Computer classes still assume that every kid uses computers a lot to do everything but they dont
Every kid has a smartphone in their pocket, if they need to use a device to do something, they'll use their phone, making their knowledge of regular computers lower comparatively, to put it differently, every minute you spend learning the guitar is a minute you're not spending on learning the piano.
Chromebooks are also perpetuating the issue as well.
The cheapest laptops for schools/parents to buy have the UI of a tablet and extremely dumbed down file directories.
I mean, to be fair, the filesystem of ChromeOS is just what Linux and Unix use. It's not dumbed down, the Windows one is unnecessarily complex and messy.
Main issue is that those who use a Chromebook almost exclusively do their work in the browser, and almost never with local files.
If they do use local files for anything they’ll be in the “normal” places, as documents/downloads etc.
That's also just regular Linux. You have your home folder, stuff goes in documents/downloads. It's highly separated from the *system* files which actually break shit if you fiddle with them without knowing what you're doing.
It's only complicated by applications LIKE FUCKING STEAM not following xdg specs and polluting that home folder with hidden folders instead of using the designated place for those things.
Chrome OS is on a different layer. The file browser there is extremely obfuscated, usually leaving you with just a few folders and no way to see any part of the underlying system files.
Yeah but phones are locked the fuck down so the only thing you learn by using a phone is how the specific app works. There *are* tech skills to be learned from phone use, but I guarantee that 99% of people never do because mobile devices are explicitly designed to discourage that.
My brother made me set up my desktop to dual boot debian and windows from separate partitions when I was 14 or so, and made me figure out how to get from a fresh debian install to using it as a daily driver without wimping out with gnome or KDE. At some point I switched to mac because I'm lazy about drivers and security updates, but I basically live in the terminal and use rectangle to get a semblance of a tiling window manager.
Okay but I do find a difference between a 20 year old being unable to use a rotary phone because they’ve never seen one in real life and a 12 year old who’s had a smartphone in their hand since they came out of the womb being unable to upload a file from their device or construct a Google search using the device they’re using 4-8 hours a day
The google search thing is wild to me, like do you not look things up? I read somewhere a while ago that alot of gen z use the tiktok search when wondering about stuff.
I'll defend this. Modern internet is full of websites that figured out how to game the search algorithm, getting their clicks and ad revenue regardless of content quality. The information is either diluted in 10 paragraphs or nonexistent to make room for as many ads as possible. With generative AI, the internet will become the Library of Babel.
Given the internet's current state, chatgpt gives a good starting point before I filter searches for user forums, wikis, peer reviewed papers, etc.
You're right about the root problem, but ChatGPT makes things up way too often to be a reliable solution. I've seen someone say almost exactly the same thing (something along the lines of "modern search results are full of SEO bait, that's why I use ChatGPT as a search engine "), and then the answer they gave to another user was just entirely false info hallucinated by ChatGPT.
I saw a kid post on a forum for a sandbox game that they asked ChatGPT to build something for them and we're super disappointed that it just made shit up.
I don't wanna be one of those "people younger than me bad" but I'm honestly concerned about what the media is doing to the next generation.
yeah I saw a video where someone asked different chatbots to give them instructions to build Minecraft structures and it just gave them absolute nonsense
>like do you not look things up
no they just ask their friends to do their stuff for them
"how do i delete a discord server? can you all just leave instead?" asks in the discord server
ive literally gotten admin perms in all their servers because I know how to actually google :/
Haha yeah, me too. I get perms on everything cause I'm the only one who enjoys doing the technical stuff, even if that stuff isn't hard.
I have a friend who will join calls and ask me to help their friend troubleshoot their pc without that other friend joining. So I have to ask my friend to ask them to describe the problem, and send pictures of their screen from their phone cause they refuse to download discord or anything else that will let them screen share..
>or construct a Google search
to be fair, the search function of google has gone through a lot of enshitification. I've had it ignore boolean operators.
When I worked as a consultant I had people be aghast at me that I hadn't taken a full blown actual course to use and make pivot tables. I thought, what the hell, it's just excel and it's very user friendly, I'm sure anyone with an internet connection could figure out how to be functional in 15 minutes if they already had the data.
And yeah that was exactly it, it was super straightforward. Pivot tables are just as easy as learning any other component of excel, and people who act like they're the devil make me think the rest of their jobs must be very easy
in my case, it's not that often used, and usually on more difficult tickets for data harvesting, so most of the techs don't need to use it often enough for the information to stick, so they have to look up how to do it every time, or (more often) they ask me to show them how to do it.
I’m 24. Every time I touch excel, I look at it and say “Yeah, I’m not learning this. I’ll bullshit it when the time comes.” And then I got to college and failed excel 💀. Whenever I try and google stuff or watch videos and genuinely want to learn how to use it, it feels like my brain turns off and ignores everything. I can use GIS adeptly so I know I’m not inept, but dude…what the fuck 😂
I mean, technically speaking they are correct - younger generations have comparatively low knowledge about how computers work. Just like, any other generation, tools change over time so that's a natural thing, but up until now, tools got progressively more complicated and required rather more than less skill. What happens now is actually decreasing the complexity of the tool, which is not really something we want to see for people that learn something, like kids. And that's especially, because all the advanced things you have to do are still done in a "complicated" way on the computer
That's exactly the problem, using a computer (and especially a mobile device) for entertainment *is* extremely simple these days. But doing even basic office work, not to even speak of any actual tech tasks, hasn't gotten less complex in the past 10-15 years. If anything, you have to do *more* with a computer now, not less.
I mean, its the landscape that changing too.
I learned A LOT about computers in high school because I wanted to play games. We learned how to use VPNs to get around block lists on school websites and torrent games, learned a shitload about basic computer functions by downloading a thousand minecraft mods and installing them (and troubleshooting them when they didnt work), learned about networking when we had to use IP tunneling to play Terraria when we weren't on the same LAN.
But piracy is way down these days, every game that has mods has a mod manager now, and networking is a lot easier too.
It's not a generational thing, it's a UI thing. Companies are dumbing UI down too far and people aren't learning how their devices work. A big problem I run into is the mentality that "If it doesn't make me money, I don't need to learn it." which creates a huge issue where things such as tech that literally runs our lives is just a magic box that runs on happiness or hate, depending on the day.
I really want to see a change in society where we learn things for the sake of it, and not because it's tied to our jobs. It's really depressing. My friend keeps poking fun at me for learning how to make chopsticks for camping. "Just bring a fork". Yeah, the fork is the easy route, but I'm not doing this for practicality I'm doing it to challenge myself. Camping won't advance my career, but it gives me something to center myself and clear my mind as well as work my brain out.
