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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)

#111

Post by judge2020 »

porknubbins wrote: post #83
tmpz22 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with your summary I think the OP brushes against another point I think is really important: a large number of users do not care to optimize their own experience for ~some~ reason, even when the lack of optimization has a significant opportunity cost. As software developers we pull our hair out trying to architect around this issue... and we usually fail hard. I could guess an infinity of potential cause…

I never change default settings like remapping keys on IDEs and things, of course I use plugins but I always learn the defaults because its way too much of a pain to re-customize every version between all my machines at work home and VMs, if I can even remember the settings.

The farthest i'll go is changing everything to the keymap i'm familiar with, if possible. Thankfully the VS Code marketplace supports sharing premade keymaps :)

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

#112

Post by BubRoss »

tapland wrote: post #52
rc-5 wrote: post #32

Allow me to preface this by saying that I am, in fact, a teen, and absolutely do not represent the majority of teenagers. This post is a generalization and a subjective rant that absolutely doesn't hold up in real life. >>>When you explain what happens under the hood, they will ignore you. When you tell them what a certain setting probably does, they will ignore you. In my experience, although there may be some teena…

I think you are missing where the author is coming from. People knew how to use websites and applications in the early 2000s as well, but with the advent of home computers, WWW and smartphones there was a widespread belief that, by nature of being surrounded by tech, young people would automatically learn how it worked under the surface and possess an inherent fluency in IT. That didn't happen. It's still people inte…

> there was a widespread belief that, by nature of being surrounded by tech, young people would automatically learn how it worked under the surface and possess an inherent fluency in IT.

Over the course of the last 25 years, I've never heard that expectation anywhere. There was always a mentality that computers would keep getting easier to use, which is completely true. There was always the idea that kids would integrate computers into their lives from the start, which is also true.

I never heard anyone say that kids born in the late 90s would somehow in general understand the inner working of computers.

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

#113

Post by pagutierrezn »

derefr wrote: post #73
tapland wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are missing where the author is coming from. People knew how to use websites and applications in the early 2000s as well, but with the advent of home computers, WWW and smartphones there was a widespread belief that, by nature of being surrounded by tech, young people would automatically learn how it worked under the surface and possess an inherent fluency in IT. That didn't happen. It's still people inte…

On the other hand, a lot of things that seemed hard really did just turn out to be unfamiliar. Word processing, for example: if you expect a five-year-old to learn it as a matter of course on the way to do other things, they can and will. There's probably a bunch of things like that. Little things. Kids know how to set reminders/create calendar events. Teens can intuit the usage of ACLs in multi-channel group chats l…

>Anyone born in the last 25 years will intuitively think to search for a video tutorial for any new micro-skill. Etc.

But many kids have difficulties adquiring a new skill that requires reading because videos are not enough

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

#115

Post by rileytg »

voldacar wrote: post #114

I unironically find green text on a black background really nice to read, it contrasts well without being fatiguing on the eyes like dark text on light background. not sure what the author is on about

i don’t really like anything else... maybe it’s because we grew up on it?

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

#116

Post by fl0wenol »

voldacar wrote: post #114

I unironically find green text on a black background really nice to read, it contrasts well without being fatiguing on the eyes like dark text on light background. not sure what the author is on about

I prefer beige/amber and black because I don't like too much color saturation and I feel it's a wee bit easier on the eyes. Like the default colors in CDE on Solaris.

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

#117

Post by akiselev »

awad wrote: post #98
rootsudo wrote: post #31

I am happy that I grew up in the golden age of computing - people say it was the 80's, but being a "90's" kid, we had classes from HTML w/ dreamweaver, how to modify/break windows 95/98 --- In fact in NYC, my elementary school had keyboard class where you'd learn to type and general proficiency w/ a computer. In Florida, middle school photoshop, dreamweaver, fireworks and even access database. High school had C++ cla…

This encapsulates my coming of age in computing perfectly, to an eerie level of specificity. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Down to the Neopets tables and divs...

I remember making a lot of in game currency for building out people's pages. I don't even remember any details about the core mechanics of the game but that part stuck with me.

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

#118

Post by csdreamer7 »

jcranmer wrote: post #91
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Word is not a text editor. Neither is Excel a list editor or a database. The inscrutable features of these tools have an actual purpose for the minority of users that need them.

There are lots of people who use Excel spreadsheets as databases. Just as there are lots of people who use Word for nothing more than editing (sometimes rich) text.

Indeed, I am a dev that codes Ruby on Rails and Python apps with PostgreSQL (and MySQL a while ago).

I was reviewing a book and just used a Libreoffice spreadsheet for vocab terms. One column for the word, one column for the description. Wrote a macro and made a button on the spreadsheet to sort the words for me.

A lot easier than making a CRUD interface ontop of a Base database. If I want to add a third column, categories, I can just enter the word and press enter for the next row. No need to jump between interfaces that need to save and error check.

Plus I can just export the data to a CSV and that a custom app, like a flashcard app, can test me randomly on.

Or can I just make a macro that does that for me?

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

#119

Post by vengefulduck »

TeaDude wrote: post #104

You want to know who's fault this is? Yours, whoever wrote this article. It constantly complains that modern teens barely touch anything underneath the surface in tech but ironically completely smears over any of the underlying issues. Let's have a think... Do any of the mainstream tech publications cover low level programming? No. Are any low level computer skills taught in college or other mainstream programming co…

Hate to break it to you, but I’m in college learning C and assembly right now, don’t know how much lower level you can get.

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

#120

Post by ryukafalz »

theLotusGambit wrote: post #16

> 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!

That “esoteric nonsense” is how all this stuff actually works, and if you don’t have a grasp on the basics, it’s hard to tell when you’re being taken advantage of. (And these days, it feels like everyone’s looking to take advantage of unsuspecting users.)
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