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this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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It's not getting better either: https://futurism.com/the-byte/gen-z-kids-file-systems
There seems to have been a short window of maybe two decades in the 80s and 90s when computers and the Internet were becoming household staples where almost everyone who grew up in that time period knows what's up, while everyone who didn't is way more ignorant. The older folks are lost because they didn't grow up with computers. The younger kids are lost because they were born into a world of advanced UIs, "plug and play", and software that heavily obfuscates the nitty gritty details of how it works.
Being forced to run command line installers, edit config.sys files, set DIP switches correctly for your front side bus speed and messing with IRQ settings for your sound card and such just to play a computer game will definitely teach you a thing or two. My family's PC came with not only an instruction manual, but an entire language reference for the built in GW-Basic interpreter. Nowadays, you get a laptop with a small pamphlet showing you how to plug it in and turn it on.
This is correct. But if you don't work in the field, it's fine.
You don't have to know how to bottle wine if you're not a wine maker. You don't need to know how to build a dam if you're not an engineer. You don't have to learn everything about the architecture of an OS if you're a user and not a programmer. Let the kids use their devices without knowing obscure shit, just like people let us wear clothes without knowing how to sew. There are things we should all know how to do - changing a light bulb is cheaper if you don't call an electrician every time it needs to be done. But there are things that are so opaque at first sight that they need to be performed by people with specialized knowledge. And it's okay to not have that knowledge if you're not in that field.
Yes, there are 1-2 generations where everyone was learning how computers work. But there were also quite a few generations where everyone was learning how agriculture and farming works - you know, to survive. And I'll be damned if I wanna have my kids birth a cow or install Linux on their PC. Unless for some godforsaken reason they decide that's their job.
You're ignoring the point of why it's useful and at this point, necessary, to have an above average understanding of technology to maintain any semblance of privacy in your life....you can do so much harm to yourself without ever knowing it just by having an Alexa or by having a Tesla.
At certain point it's like what the fuck can we even do with things specifically like the tool this article is talking about but tech illiteracy isn't excusable if this day and age anymore. The world demands a certain level of knowledge or you can and will be exploited.
I know this is the case today, but we are still in the early days of massive surveillance and everyone being globally interconnected. I have to trust legislation will follow to regulate this, just like any potentially dangerous invention is now regulated in most countries, from pharmaceuticals to firearms, to lead based paints, to news outlets.
The fact of the matter is, regular people cannot keep up with all inventions ever. It's up to governments to protect their citizens from threats, and a failure to do so should be punished. If instead the government chooses to be that threat, the solution isn't easy, but it is simple.