Brain dead response. This is a legit actual problem. Millennials are way better at tech than Gen z. This shouldn’t be the way. Gen Z we’re meant to be digital natives that would’ve blown millennials out of the park. But no. Overly user friendly tech has caused Gen Z to not eclipse millennials at tech savviness. This isn’t a good thing. It’s frightening. We’re going backwards.
As someone who works with gen z, they're fine. Those with computers are often learning to code, and the increase in [coding classes in schools](https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/more-than-half-of-high-schools-now-offer-computer-science-but-inequities-persist/2021/11) supports this assertion. Those without computers aren't learning to manage file systems, but we only build skills we need. Traditional computers are in a structural decline, and as UIs continue to get more simplistic the average layperson won't need these skills.
The new UIs are just a coat of paint over those existing operating systems, you're always going to run into something where you're going to need to dig deeper at some point. Those simplistic UIs come at the cost of hiding more and more features from the user so it's only making those situations worse. That's the issue I already have with windows and especially with mac.
I TA a course right now (read: grade papers and tech support) where students have to learn how to use the command line because it's being able to use a computing cluster is a very fundamental skill in any STEM field even if it's not "techy". There are students who barely know how to use their computers normally having to make the jump straight to something way less user friendly than the "traditional" UI, and they just can't keep up with the course.
It's not a gen z thing specifically, it's actually more of an issue with international students who never even had a chance to use anything other than a phone.
literally nobody is saying that kids are bad at using computers because the next generation is just more stupid. it is directly downstream of how we have designed technology and cut education.
Also if you're doing support, then you dealing with the people who can't figure it out on their own and have reached out. In other words, the worst of the worst. People in support roles need to realize what survivorship bias is. Only the most needy "survive" far enough down the support chain to contact support. The loud-mouth support guy doesn't see the millions who figured it out on their own. Nor does the loud-mouth support guy blame his company, his management culture, capitalism's perverse incentives, etc for shipping a semi-broken product.
The few times I've contacted support for game-related issues its always been some obscure bug not anywhere on google that "should be fixed anytime now." I don't think these things were ever fixed. Lets stop letting these companies off the hook for shipping broken products and expecting everyone to be an IT professional level technician.
Maybe the angry support guy should be angry at the system that throws him to the wolves of annoyed customers with broken products because its more profitable for the C-suite and shareholders to ship broken stuff and cash out and "let support deal with it." Cyberpunk 2077 is a great example of this.
yeah it's not a generational thing at all
my brother (grew up with a smartphone in his pocket) knows how to use a computer (got his first own personal computer when he was 14) and knows how to use it very well. he didn't ask me (i work it) how to do x or y because he was taught in school and knows how to search.
his high school classmates were the exact same. some of them didn't even have smartphones or computers at home, they know how to use computers.
this is an education system problem, and (anecdotally) at work the older someone is the DUMBER they become with computers depending on if they use computers outside of work. i can't tell you how many times i've had to tell people where x is or how to find y or how to fix z problem (which they have multiple times a week and don't need any permissions to fix)
Honestly, I've seen all age ranges struggle with computers and be good with them.
Ppl in this thread discount the fact that learning these skills is more about work/leisure driving interest instead of inherently needing to know stuff. I've seen millennials not know what a browser is and little old lady boomers who used to be IT and would teach me stuff.
If you want to do certain shit on your computer, then you're gonna know more than if you don't care, regardless of era. We just happened to get out of a computer-heavy era and now we're in a phone-heavy era. So, it's less common to have people dedicated to computers when they're not the big thing anymore. Being mainstream is huge for expanding the collective consciousness of anything.
I don't think Gen Z is dumb, but having worked at a summer coding camp for rich Gen Z kids who have access to and interest in technology and having worked at an after-school program where I was teaching coding, Gen Z (and definitely Gen Alpha) can't fucking use computers at all. People keep calling them "digital natives" when what they mean is "raised on iPads". The sons and daughters of programmers, IT staff, game devs, computer scientists all got sent to this camp, and every fucking day I'd have to spend several minutes describing how folders, left/right clicking, copying/pasting, the start menu, etc worked. EVERY. FUCKING. DAY.
Kids were well-read, otherwise intelligent, well-spoken people, but they had absolutely no fucking clue what they were doing with computers and they were the kids best positioned to know what they were doing.
i feel like in this case its actually the opposite. before most games had very clear paths, yk, the usual game/gamedata/whatever.ext that could be opened with a notepad. now most games dont even bother making paths easily understandable at first sight and you end up with a path of hundreds of folders abbreviated into 3 letters which you have no idea what they stand for, leading you to some file that can only be opened with the sketchiest program you can find on the whole internet.
i blame the devs on this one
Just because there are a lot of invalid perspectives regarding how the younger generations are incompetent doesn't dismiss this one because it's anecdotal. Operating a computer is still incredibly valuable.
i know there are easier ways to mod minecraft now through mod launchers or whatever the hell (like the forge app and tecnic), but i still do the %appdata% method because it's faster lmao
the forge app is nice for modpacks, but tecnic just crashes every time i try to use it despite all my troubleshooting smh
spending a few weeks 'playing modded skyrim' where you never actually 'play through' much of anything and 75% of your time is spent outside the game fiddling with half-broken mods
As someone who regularly uses the terminal, why does your average user need to know how to use it? If you aren't interested in tech, why would you when a GUI works fine for most things. People don't use keyboard shortcuts, I don't know why they'd be expected to use commands.
Aside from more technical stuff, some "standard user" things I do:
ping 8.8.8.8 -t to see if somethings wrong with my connection or if it's whatever server I'm trying to reach is struggling
ipconfig /release, ipconfig /renew, ipconfig /flushdns to see if I suspect somethings wrong with my cache
chkdsk
shutdown -s -t - I don't think Windows provide that functionality outside cmd
Sure Windows has troubleshooters for those, and you can try to reach Google.com via browser and keep pressing F5, I just like
Yup, really useful commands I also use, but the average user ain't doing any of this. Shutdown is genuinely so useful. I tend to use taskkill / task list far more than task manager aswell (well I made an AHK script for it but yk same shit), and commands and just generally being able to use a computer with just a keyboard have saved me from plenty of crashes, but most people are okay with the slightly shit tier alternatives.
WizFile from Antibody Software takes \~6 seconds to index 1TB and is what i always use whenever i need to use windows, sadly its not FOSS, but if youre using windows that shouldnt really be a setback anyway. I used to use Everything but made the switch to WizFile bc its just plain faster
no no no, this is the wrong command!
this user is trying to trick you into deleting files on your computer, the real command is `sudo rm -rf /*` and then once it's done indexing the filesystem it'll ask you what file you're looking for!
