this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
250 points (94.0% liked)

4chan

4877 readers
586 users here now

Greentexts, memes, everything 4chan.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] yeahiknow3@lemmings.world 21 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (2 children)

I work with college students all day. They are computer illiterate. It’s like working with the old. Generalizations are sometimes kinda true.

[–] Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 15 points 18 hours ago

Cool, I ALSO work with college age kids all day and they navigate/troubleshoot our software fine.

I guess our two completely useless anecdotes will now cancel out into irrelevance.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I work with new hires all day and they're doing great.

[–] yeahiknow3@lemmings.world 7 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

I’m not sure why you find it controversial to observe that older people, who grew up without computers, and younger people, who’re also growing up without using computers, are two groups of people that tend to suck at using computers.

This kind of generalization matters. For instance, when designing education policy.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

why you find it controversial

It's not controversial, just inaccurate.

Again, like doggedly insisting nobody born after 1980 knows how to fix a car.

You've bought into a dogmatic piece of online propaganda. You're not living in the real world.

[–] yeahiknow3@lemmings.world 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Perhaps you’re right and the widespread use of iPads and smartphones isn’t interfering with computer literacy. My impression as someone who works in education is that it’s interfering with computer literacy.

I also want to point out that my generation, millennials, were indeed much less inclined to fix their own cars (understandably).

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

widespread use of iPads and smartphones isn’t interfering with computer literacy.

I see that hypothesis, but it glazes over the more glaring transition - widespread adoption of cheap electronics, generally speaking.

The iPhone premiered in 2007 at something like $300-500. Most people couldn't afford that. It was another five years before you started seeing rudimentary budget brand smartphones.

We've got far more tech literates today thanks to the abundance of cheap hardware. The expectation for tech literacy has risen with this proliferation.

my generation, millennials, were indeed much less inclined to fix their own cars

And that's why auto shops no longer exist or are run exclusively by geriatrics? :-p

Quite a few millennial age auto mechanics exist today. Quite a few GenZ/Alpha aspiring mechanics exist.

You just don't find them in the upper class suburbs or state university campuses.