I’ve seen so many people on the “Only Millennials know how to use computers” and just kinda forgetting how many of this cohort didn’t get their hands on a computer until that first generation of Apples and Dells ended up in resale shops or on eBay for deep discounts.
So many folks who see kids on touch screens and throw fits, because that’s not how a “real computer” works, were throwing fits at their parents ten years ago for not understand how intuitive a touch screen is.
Feels like its all an excuse for people to get mad at one another, while occluding the simple fact that using a thing for a long time gives you more experience with the thing.
Yes, people keep finding ways to put others down in order to feel superior. It’s called being a bully. When everything was “blame and shame millenials for this”, there was a section of us millenials that swore we’d break the cycle of generational blaming. Now it’s all about blaming and shaming Gen-Z, because that shit gets clicks. Apparently being a bully never really goes out of style.
It’s not really so much the form factor of the hardware. I think it’s more to do with the increasing complexity of the apps and how they’re designed to hide a lot of what goes on behind the scenes. Think about how the earliest versions of Android didn’t even come with a basic file browser, for example.
It’s the overall push to turn computers into single-use appliances, rather than general purpose devices.
Think about how the earliest versions of Android didn’t even come with a basic file browser, for example.
They didn’t offer an official app, but the Google Store was flooded with 3rd party alternatives practically the day the OS was released.
Even then, knowing what an “App Store” is and how/why you’d use it is a skill more common among younger users. My mother, who happily goes on her laptop and installs all sorts of garbage, had no idea how to add an app to her phone. My younger coworkers are much more comfortable working through Citrix and other Cloud Services, because they don’t expect a file system to be living under every app they use.
It’s the overall push to turn computers into single-use appliances, rather than general purpose devices.
I more felt that the phone was becoming a kind of mono-device or universal remote, with a lot of the IoT tech trying to turn it into an interface for every other kind of physical appliance. If anything, I feel like the phone does too much. As a result, its interface has to become more digital and generic and uniform in a way that makes using distinct applications and operations confusingly vague.
But growing up in an analog world has definitely tilted my expectations. Younger people seem perfectly fine with syncing their phones to anything with a receiver or RFID tag. And the particularly savvy ones seem interested in exploiting the fact that everything has a frequency. I’ve met more than a few kids who have fucked around with the Flipper and other wireless receiver gadgets.
Absolutely. But I don’t think it’s crucial. If you test a bunch of 30 year olds on tech literacy and one started using a computer at 29, he will perform bad. But if you test a child at 12 who has had a pc for 2 years and a 30 year old person who has had a pc for 2 years, it becomes so irrelevant that just interest in the topic will determine the outcome. Though children do of course find everything interesting.
I think the reason why we have the perception about children learning fast is due to focus. They have unique abilities with their new little unstuffed heads, while a grown up will worry about not understand, thinking about something else entirely, not having time etc…
I mean younger brains do have more neuroplasticity and other factors, hence it’s easier for children to learn more languages than adults. I assume this applies to more than just language.
it’s easier for children to learn more languages than adults
Kids are also assumed to operate at a child’s language level. So an 8-year-old speaking both English and Spanish at the 1st grade level is impressive. But a 20-year-old speaking at a 1st grade level is considered remedial.
Even then, there’s a lot to be said for experience. Computers and languages alike benefit from years of exposure. A large English vocabulary will help you pick up Spanish faster. And many years of experience on an Apple will clue you into tricks a naive Windows/Linux user would never consider.
I remember my dad trying to limit my screen time by putting a password lock on the screen saver. He was shocked to discover that an eight year old figured out how to evade it by… restarting the computer. But then he enabled password on restart and got cagey when typing it in, and that slowed my Hackerman attempts down significantly.
Kids tend to learn basic things faster. But they lack the breadth of experience to recall and apply strategies and patterns they’ve accrued over a lifetime. So much of what we consider “smart” versus “dumb” in problem solving is just “how many times have you already seen the answer to this question applied successfully?” Figuring something out for the first time is always harder than applying the heuristic you’ve been using half your life.
You raise really good points, but I’d want to add that abstract thought and the general ability to “think around corners” are at least as important (if not more so the higher you go) as experience insofar as problem solving and “smarts” go.
They do have more neuroplasticity. But we have to define what that means and where this phenomenon comes from. Most just assume that younger equals better. This is not the case. You can even keep the neuroplasticity you have had as a child. One of the defining characteristics of neuroplasticity is the ability to adapt to new views. Since children have no views yet, they have no conflicting views either, causing acceptance. This is not the case with adults. But you can instrumentalize such knowledge to essentially undo your conflicting nature to increase neuroplasticity immensely. There is a cutoff and you will have a drop in potential for neuroplasticity as you age, but this is not in your child years. If you’re interested, I remember reading a study of life-long meditation on alzheimers. Maybe you can find them again. This is just one technique to increase neuroplasticity. I didn’t want to mention this part, as it is against common knowledge. But common knowledge is rarely correct.
Source: I have had to deal with significant loss of neural function through mental illness and have read up a lot about this topic to better myself.
Ah, that’s true and I misunderstood you then. Though it’s hard for me to understand how that implies tech literacy in a total sense, since my grandpa has had a pc in and from the 20th century and while literate on tech given his generation, he is really not comparable to gen y-alpha. I would also wonder how this compares to devs, since most of them grow up relatively the same. PC in front of them, seeing code, monkey see monkey do, wam bam bap, software developer. I am in my 20s so I do not have knowledge about the first personal computers.
Agreed, I think it’s the main thing. My parents at the very least were firm believers in using computers from an early age, so as far back as I could remember I had my own PowerMac G3. With the rad blue monitor and round mouse.
