this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2025
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screenshot, probably from Ex-Twitter but I saw it on NOSTR, showing a guy saying that training a zoomer to use a PC at work is as difficult as training a boomer, with a reply indicating that there is only one generation that can rotate a PDF and that knowledge dies with us

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[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Zoomer in computer science here: I've noticed that there are two types of people in my age range, you have the people who are really passionate about technology for the sake of being technology and want to know how things work under the hood (like me) and people who see technology only as a means to accomlish a goal like writing a document, maintaining a social media presence, playing a game, etc, and can't care less about how it actually works.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the latter, but there can be conflict between the two groups because their priorities are completely different.

This is not unique to technology and you see this in other fields too. For example, you have the car enthusiasts who do their own oil changes and are constantly tuning up their cars, installing aftermarket mods, etc, and then you have everyone else who see cars as just a way of getting to where they need to go, have never even opened the engine compartment, and bring it into the shop when the scary lights on the dashboard appear.

[–] AHorseWithNoNeigh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Training some younger people at work: "click the cog in the corner to pull up the settings". "What's a 'cog'?" Some things people miss out on life when you've never seen a Jetsons episode.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've never seen an icon of a single cog. Multiple cogs on a hub forming a gear, sure, but never just a cog.

[–] rigatti@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Huh? The single cog is the standard for settings menus. Just looking at three random apps on my phone, they all had single cog icons.

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[–] mub@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I just described a cog as a circle with teeth and my son thought it was funny to call the sticky out bits as teeth.

I'm just hoping he doesn't ask about crenellations next.

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[–] Magister@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

True, and Alpha are even worst, most of them never touched a real keyboard, only use 2 thumbs on a phone. Don't tell them about windows (or/mac/linux) or what is a UI or how to use a mouse and navigate in a OS, they don't get double click or right click, resize a window, minimize a window (OMG THE WINDOW IS GONE!!!!) it's impressive.

I have seen a lot of late Z/early Alpha who cannot make some special characters on a keyboard like " or $ or even worst using AltCar. Using Word to write a letter, using keyboard shortcuts, etc. they are completely clueless with computers.

[–] veroxii@aussie.zone 1 points 2 months ago

Look I don't doubt you've met these people but it's not everywhere. Here in Australia the kids still learn this at school.

My daughter is in primary school and they've learned to use a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software etc.

So they can all use a keyboard and mouse and she's done some school projects as PowerPoint slideshows.

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

A good way to get a feel for how these Alpha kids probably feel is to use something un-Windowsy like RiscOS. I felt similarly helpless

[–] Dreaming_Novaling@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 months ago

Me and a classmate were absolutely stunned when we saw this girl typing in her password, and using Caps Lock to do uppercase letters instead of shift. We looked at her like, "WTF are you doing?" And she seriously did not know what the shift button was for.

I just don't know how nobody showed or told her this before, and we're in college...

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I work on a help desk. We hired multiple Zoomers and they literally don't understand how computers work. They don't know what the registry is. Or what POST means. Or how to properly back up a user's data without using automated software.

They're fucking dumb. Nice. But dumb.

[–] rigatti@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

To be fair, I'm a millenial who's fairly tech savvy and I barely know what POST means. Then again, I don't work in IT.

[–] i_am_hiding@aussie.zone 1 points 2 months ago

To be fair, POST could mean a number of things. Are we talking in a webserver context? BIOS context? The POST Office?

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why would someone on a help desk be expected to know what POST is? A software engineer, sure, but helpdesk? If it's needed knowledge…that's what training is for. Businesses' expectation that people will come into the job already knowing exactly how you do things and never require on-the-job training is absurd.

[–] jonc211@programming.dev 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Guessing they’re talking about Power-On Self Test rather than the HTTP verb. I’m assuming you were thinking of the latter given you mentioned a software engineer.

[–] lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Half of software engineers don't know what a POST is either

[–] piratekaiser@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Software engineer here, can confirm I've never received anything by post in my life, it's always couriers. My assumption is that post stamps are boomer NFTs.

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[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Lot of boomer-like fist shaking in these comments.

Newer generations are going to find different things to excel at, and they'll inevitably give up on some of the old ways.

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[–] TVA@thebrainbin.org 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

In my experience, Zoomers largely lack a lot of computer skills (specifically in troubleshooting), but, for me the huge difference between them and the older folks has been that the older folks will say things like "I'm just not a computer person ::laugh::" and refuse to be shown how to do anything whereas the Zoomer just doesn't know, yet, but are more than willing to learn.

ETA: NOTE: that's just the generalized trend ... some of the most knowledgeable technical people I've met are Boomers and some of the best computer techs I've worked with have been Zoomers.

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 0 points 2 months ago (8 children)

Oh god this was my previous colleague. "Hey MBech, mind showing me how I do this thing in Excel you've shown me 100 times?" Sure thing, but at least try to remember. He even told me he forgets it instantly because he just doesn't give a shit about computer stuff. Then you probably shouldn't have a job that has you working on a computer 90% of the time.

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[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I started as a graphic designer back in November with absolutely zero experience. It's crazy being whown how to do stuff in Adobe suite by a 68 year old man

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