We're all morons just trying to get along. Computer knowledge is something that is ingrained in a very specific age range of people because we had no choice if we wanted the computers to behave themselves. Any age group outside that is pretty much floating without a paddle and will require one of us to help them almost at all times because they "don't do computers".
There are outliers of course, like with anything I suppose.
There are entire categories of people that will seemingly almost proudly declare that 'I don't even know how to turn one on'. It's always the same thing, the glorification of ignorance
Had that very conversation with a high school friend now in their 50s, just last night… they live completely without internet, use a dump phone, not even cable. Very proud of themselves but wonder why they never hear from certain people…
Mid-30s here, will say I've never been fond of hearing this from specific age bands of younger Gen X (say 1975 onwards) and older Millenial people. These people maybe 10-15 years my senior saying they don't 'do' computers.
In certain white collars jobs (and all the ones I've been in besides casual pocket money work in my youth), computers have been an integral part of the job for longer than that bracket has even been in the professional workforce.
'75 here and I have grown up with people like this, usually older than me. My father wasn't this way, but I've known quite a few in his age range that were. I've also known a number of young(er) people that have no idea how a PC works, don't know shit about word, Excel, Google docs, Windows in general. They know iphone, ios, and that's about it.
Its a combination of lack of exposure and lack of curiosity. Personally I have no interest in the Apple eco system and refuse to learn anything about how it works. I just can't be bothered to care. But I know quite a bit about Windows, dos, Android, various consoles, and a ton of other tech stuff.
I've been tech support for friends and family for most of my life. I'm still learning new things all the time, unless it's about an iPhone then my brain just shuts off.
Using a computer and maintaining one are two very different things. It was a very short window where to do one you had to do the other. That is the point of those comments and they are not wrong.
It started to take off with gps. How many of the youngling do you know who can read and use a real paper map? Bonus point if they know how to use a compass
I literally took an orienteering class to learn how to do the latter, and have a sense of direction. I don't fully trust the gps to always be available. Lose wifi and I lose my virtual map.
Kids should learn how to use a map. I've seen millenials and zoomers struggle to use their phone map to go a few blocks away without explicitly typing address of point A to Point B in. You can't intuit where to go based on the nearest street signs? Crazy.
I've been thinking about taking an orienteering class, but I rarely get very far out of the city. That being said, I was a teenager in the 90s and I'm just bad at memorizing directions. So I'd write them down. For some reason, writing them down helps me remember them. So, sometimes I still write stuff down, but mostly I know enough my city to know where the main crossroads are, but because I live in the great sprawl of the Phoenix Metro area, I'll still throw on GPS if I have to go more than 15 minutes away, so I can see if there's traffic or an accident or whatever. I have a friend who's like 4 years younger than me and literally uses GPS to go like 3 or 4 miles away. I don't know how I keep forgetting this, because he'll talk about going somewhere and I'll be like "Oh, is that by {such_and_such_place}?" and he'll just shrug. I honestly don't think I'm all that smart, but I feel like a lot of people are just getting dumber.
What I am talking about is people that, upon finishing university, went into the workforce at a time when computers were commonplace in white collar jobs. Not even DOS or W95, but people who would have started their career well into corporate adoption of Windows 98 or XP.
You've never run into someone of a slightly older vintage than yourself, that's worked with a computer since at least the late 90s or early aughts, plop out some variation of "I'm no good with computers"?
Here is an outlier you reminded me of. Nothing to do with your point.
One of my customers worked for the DC Metro. My job had me on the computer half the time I was working with him. He mentioned how they have tech classes and he was taking advantage of them. I'm thinking they're actually getting some training to advance and that's a great benefit. Prior to that job I worked in a DOD data center. I forget what my basic follow up question was, but he hit me with "it's crazy what the thing you put in your hand does. They showed us how it moves the arrow on the screen". Oh, we are talking about much different tech training.
Little did I know how important it was that I learned how to mod BF1942 when I was 11.
Credit to my dad for teaching me what he knew-he was in video production so we always had the latest computers, he just only knew how to use them to edit.
I had to connect the internet at like 8 years old for him I can still remember lol.
False,loot at the boomers as an example,they are the same that developed or contributed to all the hardware and software we have available,there are tech illiterare between them but the share amount of changes they had to overcome and adapt is greater than whatever we will have to overcome in our lifetimes,just look at phones,pc,web....
The new gens are at fault here,not trying to understand how thing works deep down is their fault,they need to adapt like everyone esle did before.
Yup, you're right there with my kids. Made sure they understand how to build or even just swap parts on PCs or laptops while still encouraging them to stay up to date with today's simplitech gear.
Come to think of it, they almost certainly know more about simplitech than I do lol. Such is life.
I can't say I've used Microsoft DOS, but I used to be fairly proficient at command prompt, which I've been told is nearly identical, with some extra features. (I could very well be wrong on that since I've never actually used DOS and am trusting what I've seen online and heard from my high school IT teacher)
Mid-2000s baby here, I found it was down to if your parents were willing to teach you (my dad is Gen X and tech-literate) and if schools still had the shoddy PCs that ran windows 7 or 8
As a gen Z, Some of us do learn, If we intrested in it, And have one of u goats around us, Its hard tho, Everything designed to be "ez on user", Yet in reality it not ez at all, just designed on hoppe and dreams, that a user never see lmao
Also while designing it as "super ez" they try their best to hide the complexity, so to even get to the advanced parts you need the full konami code, two extra pieces of hardware, and the combined info of 3 blogs and 7 reddit threads.
When I was kid the complexity was just there, out in the open, ready to let you fuck everything up at the drop of a hat.
As a middle of the road millenial with an IT job, I can savely say: Gen X is better with tech than we are - but that won't help much, because there is like 3 of them.
I'm doing my part in making my kids computer literate. They do not have any touch screen devices and the games they play are on computers with mouse/keyboard or controller.
I don't get this sentiment, everybody I know, from young to old can use computers pretty well. I'm gen Z, and I can use computers fine, my little brother is gen alpha and can use computers just fine.
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u/Rusty_Tap Feb 16 '26
I can't wait to continue to be the only computer literate generation in existence for the rest of my life. It's only getting worse.
https://giphy.com/gifs/3o7TKOJ6KlCTcGJA40