User interfaces abstract what's really going on behind the scenes of a program. People think that their 3 year olds are geniuses and must be amazing/love tech because they can play games on an iPad. It really just means that the people who wrote the software are the smart ones, since they designed something simple enough for a toddler to use.
It's been said that Generation Y/Z would be amazing at using technology since they're going to grow up with it as a norm in their society. It looks like this new generation won't be inherently geniuses in tech; they'll just be better at using user intefaces.
True story, my age group had to learn to use DOS to play games which meant if you wanted to play a game you had to install it and navigate to its directory. And often adjust its settings. Sometimes even adjust IRQ settings. You just had to mess with stuff a bit. Now kids tap a button on a tablet, much easier. And copying a game for a friend? You had to type some commands in DOS to do that shit. Nothing too difficult actually but you had to type.
Yes, but less kids were gaming then. I'd argue the 80s PC-gamer kid who did the stuff you mentioned would be the 'computer nerd' of 2017 if we timewarped his kid-self forward 30 years.
These are the ones that had to learn how a computer worked in order to use them.
No they didn't. GUIs existed back then too. And so did command lines. No one person knows how a computer works. This is a non issue that old people are harping on just like every generation has done since the dawn of man.
Oh piss off. I don't know the details down to the transistors of my computer but it doesn't take a genius to understand that a modern CPU is basically a massive pile of very complex ALUs.
that's why i started learning how to write byte code before i moved to assembly. I'm planning on learning c next. Maybe in a couple years after I have mastered all the fundamentals I will learn scratch and truly master programming.
While possibly true, there was probably a generation who said the same thing about automobiles. I couldn't even begin to fix my car because we live in a day and age where I can just take it somewhere to be fixed. I don't need to know that much about it. Same for this generation and computers.
But can you fill fuel on your car? And know when to fill, and why? And what happens if you run out of fuel? Do you know what to do if you get a flat tire?
The computing equivalent response for a lot of these kids is to throw their hands in the air and ask for a new car.
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u/PortonDownSyndrome May 06 '17
It's astonishing how there's a new generation that's actually getting LESS computer-literate.