cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27501866
source: @n7gifmdn@lemmy.ca
It's the 1% vs the working class, not generation vs generation.
this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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iiiiiiitttttttttttt
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you know the computer thing is it plugged in?
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I am a zoomer, and this generation as a whole is a lot worse at technology.
Its not something that's happened for no reason, smartphones become more popular and simple to use technology, and older people assuming these people will be good with tech as they grew up with it are big factors.
The 1% is causing a lot of problems, but this largely isn't by them.
Don't feel bad. Every generation thinks their tech is the peak of technology, older tech is slow and useless, new tech is fancy, dumbed down, and unnecessary.
Heck, I already got called ancient because I ran NSLOOKUP from the command line instead of going to a website and having their page run the command from a GUI.
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I never blame kids for the young adults they become. When zoomers don’t understand tech, it’s because the adults have a) dumbed down all the tech in their lives to the point of designing and selling purely passive consumption machines, and b) sucked all the inquisitiveness out of kids ability to learn. If you put real computers around kids, and share genuine excitement at learning things and making stuff, they absorb it like a sponge.
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As an IT worker.. it's so depressing that our education systems don't really train people for work. At all.
"sure, they grew up with technology, they'll be fine"
They grew up in the age of the smartphone and apps. They never had to learn to understand technology.
I have to teach fresh college graduates how to navigate network folders. It's wild.
I teach high school and it's amazing to me how much these kids don't know how to use a computer. They can click a button and get to tik-tok. They read the first answer the AI gives them. That's it.
I keep telling them they should be better at computers than an old lady like me.
They read the first answer the AI gives them.
This is why Im terrified of my parents learning how to use ChatGPT.
My dad still falls for satire. It took us years to convince him the tabloids in supermarkets about Bigfoot weren't real.
He's not a smart guy. But He's still my dad though.
Your comment made me think:
It’s one thing if they aren’t great at using computers to be productive, but for the love of God children please don’t trust what the computer or the company selling it tells you!
I've long said that I believe Millennials, as a generational cohort, are the best at typing that ever has been and ever will be. We were the first generation where adults really recognized that we'd be using computers our entire lives and took steps to teach typing. But, so much more importantly than that, we socialized through typing. I had typing classes in school, sure, but I learned to type quickly on AIM and in chat rooms.
Earlier generations only really typed for business or school. Later generations socialize over phones, so they, too, only use a physical keyboard for school and business.
I guess I should amend this theory to include all tech literacy in general.
There wasn't voice Chat in early games and you had to type fast to communicate and not die.
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Typing was taught to boomers and genx first dude. In fact, as a liminal i'd readily say i've had an arseload more typing "teaching" than you have - both keyboard and typewriter- and i'll wager my mother in the age of typewriters had even more.
I took typing class in high school. On a typewriter. Gen X. My mom was a trained stenographer in her younger years.
X here as well. But 78. So i got to take advantage of the digital age without having my teen stupidity immortalised on it. Truly the sweetest of spots.
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I think you're missing my point. I'm not saying nobody ever was taught to type in earlier generations. I'm saying that millennials were the first where there was a widespread recognition that typing was a valuable skill EVERYONE needed to learn, regardless of your future life path. Of course there were people getting trained to type ever since the first keyboards were invented. I mean, there were people as long ago as the 1870s learning to type on the earliest mass-produced typewriters.
I'm talking about a generational cohort as a whole, not individual select cases.
And I'm also talking about the difference between typing being a skill you learn for school/work vs something you use for socialization.
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The typewriter generation are probably faster overall because they don't make mistakes.
Being able to delete any error makes you far less careful.
Sure, modern programs will autocorrect for you, but autocorrect to what?
Yeah, it was funny teaching my grandmother to use a computer... She couldn't use a mouse, but she typed really fast!
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As a Zoomer, I also had typing classes, but I learned how to type because I wanted to be able to quickly send messages in Minecraft when I was like 7 years old 🙃
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Classic Lemmy Linux users forgetting that access to a PC and the knowledge to use it is a privilege not afforded to most unlike budget smartphones which cost less than the keyboard you own and are becoming more and more of a necessity than a trivial toy as it was when we first had them.
Lamenting generational failures is a pastime reserved for the old to soothe their egos. If you actually care, understand the systemic reasons why young people are less tech literate and take the steps to reach them.
I understand the reasons, but so many people I've had to deal with don't seem to want to learn.
Bingo. I have noticed a huge downfall in curiosity and engagement with not only technology, but pretty much everything in the world. People just want to be spoon-fed and will fight you throw a hissy fit rather than just... learn or make an effort to figure things out on their own.
I used to be a part of a DIY repair space for tech and mechanics and left because around 2022 it went from fun to just... a bunch of lazy people showing up and whining that other people were not doing the work for them. And you'd explain it was a DIY space for people to self-learn and they would just give you this vague look and get angry and then complain that 'I thought you were suppose to do it for me.'
I don't know what it is, social media or phone addiction or what. It seems to be just as bad will millennials now as any other gen. People just... don't want to try anymore at anything. And trying is the only way you properly learn anything.
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Most people carry a smartphone more expensive than my all organs combined to be fair, at least in US.
Linux and technology in general is not that hard as long as you aren't scared of clicking everything and messing around. And I say this as someone who didn't have internet access until 2020.
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I am gen z and know how to use a computer
Most of us should have been taught how to use computers in school then we expand our knowledge from there on our own
Is this an american only problem?
I'm not American. I'm also Gen z, but the older parts are typically better at computers.
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Gen X checking in here. I’m actually happy to be left out of the memes. Carry on.
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I felt like an idiot the other day. Customer sent in a pdf with confidential information. I needed to upload the document without the confidential information but only have the free Adobe. I normally redact the information in paint but paint wouldn't accept the file format.
I ended up asking a gen x teammate and she instantly told me to use the snipping tool which solved my problem. Thank you Gen X coworkers
As a dev, the divide between apps users and computer software users is fascinating. My mom can do things in instagram or whatsapp that I didn't even know possible.. but put her in front of a modern computer with a simple application and she's completely lost! I try to explain that it's exactly the same as her phone its just a larger screen/physical keybaord with different apps, doesn't seem to help.
Unlike with boomers, this shit was your fault. Y'all refused to kill off iPhone and macbooks and chromebooks and Windows and now this is the world we live in.
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