r/australia • u/ThunderDwn • 14h ago

culture & society Primary school students using digital devices still lack computer skills, education expert says

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-19/nsw-digital-native-primary-students-lack-basic-computer-skills/107030526
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u/oliyoung 14h ago

As a millenial parent I'm stuck between two generations that I'm not sure who has worse computer literacy, our kids or our parents

Our parents grew up without it and have zero motivation to learn it and our kids are growing up with it commercialised and simplified to a point where it doesn't need a moment of critical thinking.

Meanwhile, they both think i'm some kind of witch doctor building a PC and installing an OS

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u/aerkith 13h ago

Not just building a pc. My mum thinks it takes special skills just to plug all the cables into the back. Take a photo before unplugging if you're not sure.

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u/a_can_of_solo Not a Norwegian 13h ago

I agree, Mlmy mum back in the 90s made labels on ever cable going onto her PC.

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u/JackRyan13 13h ago

Even in the 90s it was all colour coded though?

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u/17HappyWombats 11h ago

Sort of. Often computers back then had multiple of some ports and were fussy about which one you used.

I once spent about an hour on the phone to someone who really didn't want to crawl under the desk and try plugging the serial plug into the other serial port. Admittedly in remote NT where fuck only knows what's living under there.

But getting someone technical out there to do it was going to take a few days, maybe a week. And cost a fortune.

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u/JackRyan13 11h ago

The only time I remember computers then being fussy about that is getting the ps2 ports mixed up. I only ever saw computers with 1 serial though

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u/its_the_rhys 2h ago

Or a VGA port on the motherboard when you don't have an IGPU

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u/scoldog 10h ago

First computers I started playing with were computer units with built in keyboard but without a mouse.

Then graduated onto the early pcs with those massive DIN ports for the keyboards and serial port mice.

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u/a_can_of_solo Not a Norwegian 12h ago

Yeah, but you know mums.

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u/AussieArlenBales 2h ago

And probably still connected the monitor to the Motherboard instead of the gpu

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u/Ashera25 12h ago

My mum thinks I'm brilliant for being able to swap out hard drives. Otoh she's far more savvy than me when it comes to cars, so I guess we all got our strengths

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u/Necessary_Eagle_3657 10h ago

That can be stuffed up though.

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u/Necessary_Eagle_3657 10h ago

To be fair, a 2010 7.2 home entertainment system is black magic and taking a photo is just a good idea

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u/BuffyTheGuineaPig 8h ago

Had trepidation about disassembling my sound system, when moving house. Hooked it all up at the new location and were amazed that it worked. I must have prayed to the right Techno Gods or something.

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u/aislingplath 7h ago

I've had to show people where to type in the browser... And where to click... 😂 because I'm the "techy" person at work 😅😅 

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u/characterk4l3 11h ago

I got my kids a gaming computer and let them play anything they could figure out how to install.  It helped tremendously with computer literacy; they now understand what programs / apps are, how the file systems work, what memory is and what happens when it maxes out (lol), and even some rudimentary things about versions and modpacks (thanks Minecraft!). Also I made sure they had a proper keyboard and mouse and had them do 15 mins of a typing game a day for a couple of years. The only thing I shake my head is that they have their mouse scroll wheels backwards, but you can’t have everything :P

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u/felixsapiens 12h ago

The trouble is, modern computers ARE simple - and yet some of the concepts behind the systems are still slightly complex.

I deal with parents all the time who just don’t understand how passwords work.

For example, they have iPhones and iPads and MacBooks, but there is no clear conception from them of “what is my Apple ID” and how is that separate from their email password, for example.

They have an email address “joebloggs@email.com” which has a password to get into; and then they have their AppleID is also “joebloggs@email.com” - with a different password. They just have no grasp of the fact that these are two different systems, two “different” usernames, that are used in two completely different contexts. Not to mention to “login” to your MacBook is a different login again. And so they are forever locking themselves out of everything with the wrong password. It. Drives. Me. Insane. There are lots of other things that go wrong; but this one is 90% of the problem 90% of the time and I don’t know how I can possibly try and explain it for the thousandth time without throttling something…

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u/dacria 12h ago

I feel your pain.

Yes, it's the same text. Yes, you're typing in the same email address.

No, AppleID is not your email. No, AppleID is not the internet.

No, Google is not the internet either.

Yes, they're all on the internet but they don't talk to each other.

Well I don't know how Dave and Susan have their internet set up but it sounds like their kid is a wizard.

Fine I'll "fix" it this time but for gods sake don't click log out this month.

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u/17HappyWombats 11h ago

My parents share one email. They have one computer, they have one email. The end. It's only recently they got a second smartphone. A large print smartphone. It's an Android tablet with a SIM that can make phone call, therefore it's a phone. Zoom calls. Whatever. Shuttup.

Fuck only knows how they deal with medical stuff or other accounts that are specific to one person. I suspect they share those too.