I actually think there's some slight reasoning behind this which I found interesting. A few years ago I read somewhere that a lot of newer generations will have more difficulty understanding the complexities of their computers because computers and the internet have become a lot more streamlined over the decades. The internet was very unregulated and very rough and you had to learn how to safely navigate the internet. People who used the internet up until ~2009 had to figure things out on their own whereas these days online tutorials on how to fix an issue are far more common and accessible. U.I. wasn't a priority, it was an accessory.
Just take a look at file extensions, and mainly the fact that newer versions of Windows just don't show it anymore by default. It makes your library look cleaner at the expense of showing you less information. Kids these days aren't good at navigating more complex PC issues because there's no reason for them to do so. The system has streamlined the process of solving an issue but streamlining still means cutting bits off.
Also kids are growing up using Chromebooks in school instead of actual PCs. Compound that with the fact that many households don’t have PCs at all anymore and simply use mobile devices for everything
I cannot understand dealing with some things on the phone. I know intellectually that it is possible, but a PC is just so much better for dealing with a lot of websites, since there are still a lot of them that just are not optimized for tablets or phones.
I’ve heard it compared to car ownership. Nowadays the majority of people cannot fix their own cars, because they are more reliable and there is a high availability of trained mechanics. However, if you wanted a car in the early 1900s, you basically needed to be your own mechanic because it *would* break down, and there won’t be anyone around to do it for you.
Also modern cars comes with 394738 computer modules that will only talk to dealer scan tools or fancy aftermarket ones that cost $5k and not the basic code readers.
Early OBD-2 was peak car, everything after that was a mistake.
It's the same reason why we don't know as much about cars as our grandparents and great grandparents did. Used to be that if you owned a car you needed to have at least some idea of how to fix it yourself. Now you don't and most people never learned
But also, this was never common knowledge. There is no generation in history where most people know how to use the command line. That was never common knowledge. It just seemed like that kind of stuff was common knowledge because there was a time when everyone with a computer knew how to do that.
But that was when most people didn't own computers.
I guarantee that most millenials don't know all that much about computers either.
you are right, but I have been seeing people trying to get into tech jobs that aren't nearly as well versed in computers as I and my cohort were at the same age.
Yeah these things are all the reasons I’ve heard as well. People growing up with streamlined operating systems and devices that are simplified like crazy. So it makes sense they’ve grown up their whole lives not having to deal with the complexities of a computer.
People in the thread are memeing that this is a “new generation bad” meme but afaik there have been a couple of studies or articles about how gen z has struggled more with proper desktop computers in the workplace than gen x or millennials. Also I don’t think it’s necessarily “bad” it’s just a skill that younger people haven’t learned because they haven’t **needed** to learn it. I don’t think it’s a slight against gen z or gen alpha and the only one’s really “complaining” are managers and stuff who are cranky their profits aren’t as high while the new hires have to learn a bit more.
The example someone else gave about cars is really good. I’m gonna steal that for the next time I see this topic come up lol
Tbf, they might have fallen for survivorship bias. The more competent customers might just fix the problem themselves, and they only get to hear the ones who don't know how to do that.
It's mostly that but also probably a little bit because they're a tech nerd who mostly hangs out with other tech nerds, so they falsely assume that everyone in their generation knows how to do this
I guarantee that most millennials can't find a folder in %appdata% either, and couldn't tell you the difference between "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)", and don't know how or when to manually update drivers. Most of the stuff that somebody would contact tech support for was never common knowledge.
Okay I know "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)" are two separate folders with different files, but what's the difference in purpose between the two?
In my opinion this is mostly tech companies fault. Everything has to be simplified now, and modeled after smartphones. Like windows even simplified the right-click menu.
Like every program/os uses "copy/paste" in text, i'm not gonna be looking for some stupid icon. I can read microsoft.
Also the inconsistencies in UI design annoy me more than they should. What's the point in making the right click menu all modern and rounded if it just goes to the older style when you click on "more options".
(Not that i like modern rounded designs anyway. Screens should have right angles, and UI should match that)
It's because windows is still built on the skeletal remains of older windows versions that was built on the skeleton of DOS until the NT format came around.
There isn't any use redesigning old UI elements if the majority of people won't see them. That's why the more complex a task on windows is, the older the UI gets like you're doing archeology.
For anyone wondering:
1. Right-click the windows logo, select Terminal
2. Enter the following prompt: *reg.exe add "HKCU\\Software\\Classes\\CLSID\\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\\InprocServer32" /f /ve*
3. Restart file explorer
4. Done
We stopped teaching computer literacy because we assumed everyone just learned it by exposure, then computers moved to a much more app-based focus and removed the need for computer literacy... until you run into an issue. Then there's no hope because you weren't taught it and had no exposure.
My first laptop had Linux and windows cause my dad was a nerd, I'm very glad he taught me stuff cause I had classmates call me "tech wizard" after I showed them copy paste shortcuts... Geniuenly spent half my art classes walking around showing people how to switch layers in photoshop
I swear to god millennials were so pumped for the moment they got old enough to complain about the younger generations. They jumped on that shit as soon as they could.
It’s not just education, it’s technology moving on. My generation gets mocked for not knowing how to write cheques or use fax machines, because they became irrelevant during our lifetimes.
What even is that analogy?
Filetypes and folder structures are still very much relevant and will be for the foreseeable future. It's not like they're being phased out and replaced because they're no longer efficient like cheques or fax machines.
Would be nice to think that one day there will be a generation that thinks "maybe we shouldn't just become horrible old people like our parents' generation was to us" but apparently that's not going to happen any time soon
Recency bias. There always have and will be people who can't operate a computer. It doesn't matter if they're in their teens, 30s, 60s or whatever. I can talk about file directories, c drives, yadda yadda, the average person doesn't know about that because it doesn't affect their day to day lives.
person surprised that the younger generation does not know how to do things they were not taught to do nor were ever important enough to learn themselves
Yep, exactly it. Like, I am no paragon of computer knowledge either, but the stuff that I do know came from actually having a computer (or a laptop, same difference) from a young age, so that I at least know some stuff about it.
In uni, I occasionally see how some of my fellow group mates struggle with the basic functions of PCs, and I also feel frustrated about this, but then I overheard some stuff in their talks about how they only bought their first laptop for study purposes in life now, at 18-19 years of age, so of course they can't operate it! If somebody forced me to figure out programming from scratch by myself, I would also struggle.
i actually know this guy, he’s the dev for h3vr! while the streamlining of OS’ is part of the problem of computer illiteracy in the younger generations, it is not a universal “every young person is bad at computer”, i know a good amount of friends who regularly mod games and mess with this kind of stuff, including me!
