this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2024
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People believe just because someone interacts with some sort of digital device, it makes you an expert on computers. The thing is, it depends on the type of operating system you are interacting with.
For example when I was young, my father would buy those big old gray computers from yard sales. I would mix and match the pieces inside to build my own PC. I broke a lot of shit but learned a lot.
The operating system was one where you more or less had total control over the computer. By 12~13 I was using CD-Roms to load different Linux distros and play around with all sorts of different things.
This experience basically taught me how operating systems work at a fundamental level. How it needs a kernel, how it loads and maintains services, packages, etc. How file systems work and learning how terminals are useful. Scripting languages, and eventually coding applications.
Compare and contrast that to the young kids of today. What do they get? A phone and a tablet. You can't open it up. You can't tinker with it. The OS is closed off and is deliberately made as difficult as possible to modify. No mouse, no keyboard. Streamlined UIs with guard rails.
You get what you get and you don't get upset. That doesn't leave nearly as much room for exploration and curiosity. It's a symptom of our computers becoming more and more railroaded. More and more control by large companies.
It's really sad, I think. Fairly soon I believe every device will be a "thin device" or essentially a chrome book. Very little local processing power and instead it'll essentially stream from a server.
I just want to echo your sentiment with something I've been saying here for a while now:
I will continue to argue that GenX is the only true technology literate generation because we grew up with the technology as it evolved. Future generations are more consumers not partners in the technology they own.
Yea it's a vast generalization but Apple is a good analogy of this. Most people now just want "a technology that works" without any understanding or control over how it works. That's a recipe for technological serfdom under the new generation of technocratic companies designed to own us.
Am I ever going to own a free phone? Probably not, but that doesn't excuse me from at least understanding from a high level all the players involved in my phone and where they're generating value from me.
This is a terrible argument. Technology is always evolving. There have been like 10 different versions of Windows that I've used growing up as a millennial, across 3 different architectures, with huge advances in storage, memory, CPU speeds, and graphics processing - it's pretty ignorant to dismiss all that and claim Gen X "grew up with the technology". Like duh, every generation "grows up with the technology" of their generation.
I think the point I've seen elsewhere on this post is more accurate - every generation has some technologically literate people and some technologically illiterate people. Congrats, you happen to be literate, but I guarantee for every one of you, there's also a Gen X'er that can barely function a computer enough to check their email. Just like the boomer generation, and the millennials, and even Gen Z and Alpha. This whole "XYZ generation is the most ABC" bullshit is just another way to create divides, and make people forget we're all way more alike than we are different.
How did any generation not grow up with the technology as it evolved? Gen X did not invent computers, nor did the Boomers, but every generation made valuable contributions, just as Gen Z will. Again, it is the actions and ideas of gifted individuals that count.
Older Millennial here. I also grew up as technology did. Thank you for reading my T.E.D. talk today.