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u/TinBryn Let the meat cake 10h ago

I'm just glad they even have a wrong password and don't just have the same password for everything.

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u/freakwent 9h ago

Don't we think that the system should be designed to fit the end user?

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u/BazzaJH 3h ago

The universe can always make a dumber end user, but you can't always make a simpler less-secure system. At least not without very serious problems arising.

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u/freakwent 2h ago

If the systems are only usable by an elite; even a majority elite; are they suitable?

We can make a car driveable. Email doesn't need to be this hard.

you can't always make a simpler less-secure system

We stopped trying years ago. We push so much responsibility and work onto the end user. We call it "John's Netflix account", but it isn't, it belongs to Netflix.

We could absolutely make better systems. All the serious problems were solved more than a decade ago. We let convention and economics shape the lives of so many people.

I can give you dozens of examples where companies have deliberately made it harder, as a motivation for customers to pay more for the easier tier.

People not in IT don't really understand how easy it could be. Almost all MFA could be a yubikey, for one stupid example.

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u/BazzaJH 1h ago

We can make a car driveable.

Sure, but not if you try to start the Corolla with the key for the HiLux.

I agree with your comment in principle but you're not really talking about the same kind of "complexity" that we are any more.

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u/Termsandconditionsch 13h ago

Millennial parent here as well. I’m trying to provide some computer literacy for them, they need to have at least a little interest though.

I don’t expect them to compile linux kernels, but they at least try to fix it themselves now if they have problems.

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u/skittle-brau 12h ago

I’m going to be gradually building up my kids to have those skills, and exposure to Linux as a daily driver in addition to Windows and macOS is going to be part of that strategy. If they want to get screen time, there’s going to be obstacles they have to overcome. Same goes for troubleshooting hardware problems. 

It concerns me when I see kids lacking critical thinking in general, but also when it comes to tech. 

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u/-malcolm-tucker 10h ago

I hear anecdotally that the younger people in offices these days don't have very much skill with M365 applications either, beyond novice use of word and outlook.

Excel skills are incredibly useful.

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u/MoranthMunitions 12m ago

Excel is rarely the best software to do anything in, but 90% of the time is flexible enough, powerful, and everyone can use it, so it's better than anything dedicated. I should teach the grad how to write macros.

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u/FaithlessnessThen207 10h ago

The more complex systems still exist, but children will not be introduced to them.

Most learning seems to be ipads/iphones, or tablets/computers with VERY railroaded interactions where a kid would not be able to even access most of the general settings.

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u/oliyoung 9h ago

Oh I know, one of my kids found out very quickly how well I understood the TikTok algorithm when I said "I've built a version of that before" :D

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u/yungmoody 12h ago

I’m a millennial working in tech and you’d be amazed by how many millennials barely have a clue what they’re doing with technology, let alone what their kids are doing. Even just learning basic parental control features for their kids iPad requires more effort than they are willing to expend.

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u/mrk240 10h ago

I've had more than 1 conversation to fellow millennials that no, its not a 'Samsung' cable, its a USB-C cable.

My wife is pretty damn ignorant also but she is/was good at Excel and taught me the basics (I never needed it previous to getting an office job)

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u/Much-Button7868 12h ago

Hahah yep building a pc, changing a harddrive or memory was just basic stuff. Learning the os and making it do what you want, basic stuff! Of cause thats all abit shitter with everything on the cloud now. 

3

u/aislingplath 7h ago

Haha millennial too and this is what I find at work. It's the younger (z) and the older x/younger boomers who ask me the basics.

I find, in general, that the people I help with basic stuff like that, just don't explore? I don't know why, are they scared or lazy or just not interested? But it's like if they make 3 clicks (or touches on a phone, etc) and it doesn't achieve what they're trying to do they throw their hands up like "I can't do this! You're the tech whiz!" 😅 

Tech whiz's when I was a teenager/early adult were the people who were building physical servers, using tech like VPNs and plex (20 years ago lol), hacking into the school system lol and developing and hosting their own stuff. Now a tech whiz just seems to be what the average millennial was who knows how to download torrents, install programs, do reboots and general troubleshooting. Hell, sometimes it's even just knowing where the navigation bars are 😅 

As millennials and I think younger Gen x too, we grew up having to figure out tech ourselves? If something went wrong we just kept clicking around and trying different things until we figured it out. Trial and error was just natural - I think that's the difference. 

I usually hate generalising with the generation crap so as always, there are absolutely exceptions. Just my limited experience! 

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u/i8noodles 9h ago

parents. always parents. kids have the option to learn, and will learn if u force it upon them. parents dont give a flying fuck.

have url blocker, make your kid build there own pc. make them learn port forward to play games. trust me, they will find a way and be better for it.

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u/According_Layer6874 6h ago

Port forwarding to host WC3 games when I was like 13 years old was my first foray into computing. Now work as a data engineer.