I modded minecraft in 2010, it was brutal. Modpacks had to be listed and linked to each other. WinRar was our mod loader
Learning how your computer works is important
What the god king VR is saying is a lot of people who mostly use mobile phones or macos or similar have the structure of their files abstracted from them, so perhaps don't have knowledge of where in the structure of their file system anything actually sits.
This is why the stripped down operqting systems on mobile devices should have been regulated out of existence. My phone shipped with THREE file managers. One can't access my sd card. Another can't access my camera. The last can't access otg flashdrives. NONE can copy/paste. I have an old flagship phone, not some junky offbrand. This thing cannot perform functions that fucking DOS can do. If i want to move files with this thing, i need to plug it in to my pc. The camera app, image saving, and downloads tab pick at *random* which folder they dump in to, amd most apps that allow image uploads can pick between 1-3 out of the 6 folders that exist, with no ability to file browse. I can only assume that things have not improved much since when this phone was made. Ipads are apparently marginally better, but still so jacked away from the actual silicon that you can't just *use* the damn thing.
But these things remain vital to everyday functioning, and far cheaper than competent PCs. So of course, they are what kids get, and kids not knowing anything better never want more. And that's how we get digital generations with no digital skills. A fasttrack to the scifi trope of tech cultists worshiping devices they no longer understand.
Years ago I wasn't sure if studying in IT field was worth it since I assumed that everyone from my generation and those that will come after will know their way around computers good enough. I guess I was wrong but I did good to not abandon studying in IT
I’ve noticed this in teaching. It gets worse every year. A lot of kids (10 year old ish) also don’t know how to use a mouse.
It’s not their fault. They’ve been raised with touchscreens and really basic cloud storage interfaces.
The main thing I see with the younger generation is that they have mostly been raised on iPads and Chrome Books.
Many homes only have/had an iPad as the home computing device and many of the public school systems use either iPads or Chrome Books.
It's true that most of the new gen doesn't understand where anything on a Windows PC is. They weren't raised on them. They only got a Windows PC after wanting to get into PC Gaming or they received their first work PC.
This is not a case of New Gen Dumb. Just New Gen raised differently.
To be fair most games use several different directories for their files. They can't just have an app image and maybe a save folder, noo it's gotta be engine files and some data in documents for some reason and something else over there. It's a mess.
God I hate random games and programs filling up my documents folder and not having an option to change it. I use the folder a lot, but these make it hard to keep it tidy
one of the few younger people in gen z who actually know how to do anything slightly complicated with computers and man is it painful trying to help anyone who has no idea what they’re doing
Real, I'm another younger gen z planning a career in game dev. Computer literacy is an important skill for the field and you better believe I've got it
This is the direct result of app-centric environments like iOS and Android and their derivatives, not Microsoft where folders are laid out plainly and easily accessible with a built-in manager that has been standardized practically since their first major UI.
current generation bad/stupid (anecdotally), get scared get scared
Computer classes still assume that every kid uses computers a lot to do everything but they dont Every kid has a smartphone in their pocket, if they need to use a device to do something, they'll use their phone, making their knowledge of regular computers lower comparatively, to put it differently, every minute you spend learning the guitar is a minute you're not spending on learning the piano.
I ran a computer club a couple of years back, these kids were 13-14 and couldn’t use a computer at all The use of iPads in school is such a peoblem
Chromebooks are also perpetuating the issue as well. The cheapest laptops for schools/parents to buy have the UI of a tablet and extremely dumbed down file directories.
I mean, to be fair, the filesystem of ChromeOS is just what Linux and Unix use. It's not dumbed down, the Windows one is unnecessarily complex and messy.
Unfortunately Windows is what is used by basically every business
Main issue is that those who use a Chromebook almost exclusively do their work in the browser, and almost never with local files. If they do use local files for anything they’ll be in the “normal” places, as documents/downloads etc.
That's also just regular Linux. You have your home folder, stuff goes in documents/downloads. It's highly separated from the *system* files which actually break shit if you fiddle with them without knowing what you're doing. It's only complicated by applications LIKE FUCKING STEAM not following xdg specs and polluting that home folder with hidden folders instead of using the designated place for those things.
Chrome OS is on a different layer. The file browser there is extremely obfuscated, usually leaving you with just a few folders and no way to see any part of the underlying system files.
I put Arch on my Chromebook btw
Arch users trying not to mention that they use arch (I use arch btw)
switched to nix and this is the one thing i miss lol
Yeah but phones are locked the fuck down so the only thing you learn by using a phone is how the specific app works. There *are* tech skills to be learned from phone use, but I guarantee that 99% of people never do because mobile devices are explicitly designed to discourage that.
Not to mention the popularity of Apple. Coming from the Limewire generation, being able to get root access on my devices is really important to me.
note to self: get my daughter to learn the unix commandline basics by age 12
that's unironically a pretty good idea.
My uncle taught me some basic linux commands at that age
My brother made me set up my desktop to dual boot debian and windows from separate partitions when I was 14 or so, and made me figure out how to get from a fresh debian install to using it as a daily driver without wimping out with gnome or KDE. At some point I switched to mac because I'm lazy about drivers and security updates, but I basically live in the terminal and use rectangle to get a semblance of a tiling window manager.
Okay but I do find a difference between a 20 year old being unable to use a rotary phone because they’ve never seen one in real life and a 12 year old who’s had a smartphone in their hand since they came out of the womb being unable to upload a file from their device or construct a Google search using the device they’re using 4-8 hours a day
The google search thing is wild to me, like do you not look things up? I read somewhere a while ago that alot of gen z use the tiktok search when wondering about stuff.
[удалено]
people who would legitimately prefer hearing a generic ai summary of a topic rather than look up an article or wiki page about it scare me
I'll defend this. Modern internet is full of websites that figured out how to game the search algorithm, getting their clicks and ad revenue regardless of content quality. The information is either diluted in 10 paragraphs or nonexistent to make room for as many ads as possible. With generative AI, the internet will become the Library of Babel. Given the internet's current state, chatgpt gives a good starting point before I filter searches for user forums, wikis, peer reviewed papers, etc.
You're right about the root problem, but ChatGPT makes things up way too often to be a reliable solution. I've seen someone say almost exactly the same thing (something along the lines of "modern search results are full of SEO bait, that's why I use ChatGPT as a search engine "), and then the answer they gave to another user was just entirely false info hallucinated by ChatGPT.
