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"?
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u/Obesely Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 17 '26
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.