I had hoped that as most younger adults now were kids who grew up with computers, the average person would have a pretty good understanding of how they work. I never expected everyone to be a programmer or sysadmin of course, but to have a general sense of things like whether data is stored on their device or remotely, how to find out if an app install is risky, and whether a prompt requesting permissions, a password, etc… is reasonable.
For the most part, I don’t think that has happened. The average person doesn’t know how to use a computer and isn’t going to learn.
I’m afraid peak computer literacy and hygiene is past us now. Younger folks are so used to everything just working, that the vast majority don’t care or are willing to find out how things work. (Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of boomers, gen-x and millennials aren’t much better, but tend to have more of a healthy suspicion because of their analog youths.)
I work at a major university. Everything became a black box and now if there is no output, students born circa 2002-2006, who are otherwise very bright, don’t know how to navigate it.
Is it possible this is because of Apple though? Feels like a whole generation is coming of age that we’re told they were too dumb to figure out settings and to just let papa Apple take care of all that nerd shit.
I had hoped that as most younger adults now were kids who grew up with computers, the average person would have a pretty good understanding of how they work. I never expected everyone to be a programmer or sysadmin of course, but to have a general sense of things like whether data is stored on their device or remotely, how to find out if an app install is risky, and whether a prompt requesting permissions, a password, etc… is reasonable.
For the most part, I don’t think that has happened. The average person doesn’t know how to use a computer and isn’t going to learn.
I’m afraid peak computer literacy and hygiene is past us now. Younger folks are so used to everything just working, that the vast majority don’t care or are willing to find out how things work. (Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of boomers, gen-x and millennials aren’t much better, but tend to have more of a healthy suspicion because of their analog youths.)
boomers and gen x absolutely do not have any healthy suspicion lmao, especially boomers
I work at a major university. Everything became a black box and now if there is no output, students born circa 2002-2006, who are otherwise very bright, don’t know how to navigate it.
Is it possible this is because of Apple though? Feels like a whole generation is coming of age that we’re told they were too dumb to figure out settings and to just let papa Apple take care of all that nerd shit.
Nope, that would make it a mostly US thing, but it’s not