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Teens don't have a clue about IT? (2016)

blog.mysunland.org

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Re: Teens don't have a clue about IT? (2016)

#11

Post by cuddlybacon »

When I was in school, there were computer classes from grades 6 until 12. It covered topics like typing, keyboard shortcuts, internet browsing, internet research, and basics in more advanced topics like Photoshop and programming.

By the time my sister, who is 7 years younger than me, got to school that was mostly gone. It was cut back "because kids just know that stuff".

Re: Teens don't have a clue about IT? (2016)

#13

Post by gumby »

They don't know what their car's choke would have been, or what a dwell tach is. So? They can still drive. Not one in 100,000 could milk a cow.

I write assembly code that runs in supervisory mode. My kid couldn't write assembly code to save his life, but just taught me a new algorithm I'd never seen before. And he could learn assembly if he wanted.

Re: Teens don't have a clue about IT? (2016)

#15

Post by choward »

tpmx wrote: post #10
joezydeco wrote: post #9

The motivation is different, that’s all. When we were kids we needed to learn to hack DOS and Windows because our games wouldn’t run without them. Hard drive crashes, SCANDISK, reinstalls, fucked up drivers... whatever it took. My kids can’t fix Win10 but now they know their way around web filters and how to hack Screen Time to bypass the shutoff. They’re trading pirated movies in gDrive and doing all kids of other s…

The abstraction layers they are (typically) comfortable with have shifted 1 or 2 levels up.

Those level ups are pretty bad though. They take you from owning your data and devices to third parties having complete control.

Re: Teens don't have a clue about IT? (2016)

#16

Post by theLotusGambit »

> Why do the teens of today think this? Because simply, they don’t care. All they want is a computer that works, and that runs their text messaging, anti-privacy and social media apps.

Wanting technology to just work without having to deal with esoteric nonsense? How childish!

Re: Teens don't have a clue about IT? (2016)

#17

Post by kdamica »

I think there's a point to be made here that proficiency with UI is often conflated with technical understanding by nontechnical people, but I'm not sure the point about teens is well-founded. Specifically, while it's probably true that teens don't understand IT, neither do the vast majority of adults. I'd love to see some data on this.

Re: Teens don't have a clue about IT? (2016)

#18

Post by vidanay »

joezydeco wrote: post #9

The motivation is different, that’s all. When we were kids we needed to learn to hack DOS and Windows because our games wouldn’t run without them. Hard drive crashes, SCANDISK, reinstalls, fucked up drivers... whatever it took. My kids can’t fix Win10 but now they know their way around web filters and how to hack Screen Time to bypass the shutoff. They’re trading pirated movies in gDrive and doing all kids of other s…

I'd rather be like my kid and worry about making sure his Fortnite is updated than playing the HIMEM.sys jigsaw puzzle that I had to.

Re: Teens don't have a clue about IT? (2016)

#19

Post by rdiddly »

Kind of like every other demographic. But yeah definitely don't make the mistake of assuming tech knowledge is inversely proportional to age. Otherwise it'd be like we're all coming out the womb writing assembly language and by age 50 we can't even work a toaster.

Re: Teens don't have a clue about IT? (2016)

#20

Post by pnathan »

I've observed this myself. A lot of the computer studies stuff for high schoolers in the 1990s was "How To Use Word", I don't imagine its gotten better since.

> Using green text on a black background is not only obnoxious but also hard to read.

speak for yourself. :-)

> they don’t care. All they want is a computer that works,

This isn't actually an unreasonable ask. It's roughly identical to cars, phones, and other tools.

The author's original point - that teens aren't gurus - is quite excellent.

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