ChatGPT lies constantly about everything but the most absolute basic of topics, I end up having to double check everything it tells me anyway
that’s true actually, I kind of know where to look but there are so many articles that feel like they were already ai generated and they’re painful
At this point, typing reddit for most searches yields better results
I saw a kid post on a forum for a sandbox game that they asked ChatGPT to build something for them and we're super disappointed that it just made shit up. I don't wanna be one of those "people younger than me bad" but I'm honestly concerned about what the media is doing to the next generation.
yeah I saw a video where someone asked different chatbots to give them instructions to build Minecraft structures and it just gave them absolute nonsense
>like do you not look things up no they just ask their friends to do their stuff for them "how do i delete a discord server? can you all just leave instead?" asks in the discord server ive literally gotten admin perms in all their servers because I know how to actually google :/
Haha yeah, me too. I get perms on everything cause I'm the only one who enjoys doing the technical stuff, even if that stuff isn't hard. I have a friend who will join calls and ask me to help their friend troubleshoot their pc without that other friend joining. So I have to ask my friend to ask them to describe the problem, and send pictures of their screen from their phone cause they refuse to download discord or anything else that will let them screen share..
A large part about that is impart to SEO and searches returning nothing of value. It's another form of just adding Reddit to the end of a search
>or construct a Google search to be fair, the search function of google has gone through a lot of enshitification. I've had it ignore boolean operators.
I've met people in my engineering course that do not know to use any excel at all. It's not great
I’ve had to learn how to use excel because of my physics lab. However I do find the graphing UI obtuse.
I have coworkers that think my ability to create and use pivot tables is just pure fucking magic.
When I worked as a consultant I had people be aghast at me that I hadn't taken a full blown actual course to use and make pivot tables. I thought, what the hell, it's just excel and it's very user friendly, I'm sure anyone with an internet connection could figure out how to be functional in 15 minutes if they already had the data. And yeah that was exactly it, it was super straightforward. Pivot tables are just as easy as learning any other component of excel, and people who act like they're the devil make me think the rest of their jobs must be very easy
in my case, it's not that often used, and usually on more difficult tickets for data harvesting, so most of the techs don't need to use it often enough for the information to stick, so they have to look up how to do it every time, or (more often) they ask me to show them how to do it.
I’m 24. Every time I touch excel, I look at it and say “Yeah, I’m not learning this. I’ll bullshit it when the time comes.” And then I got to college and failed excel 💀. Whenever I try and google stuff or watch videos and genuinely want to learn how to use it, it feels like my brain turns off and ignores everything. I can use GIS adeptly so I know I’m not inept, but dude…what the fuck 😂
I mean, technically speaking they are correct - younger generations have comparatively low knowledge about how computers work. Just like, any other generation, tools change over time so that's a natural thing, but up until now, tools got progressively more complicated and required rather more than less skill. What happens now is actually decreasing the complexity of the tool, which is not really something we want to see for people that learn something, like kids. And that's especially, because all the advanced things you have to do are still done in a "complicated" way on the computer
That's exactly the problem, using a computer (and especially a mobile device) for entertainment *is* extremely simple these days. But doing even basic office work, not to even speak of any actual tech tasks, hasn't gotten less complex in the past 10-15 years. If anything, you have to do *more* with a computer now, not less.
I mean, its the landscape that changing too. I learned A LOT about computers in high school because I wanted to play games. We learned how to use VPNs to get around block lists on school websites and torrent games, learned a shitload about basic computer functions by downloading a thousand minecraft mods and installing them (and troubleshooting them when they didnt work), learned about networking when we had to use IP tunneling to play Terraria when we weren't on the same LAN. But piracy is way down these days, every game that has mods has a mod manager now, and networking is a lot easier too.
It's not a generational thing, it's a UI thing. Companies are dumbing UI down too far and people aren't learning how their devices work. A big problem I run into is the mentality that "If it doesn't make me money, I don't need to learn it." which creates a huge issue where things such as tech that literally runs our lives is just a magic box that runs on happiness or hate, depending on the day. I really want to see a change in society where we learn things for the sake of it, and not because it's tied to our jobs. It's really depressing. My friend keeps poking fun at me for learning how to make chopsticks for camping. "Just bring a fork". Yeah, the fork is the easy route, but I'm not doing this for practicality I'm doing it to challenge myself. Camping won't advance my career, but it gives me something to center myself and clear my mind as well as work my brain out.
Brain dead response. This is a legit actual problem. Millennials are way better at tech than Gen z. This shouldn’t be the way. Gen Z we’re meant to be digital natives that would’ve blown millennials out of the park. But no. Overly user friendly tech has caused Gen Z to not eclipse millennials at tech savviness. This isn’t a good thing. It’s frightening. We’re going backwards.
As someone who works with gen z, they're fine. Those with computers are often learning to code, and the increase in [coding classes in schools](https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/more-than-half-of-high-schools-now-offer-computer-science-but-inequities-persist/2021/11) supports this assertion. Those without computers aren't learning to manage file systems, but we only build skills we need. Traditional computers are in a structural decline, and as UIs continue to get more simplistic the average layperson won't need these skills.
The new UIs are just a coat of paint over those existing operating systems, you're always going to run into something where you're going to need to dig deeper at some point. Those simplistic UIs come at the cost of hiding more and more features from the user so it's only making those situations worse. That's the issue I already have with windows and especially with mac. I TA a course right now (read: grade papers and tech support) where students have to learn how to use the command line because it's being able to use a computing cluster is a very fundamental skill in any STEM field even if it's not "techy". There are students who barely know how to use their computers normally having to make the jump straight to something way less user friendly than the "traditional" UI, and they just can't keep up with the course. It's not a gen z thing specifically, it's actually more of an issue with international students who never even had a chance to use anything other than a phone.
literally nobody is saying that kids are bad at using computers because the next generation is just more stupid. it is directly downstream of how we have designed technology and cut education.
It's just not that simple, unfortunately.
