appliances rather than power tools.
  - watwut 9y ago
    I don't think they are more knowledgeable, don't expect them to be so and I am not surprised that driving schools teach driving rather then how cars works. Nor I am outraged over the fact that most people are not experts in everything and don't have deeper knowledge about my profession. I think that all the kids should be taught enough about computers to know it is no magic, that it is learnable and actually easy once you want to do it (and you dont actually need to be genius to learn it as many believe). However, I really don't think they all need to know Linux administration.
- yoz-y 9y ago
  If I remember that article correctly they weren't saying that kids should be able to know these things, rather, that parents insist that they do because they are "digitally native".
- sametmax 9y ago
  Do you know how to give maintenance to your car, fix your sink, install an electrical switch, sharpen a blade and cook ?

watwut 9y ago

"Ask them to reinstall an operating system and they're lost. Ask them to upgrade their hard-drive or their RAM and they break out in a cold sweat. Ask them what https means and why it is important and they'll look at you as if you're speaking Klingon. [...] How the hell did we get to this situation? How can a generation with access to so much technology, not know how to use it?" Why the hell do we expect kids to know things nobody ever told them that they exist? That seems to me like a more reasonable question. Kids don't know how human body works till we tell them, they don't know how to read unless we show it to them, why would we expect them to know how to reinstall operating system when no one ever used the word operating system in front of them? If no one ever show RAM to kid, the kid wont be able to react on request to change it. That is the default state, the state when a kid knows a thing is a state achieved by somebody teaching the thing to kid.

ido 9y ago
Do you think the average driver is more knowledgeable about their car than the average computer user is about their computer (for the sake of argument lets limit both to the same age group)? Computers are now appliances rather than power tools.
- watwut 9y ago
  I don't think they are more knowledgeable, don't expect them to be so and I am not surprised that driving schools teach driving rather then how cars works. Nor I am outraged over the fact that most people are not experts in everything and don't have deeper knowledge about my profession. I think that all the kids should be taught enough about computers to know it is no magic, that it is learnable and actually easy once you want to do it (and you dont actually need to be genius to learn it as many believe). However, I really don't think they all need to know Linux administration.
yoz-y 9y ago
If I remember that article correctly they weren't saying that kids should be able to know these things, rather, that parents insist that they do because they are "digitally native".
sametmax 9y ago
Do you know how to give maintenance to your car, fix your sink, install an electrical switch, sharpen a blade and cook ?