I think that when you started matters a lot.
I’ve seen so many people on the “Only Millennials know how to use computers” and just kinda forgetting how many of this cohort didn’t get their hands on a computer until that first generation of Apples and Dells ended up in resale shops or on eBay for deep discounts.
So many folks who see kids on touch screens and throw fits, because that’s not how a “real computer” works, were throwing fits at their parents ten years ago for not understand how intuitive a touch screen is.
Feels like its all an excuse for people to get mad at one another, while occluding the simple fact that using a thing for a long time gives you more experience with the thing.
Yes, people keep finding ways to put others down in order to feel superior. It’s called being a bully. When everything was “blame and shame millenials for this”, there was a section of us millenials that swore we’d break the cycle of generational blaming. Now it’s all about blaming and shaming Gen-Z, because that shit gets clicks. Apparently being a bully never really goes out of style.
It’s not really so much the form factor of the hardware. I think it’s more to do with the increasing complexity of the apps and how they’re designed to hide a lot of what goes on behind the scenes. Think about how the earliest versions of Android didn’t even come with a basic file browser, for example.
It’s the overall push to turn computers into single-use appliances, rather than general purpose devices.
They didn’t offer an official app, but the Google Store was flooded with 3rd party alternatives practically the day the OS was released.
Even then, knowing what an “App Store” is and how/why you’d use it is a skill more common among younger users. My mother, who happily goes on her laptop and installs all sorts of garbage, had no idea how to add an app to her phone. My younger coworkers are much more comfortable working through Citrix and other Cloud Services, because they don’t expect a file system to be living under every app they use.
I more felt that the phone was becoming a kind of mono-device or universal remote, with a lot of the IoT tech trying to turn it into an interface for every other kind of physical appliance. If anything, I feel like the phone does too much. As a result, its interface has to become more digital and generic and uniform in a way that makes using distinct applications and operations confusingly vague.
But growing up in an analog world has definitely tilted my expectations. Younger people seem perfectly fine with syncing their phones to anything with a receiver or RFID tag. And the particularly savvy ones seem interested in exploiting the fact that everything has a frequency. I’ve met more than a few kids who have fucked around with the Flipper and other wireless receiver gadgets.
Absolutely. But I don’t think it’s crucial. If you test a bunch of 30 year olds on tech literacy and one started using a computer at 29, he will perform bad. But if you test a child at 12 who has had a pc for 2 years and a 30 year old person who has had a pc for 2 years, it becomes so irrelevant that just interest in the topic will determine the outcome. Though children do of course find everything interesting.
I think the reason why we have the perception about children learning fast is due to focus. They have unique abilities with their new little unstuffed heads, while a grown up will worry about not understand, thinking about something else entirely, not having time etc…
I mean younger brains do have more neuroplasticity and other factors, hence it’s easier for children to learn more languages than adults. I assume this applies to more than just language.
Kids are also assumed to operate at a child’s language level. So an 8-year-old speaking both English and Spanish at the 1st grade level is impressive. But a 20-year-old speaking at a 1st grade level is considered remedial.
Even then, there’s a lot to be said for experience. Computers and languages alike benefit from years of exposure. A large English vocabulary will help you pick up Spanish faster. And many years of experience on an Apple will clue you into tricks a naive Windows/Linux user would never consider.
I remember my dad trying to limit my screen time by putting a password lock on the screen saver. He was shocked to discover that an eight year old figured out how to evade it by… restarting the computer. But then he enabled password on restart and got cagey when typing it in, and that slowed my Hackerman attempts down significantly.
Kids tend to learn basic things faster. But they lack the breadth of experience to recall and apply strategies and patterns they’ve accrued over a lifetime. So much of what we consider “smart” versus “dumb” in problem solving is just “how many times have you already seen the answer to this question applied successfully?” Figuring something out for the first time is always harder than applying the heuristic you’ve been using half your life.
You raise really good points, but I’d want to add that abstract thought and the general ability to “think around corners” are at least as important (if not more so the higher you go) as experience insofar as problem solving and “smarts” go.
They do have more neuroplasticity. But we have to define what that means and where this phenomenon comes from. Most just assume that younger equals better. This is not the case. You can even keep the neuroplasticity you have had as a child. One of the defining characteristics of neuroplasticity is the ability to adapt to new views. Since children have no views yet, they have no conflicting views either, causing acceptance. This is not the case with adults. But you can instrumentalize such knowledge to essentially undo your conflicting nature to increase neuroplasticity immensely. There is a cutoff and you will have a drop in potential for neuroplasticity as you age, but this is not in your child years. If you’re interested, I remember reading a study of life-long meditation on alzheimers. Maybe you can find them again. This is just one technique to increase neuroplasticity. I didn’t want to mention this part, as it is against common knowledge. But common knowledge is rarely correct.
Source: I have had to deal with significant loss of neural function through mental illness and have read up a lot about this topic to better myself.
I meant more that it makes a difference if your first computer was a Macintosh SE vs a MacBook Air.
Yeah my thought exactly I was raised on Macintosh and it’s completely different than the current apple product experience.
Ah, that’s true and I misunderstood you then. Though it’s hard for me to understand how that implies tech literacy in a total sense, since my grandpa has had a pc in and from the 20th century and while literate on tech given his generation, he is really not comparable to gen y-alpha. I would also wonder how this compares to devs, since most of them grow up relatively the same. PC in front of them, seeing code, monkey see monkey do, wam bam bap, software developer. I am in my 20s so I do not have knowledge about the first personal computers.
Agreed, I think it’s the main thing. My parents at the very least were firm believers in using computers from an early age, so as far back as I could remember I had my own PowerMac G3. With the rad blue monitor and round mouse.