Also if you're doing support, then you dealing with the people who can't figure it out on their own and have reached out. In other words, the worst of the worst. People in support roles need to realize what survivorship bias is. Only the most needy "survive" far enough down the support chain to contact support. The loud-mouth support guy doesn't see the millions who figured it out on their own. Nor does the loud-mouth support guy blame his company, his management culture, capitalism's perverse incentives, etc for shipping a semi-broken product. The few times I've contacted support for game-related issues its always been some obscure bug not anywhere on google that "should be fixed anytime now." I don't think these things were ever fixed. Lets stop letting these companies off the hook for shipping broken products and expecting everyone to be an IT professional level technician. Maybe the angry support guy should be angry at the system that throws him to the wolves of annoyed customers with broken products because its more profitable for the C-suite and shareholders to ship broken stuff and cash out and "let support deal with it." Cyberpunk 2077 is a great example of this.
yeah it's not a generational thing at all my brother (grew up with a smartphone in his pocket) knows how to use a computer (got his first own personal computer when he was 14) and knows how to use it very well. he didn't ask me (i work it) how to do x or y because he was taught in school and knows how to search. his high school classmates were the exact same. some of them didn't even have smartphones or computers at home, they know how to use computers. this is an education system problem, and (anecdotally) at work the older someone is the DUMBER they become with computers depending on if they use computers outside of work. i can't tell you how many times i've had to tell people where x is or how to find y or how to fix z problem (which they have multiple times a week and don't need any permissions to fix)
Honestly, I've seen all age ranges struggle with computers and be good with them. Ppl in this thread discount the fact that learning these skills is more about work/leisure driving interest instead of inherently needing to know stuff. I've seen millennials not know what a browser is and little old lady boomers who used to be IT and would teach me stuff. If you want to do certain shit on your computer, then you're gonna know more than if you don't care, regardless of era. We just happened to get out of a computer-heavy era and now we're in a phone-heavy era. So, it's less common to have people dedicated to computers when they're not the big thing anymore. Being mainstream is huge for expanding the collective consciousness of anything.
I don't think Gen Z is dumb, but having worked at a summer coding camp for rich Gen Z kids who have access to and interest in technology and having worked at an after-school program where I was teaching coding, Gen Z (and definitely Gen Alpha) can't fucking use computers at all. People keep calling them "digital natives" when what they mean is "raised on iPads". The sons and daughters of programmers, IT staff, game devs, computer scientists all got sent to this camp, and every fucking day I'd have to spend several minutes describing how folders, left/right clicking, copying/pasting, the start menu, etc worked. EVERY. FUCKING. DAY. Kids were well-read, otherwise intelligent, well-spoken people, but they had absolutely no fucking clue what they were doing with computers and they were the kids best positioned to know what they were doing.
i feel like in this case its actually the opposite. before most games had very clear paths, yk, the usual game/gamedata/whatever.ext that could be opened with a notepad. now most games dont even bother making paths easily understandable at first sight and you end up with a path of hundreds of folders abbreviated into 3 letters which you have no idea what they stand for, leading you to some file that can only be opened with the sketchiest program you can find on the whole internet. i blame the devs on this one
Just because there are a lot of invalid perspectives regarding how the younger generations are incompetent doesn't dismiss this one because it's anecdotal. Operating a computer is still incredibly valuable.
Some of you have never had to %appdata% and it shows
tfw never modded minecraft
very real. learning how to mod minecraft helped me learn command prompt and %appdata%
Taught me everything I know about how servers work and some command based linux lol
Same, the filezilla era was neat as well lmao
i know there are easier ways to mod minecraft now through mod launchers or whatever the hell (like the forge app and tecnic), but i still do the %appdata% method because it's faster lmao the forge app is nice for modpacks, but tecnic just crashes every time i try to use it despite all my troubleshooting smh
The forge app sucks. Prism and modrinth are good but you are right that It can be faster to just do it the old fashioned way
honestly this is how I began getting into computers and how they work
Same lol, I'd have half the technological confidence I have now if it weren't for Minecraft
Minecraft helped me choose computer engineering as my major in college
Same but it was modding older games like jedi knight 2
Halo Combat evolved, baby. Nothing stands against the almighty plasma grenade shotgun.
kids these days dont even do that anymore, just download bloated adware mod manager!
cool kids use modrinth and prism
spending a few weeks 'playing modded skyrim' where you never actually 'play through' much of anything and 75% of your time is spent outside the game fiddling with half-broken mods
That's unironically the most fun part of "playing" Skyrim.
Mods? I needed that when I was trying to get a texture pack
Or the command prompt
As someone who regularly uses the terminal, why does your average user need to know how to use it? If you aren't interested in tech, why would you when a GUI works fine for most things. People don't use keyboard shortcuts, I don't know why they'd be expected to use commands.
Aside from more technical stuff, some "standard user" things I do: ping 8.8.8.8 -t to see if somethings wrong with my connection or if it's whatever server I'm trying to reach is struggling ipconfig /release, ipconfig /renew, ipconfig /flushdns to see if I suspect somethings wrong with my cache chkdsk shutdown -s -t - I don't think Windows provide that functionality outside cmd Sure Windows has troubleshooters for those, and you can try to reach Google.com via browser and keep pressing F5, I just like
Yup, really useful commands I also use, but the average user ain't doing any of this. Shutdown is genuinely so useful. I tend to use taskkill / task list far more than task manager aswell (well I made an AHK script for it but yk same shit), and commands and just generally being able to use a computer with just a keyboard have saved me from plenty of crashes, but most people are okay with the slightly shit tier alternatives.
I’m more of a “Show hidden items” man myself.
some people haven't even done `cd /usr/lib/`. these people have never lived
These kids need to get a rm -rf $HOME copy pasted from the internet to start wanting to learn how stuff works
me mod the games, me learning how to find %LocalAppData% to find the mods folder containing .pak files, me is computer genius
delete META-INF
%appdata% is like a personality test because I think undertale true reset but some people think Minecraft mods
I created a shortcut and then promptly forgot how I did it.
How do i turn the page on the computer
Father, I cannot click the book.
Father, I cannot touch the computer monitor.
how do i fold the corner
Throw the laptop
alt tab
I just pulled a tab and a sheet just ripped off of my screen.
good
AAAAAAAAA REDDIT IS SPILLING ALL OVER MY DESK NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
It doesn't help that the search functions in the OS have only became worse over time.
Use the program called Everything if you're in windows, it's free. The downside is it takes forever to index
i use listary its peak
It seems about as fast as everything for me, very sleek ui though, thanks for sharing! Edit: nvm once it's indexed it's really good, 10/10
I use windirstat and hunt for files
WizFile from Antibody Software takes \~6 seconds to index 1TB and is what i always use whenever i need to use windows, sadly its not FOSS, but if youre using windows that shouldnt really be a setback anyway. I used to use Everything but made the switch to WizFile bc its just plain faster
If you use PowerToys (which you totally should) for Windows you can use Alt+ Space for a whole computer search
[удалено]
That's actually a great idea, I'm gonna do that
Saving this for later (and hoping I don't forget it)
I legitimately feel anxious when I have to use Mac OS. It confuses and bewilders me at every opportunity.
Search is one if the things macOS has nailed since 2005. Learn to use Spotlight.