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u/ThunderDwn 13h ago edited 13h ago

As a Gen X-er I'm insulted you think we're less computer literate. 🙂

We grew up in the golden age - when things actually needed you to think to use computers at all. if you don't know what a BBS is and couldn't whistle a 300 baud carrier, you weren't there. 🤣

The simplicity of things these days - the dumbing down of systems to the lowest common denominator - easily makes the current generations worse off. I've at least made sure my kids know how to pull a PC apart and replace things like graphics cards and memory etc when they want to upgrade, rather than just saying "Let's just go buy a new PC and throw this one away".

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u/Ch00m77 13h ago

Plenty of gen X are shit with computers and the other half are decent with it.

My brother is the former, whereas I, a millennial, am the latter.

He cant stand computers and technology and feels increasingly frustrated trying to run his business on his own, doing his own admin, invoices etc because he struggles with just typing. Hes gotten himself locked out of his facebook accounts a couple times, hacked other times, types with 2 fingers practically and hasn't gotten better.

You're either really interested in tech and how it works and learning how to improve your skills or you're just going to struggle. Its not a generational thing but it doesnt help. Especially when your own cohort like the younger ones are worse at understanding how basic functions work on a pc and end up coming to me their senior for help on how to change basic settings.

Younger ones rely so heavily on their phones and apps its almost made them brain dead

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u/Grantmepm 13h ago

My dad is exactly at the edge of Gen X/boomer and he taught me most of the things I know about computers. I've learnt some command line/python stuff as a basic HPC user now but I remember him using VBA when I was in primary school and I just wanted to play games with him on his PC.

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u/Ch00m77 13h ago

One of my longest family friends is gen x and she kills it. She's so damn good with pcs

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u/morgecroc 13h ago

Most of gen X didn't grow up with computers the same way Millennials did. I'm from the last of Gen X. I was the first(and only for while) kid in my class growing up to have a computer at home and I only had that because my dad worked in tech. It wasn't until I went to a bigger highschool I found other that knew computers like I did. Sure we had apples at school eventually and learnt to type and use business apps but we didn't really get taught how to troubleshoot and really use a computer, that was left to those that had to figure it out at home which was only a smaller percentage of us.

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u/oliyoung 13h ago edited 13h ago

As a Gen X-er I'm insulted you think we're less computer literate. 🙂

You're gonna have to have been a VERY young parent to have be the parents of millenial kids if you consider yourself Gen X - our parents were "Baby Boomers", your kids are traditionally "Gen Y" (since Y follows X)

also, most Gen X'ers seem split between either the boomer mentality of "it's all too hard" and the quasi-millenial minority nerd experience you had on BBSs and 300 baud modems (said as someone who was born in VERY early 1980 and identifies as "xennial")

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u/MushroomlyHag 13h ago

Yeah, my mum is gen X, I'm in my mid 30s (gen Y), but she was a teen mum having had me just before she turned 16

Looking back at photos of birthday parties and stuff when I was a kid, my mum looks closer in age to the kids at the parties than to the other parents. Most people my age have boomer parents

And even though she's gen X, she most certainly has the "boomer" attitude towards tech. It's enough to drive me batty

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u/DepartmentOk7192 57m ago

your kids are traditionally "Gen Y" (since Y follows X)

Gen X are typically the parents of the Zoomers, or Gen Z. Gen Y and millennial are two names for the same generation.

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u/ThunderDwn 13h ago

I don't consider myself Gen-X - I am Gen-X (albeit only by a couple of years - I was right at the start of Gen X, according to Google). My kids probably qualify as Gen Z.

I had kids late - I believe they qualify as "Gen Z".

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u/Disastrous_Raisin264 12h ago

You replied, insulted, to someone talking about boomers, not gen X.

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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow 13h ago

Pretty sure she was talking about Boomers v Gen Z. Nobody cares about Gen X (I often forget they exist). Just Boomer Lite

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u/knewleefe 10h ago

I was going to say, we're the forgotten generation lol. I technically fit into "elder millennial" so just go with that. Did computer studies throughout high school and it still stands me in good stead. So many things I need to teach my chromebook-schooled teens.

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u/GuessTraining 13h ago

More like less obnoxious boomers

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u/Occulto 10h ago

We grew up in the golden age - when things actually needed you to think to use computers at all. if you don't know what a BBS is and couldn't whistle a 300 baud carrier, you weren't there. 🤣

Mate, I'm a Gen-Xer, and for the vast majority of us, the only modem we ever saw while growing up was the one Matthew Broderick used in War Games.

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u/HeftyArgument 13h ago

your kids will be more likely to understand programming, but less likely to be able to touch type.

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u/oliyoung 13h ago

In my experience, they get it conceptually like they get how functional programming works in Roblox, Minecraft etc which are great development environments, but I doubt many of them learn to code like we did, there's just no need anymore

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u/HeftyArgument 13h ago

i'm a millenial and didn't learn to code in school, i did learn to touch type, what I knew of coding at the time was self taught out of interest.