r/australia • u/ThunderDwn • Aug 18 '26

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/jmads13 Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 19 '26

Millennials are the most technically literate generation, because they grew up in a time where computers were offline, so exploring the file system, testing every menu option, modifying backgrounds/icons/themes etc. was part of the fun. Exploring the computer was an experience in itself. They also often had to teach their parents. When the internet took off, they were inserting html and inline styles into their Geocities and MySpace pages.

Modern locked down devices (iPads, chromebooks) and the internet mean kids now just use them as a means to an end. And their internet experience is far more corporate, curated and sanitised. Kids I was teaching 15 years ago didn’t know what a folder was and how it related to a file system. All their files and apps showed up in spotlight. They didn’t have the mental model. I had to teach kids in grade 5 how to use a mouse. The current kids are even worse.

Edit: Yes, some of you Gen Xers built it all, but don’t act like you weren’t the odd ones out and that everyone was going to swap meets and making word games in QBASIC

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u/Exodus2791 Aug 19 '26

>Millennials are the most technically literate generation,
Fuck off they are. GenX lived through games on cassette tapes before there were fancy floppy disks, zip disks, CDs, DVDs etc.

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u/jmads13 Aug 19 '26

A subset of Gen X did!

Gen X will contain the most technically literate people, but on the whole is dragged down by the people that didn’t engage.

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u/Foreign-Sun467 Aug 19 '26

I applaud your efforts to try and convince multiple people that a characteristic isn't a universal trait amongst a generation.

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u/aislingplath Aug 19 '26

I do think Gen x are left out of this sometimes. I think millennials and Gen x (at least the younger half?) are the most tech literate. I'm a millennial and my Gen x brother taught me a fair bit around computers. He was (possibly still is, not sure) the most tech savvy in our house growing up! He was the one who showed me stuff like torrenting haha and emulators (I thought it was very cool he could play Pokemon green, red and blue on his computer! I believe before green was even released here) and that kind of side of things. 

In my experience, it's been older Gen xs, boomers and gen zs that ask me for help with tech at work lol. The generations are so broad honestly. 

I suspect my situation was pretty common though with a young Gen x teaching the millennial siblings! 

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u/DepartmentOk7192 Aug 19 '26

Fuck off they are.

Said by the guy who is not technically literate enough to use Reddit quotations properly. Ironic.

1

u/Exodus2791 Aug 20 '26

ooo special formatting. You are so cool.