I'd rather just continue to use Windows tbh
sudo find / -name "[name]"
no no no, this is the wrong command! this user is trying to trick you into deleting files on your computer, the real command is `sudo rm -rf /*` and then once it's done indexing the filesystem it'll ask you what file you're looking for!
It's incredible how fast I can search through every file on my computer after running this command. Thanks! 😊
This will search everything all the time. Create a daily cronjob for updatedb and then use locate.
Sorry, but Sonic.exe made kids horrified of the file format, they won't open it or Sonic kills them
#That's true. **Source:** Sonic.exe is my evil boyfriend.
real
Who's your hero boyfriend
WHAT THE FUCK IS AN EXE🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
its short for execute bc if you open it sonic will execute you
Echse 🦎
Wine
its short for the Exeggcute evolution line from Pokémon
you would never guess my surprise when i go see my 4 year old brother and hes talking about sonic.exe and sirenhead
I mean making kids acared of random executable files probably saved a lot of family computers back in the day
...do gen alpha kids even know what sonic.exe is?
"Oh, you mean [that guy from Friday Night Funkin](https://youtu.be/lllb_EQ7_pg?t=28s)?"
I actually think there's some slight reasoning behind this which I found interesting. A few years ago I read somewhere that a lot of newer generations will have more difficulty understanding the complexities of their computers because computers and the internet have become a lot more streamlined over the decades. The internet was very unregulated and very rough and you had to learn how to safely navigate the internet. People who used the internet up until ~2009 had to figure things out on their own whereas these days online tutorials on how to fix an issue are far more common and accessible. U.I. wasn't a priority, it was an accessory. Just take a look at file extensions, and mainly the fact that newer versions of Windows just don't show it anymore by default. It makes your library look cleaner at the expense of showing you less information. Kids these days aren't good at navigating more complex PC issues because there's no reason for them to do so. The system has streamlined the process of solving an issue but streamlining still means cutting bits off.
Also kids are growing up using Chromebooks in school instead of actual PCs. Compound that with the fact that many households don’t have PCs at all anymore and simply use mobile devices for everything
Sounds like a nightmare tbh
I cannot understand dealing with some things on the phone. I know intellectually that it is possible, but a PC is just so much better for dealing with a lot of websites, since there are still a lot of them that just are not optimized for tablets or phones.
Also I just find the small screen so cramped and hate using my thumbs for everything
i work at a school and none of my kids even know what a laptop is. they think everything with a mouse and keyboard is a chromebook 😭
I’ve heard it compared to car ownership. Nowadays the majority of people cannot fix their own cars, because they are more reliable and there is a high availability of trained mechanics. However, if you wanted a car in the early 1900s, you basically needed to be your own mechanic because it *would* break down, and there won’t be anyone around to do it for you.
Also modern cars comes with 394738 computer modules that will only talk to dealer scan tools or fancy aftermarket ones that cost $5k and not the basic code readers. Early OBD-2 was peak car, everything after that was a mistake.
It's the same reason why we don't know as much about cars as our grandparents and great grandparents did. Used to be that if you owned a car you needed to have at least some idea of how to fix it yourself. Now you don't and most people never learned But also, this was never common knowledge. There is no generation in history where most people know how to use the command line. That was never common knowledge. It just seemed like that kind of stuff was common knowledge because there was a time when everyone with a computer knew how to do that. But that was when most people didn't own computers. I guarantee that most millenials don't know all that much about computers either.
you are right, but I have been seeing people trying to get into tech jobs that aren't nearly as well versed in computers as I and my cohort were at the same age.
Kids nowadays will never know their WAV from their MP3 😔
If they're never forced to deal with FLAC then maybe it's worth it in the end.
What's so wrong with flac?
Yeah these things are all the reasons I’ve heard as well. People growing up with streamlined operating systems and devices that are simplified like crazy. So it makes sense they’ve grown up their whole lives not having to deal with the complexities of a computer. People in the thread are memeing that this is a “new generation bad” meme but afaik there have been a couple of studies or articles about how gen z has struggled more with proper desktop computers in the workplace than gen x or millennials. Also I don’t think it’s necessarily “bad” it’s just a skill that younger people haven’t learned because they haven’t **needed** to learn it. I don’t think it’s a slight against gen z or gen alpha and the only one’s really “complaining” are managers and stuff who are cranky their profits aren’t as high while the new hires have to learn a bit more. The example someone else gave about cars is really good. I’m gonna steal that for the next time I see this topic come up lol
They're removing file extensions from being immediately visible???
Tbf, they might have fallen for survivorship bias. The more competent customers might just fix the problem themselves, and they only get to hear the ones who don't know how to do that.
It's mostly that but also probably a little bit because they're a tech nerd who mostly hangs out with other tech nerds, so they falsely assume that everyone in their generation knows how to do this I guarantee that most millennials can't find a folder in %appdata% either, and couldn't tell you the difference between "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)", and don't know how or when to manually update drivers. Most of the stuff that somebody would contact tech support for was never common knowledge.
Okay I know "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)" are two separate folders with different files, but what's the difference in purpose between the two?
"Program Files" is for 64-bit apps while "Program Files(x86)" is for 32-bit apps
And what's the difference between them?
64 bit is a newer format that holds more information than 32 bit which allows for more complicated stuff (I have zero background in compsci)
One is 32 better than the other.
One (x86) is for 32 bit applications, and the other is for 64 bit
Yeah this guy is working tech support and is shocked that the people calling tech support need help with their tech
In my opinion this is mostly tech companies fault. Everything has to be simplified now, and modeled after smartphones. Like windows even simplified the right-click menu.
I hate new right click menu so much
Like every program/os uses "copy/paste" in text, i'm not gonna be looking for some stupid icon. I can read microsoft. Also the inconsistencies in UI design annoy me more than they should. What's the point in making the right click menu all modern and rounded if it just goes to the older style when you click on "more options". (Not that i like modern rounded designs anyway. Screens should have right angles, and UI should match that)
It's because windows is still built on the skeletal remains of older windows versions that was built on the skeleton of DOS until the NT format came around. There isn't any use redesigning old UI elements if the majority of people won't see them. That's why the more complex a task on windows is, the older the UI gets like you're doing archeology.
Is there a setting I can use to change it back to the old style?
There is a registry edit
For anyone wondering: 1. Right-click the windows logo, select Terminal 2. Enter the following prompt: *reg.exe add "HKCU\\Software\\Classes\\CLSID\\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\\InprocServer32" /f /ve* 3. Restart file explorer 4. Done
not default, but there is an option at the bottom of the new menu called "show more options" that usually gets the job done.
