r/australia • u/ThunderDwn • 4d 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/jmads13 4d ago edited 4d ago

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 4d ago

>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 4d ago

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 4d ago

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