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.
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.