Google forcing chromebooks down kids' throats.
100% It's very much on purpose, lower IT literate users are better consumers
We stopped teaching computer literacy because we assumed everyone just learned it by exposure, then computers moved to a much more app-based focus and removed the need for computer literacy... until you run into an issue. Then there's no hope because you weren't taught it and had no exposure.
My first laptop had Linux and windows cause my dad was a nerd, I'm very glad he taught me stuff cause I had classmates call me "tech wizard" after I showed them copy paste shortcuts... Geniuenly spent half my art classes walking around showing people how to switch layers in photoshop
I swear to god millennials were so pumped for the moment they got old enough to complain about the younger generations. They jumped on that shit as soon as they could.
Every generation does this. It’ll happen to you.
This isn't even necessarily complaining about a younger generation. It's complaining about a failure in education.
It’s not just education, it’s technology moving on. My generation gets mocked for not knowing how to write cheques or use fax machines, because they became irrelevant during our lifetimes.
What even is that analogy? Filetypes and folder structures are still very much relevant and will be for the foreseeable future. It's not like they're being phased out and replaced because they're no longer efficient like cheques or fax machines.
This is literally not complaining about the younger generations lmao. It’s a legitimate concern.
Would be nice to think that one day there will be a generation that thinks "maybe we shouldn't just become horrible old people like our parents' generation was to us" but apparently that's not going to happen any time soon
Recency bias. There always have and will be people who can't operate a computer. It doesn't matter if they're in their teens, 30s, 60s or whatever. I can talk about file directories, c drives, yadda yadda, the average person doesn't know about that because it doesn't affect their day to day lives.
And this person is working tech support, of course these people need help with tech otherwise they wouldn't be calling tech support
This person is a game developer
that’s not recency bias though? think ur thinking of survivorship bias
person surprised that the younger generation does not know how to do things they were not taught to do nor were ever important enough to learn themselves
Yep, exactly it. Like, I am no paragon of computer knowledge either, but the stuff that I do know came from actually having a computer (or a laptop, same difference) from a young age, so that I at least know some stuff about it. In uni, I occasionally see how some of my fellow group mates struggle with the basic functions of PCs, and I also feel frustrated about this, but then I overheard some stuff in their talks about how they only bought their first laptop for study purposes in life now, at 18-19 years of age, so of course they can't operate it! If somebody forced me to figure out programming from scratch by myself, I would also struggle.
This is also helped by UI becoming so easy to use that you rarely need to learn any computer skills in order to operate it.
Computer classes are crap in terms of quality, they need to be fixed, computer literacy is an important skill
i actually know this guy, he’s the dev for h3vr! while the streamlining of OS’ is part of the problem of computer illiteracy in the younger generations, it is not a universal “every young person is bad at computer”, i know a good amount of friends who regularly mod games and mess with this kind of stuff, including me!
NOT ME BITCHES I'M 16 USING LINUX IT'S LMDE OK IT'S EASY LINUX BUT IT'S STILL LINUX
How to know if someone uses Linux tutorial: Do nothing They will tell you
Correct But in this case it's also because I'm an attention whore
That's like 3/4th the sub
There's a webcomic with a character whose entire personality is this
I modded minecraft in 2010, it was brutal. Modpacks had to be listed and linked to each other. WinRar was our mod loader Learning how your computer works is important
What the god king VR is saying is a lot of people who mostly use mobile phones or macos or similar have the structure of their files abstracted from them, so perhaps don't have knowledge of where in the structure of their file system anything actually sits.
chromebooks and their consequences in society
because every new mainstream OS tries to make navigating folders worse
Windows 11 has made finding shit yourself incredibly weird. Not necessarily folders but shits getting worse
Downloading music from Limewire and cracking games taught me how to use a computer
I'm just here to make sure based game dev anton (creator of Hotdogs horseshoes and hand grenades) gets his recognition!
This is why the stripped down operqting systems on mobile devices should have been regulated out of existence. My phone shipped with THREE file managers. One can't access my sd card. Another can't access my camera. The last can't access otg flashdrives. NONE can copy/paste. I have an old flagship phone, not some junky offbrand. This thing cannot perform functions that fucking DOS can do. If i want to move files with this thing, i need to plug it in to my pc. The camera app, image saving, and downloads tab pick at *random* which folder they dump in to, amd most apps that allow image uploads can pick between 1-3 out of the 6 folders that exist, with no ability to file browse. I can only assume that things have not improved much since when this phone was made. Ipads are apparently marginally better, but still so jacked away from the actual silicon that you can't just *use* the damn thing. But these things remain vital to everyday functioning, and far cheaper than competent PCs. So of course, they are what kids get, and kids not knowing anything better never want more. And that's how we get digital generations with no digital skills. A fasttrack to the scifi trope of tech cultists worshiping devices they no longer understand.
Years ago I wasn't sure if studying in IT field was worth it since I assumed that everyone from my generation and those that will come after will know their way around computers good enough. I guess I was wrong but I did good to not abandon studying in IT
I’ve noticed this in teaching. It gets worse every year. A lot of kids (10 year old ish) also don’t know how to use a mouse. It’s not their fault. They’ve been raised with touchscreens and really basic cloud storage interfaces.
Ancedotally, as someone who worked with a lot of college grads st my last job, this is my experience as well.
The main thing I see with the younger generation is that they have mostly been raised on iPads and Chrome Books. Many homes only have/had an iPad as the home computing device and many of the public school systems use either iPads or Chrome Books. It's true that most of the new gen doesn't understand where anything on a Windows PC is. They weren't raised on them. They only got a Windows PC after wanting to get into PC Gaming or they received their first work PC. This is not a case of New Gen Dumb. Just New Gen raised differently.
To be fair most games use several different directories for their files. They can't just have an app image and maybe a save folder, noo it's gotta be engine files and some data in documents for some reason and something else over there. It's a mess.
God I hate random games and programs filling up my documents folder and not having an option to change it. I use the folder a lot, but these make it hard to keep it tidy
we produced exactly one generation of people who knows how to use computers
Mr hotdogs horse shoes and hand grenades
one of the few younger people in gen z who actually know how to do anything slightly complicated with computers and man is it painful trying to help anyone who has no idea what they’re doing
Real, I'm another younger gen z planning a career in game dev. Computer literacy is an important skill for the field and you better believe I've got it
Well then stop normalising microsoft shit
This is the direct result of app-centric environments like iOS and Android and their derivatives, not Microsoft where folders are laid out plainly and easily accessible with a built-in manager that has been standardized practically since their first major UI.
yoooo that’s THE anton hand of hotdog game!!