does the zoomer generation have zero tech skills?

[Soloninja]

Has anyone ran into the zoomers with zero tech skills ? It is at a sad level

 

[Captain]

Yes. A lot. They all don't seem to understand desktop computers and only know how to post on social. I recently witnessed a boomer say "Now they want us to learn the computer" to a zoomer and he responded "ya sucks man, I don't know anything about computers."

Seems like we need to bring back the 90s computer literacy trainings. Kinda strange that a group raised with only technology has no idea how to use it.

 

[Eden]

I'm a Computer Science / Technology Education teacher. On my blog I occasionally write about Tech Ed:
- TechEd-verse of Madness
and slightly less relevant:
- It's 2023: Students Hate Movies
edit: forgot my personal favorite:
- HERE BE AI

I mention them for 2 reasons. First is that you're unlikely to read articles / posts about education where the writer doesn't have vested interests (they're career or business) and is willing to not tiptoe around topics. Second is that I wrote those earlier this year so I consider them pretty relevant.

My personal opinion on this discussion is many adults (parents and people in education) have a silly idea in their heads that just because kids grew up in this era of tech, that they've been tapping on an iPad since 2 seconds after popping out, they're naturally techie. They even came up with jargon for the idea: "digital natives"

It doesn't help that people in education by and large are not techie. A sorta "blind leading the blind" situation. I agree with @Captain that computer literacy training would do good, but as I write about in my posts tech is not and will not, probably for a good chunk into the future, be seen as crucial. For the majority of kids, it's an elective that they could go their entire school life without touching. And even if they do, lord help them that the warm body they threw into that classroom knows wtf they're talking about.

I'm not shidding on zoomers, btw. I couldn't care less about the generational distinctions / "warfare". But kids are kids, no matter the era. They, generally, don't know shid. No-one is born into this world a genius, with underlying understanding of anything. Let alone technology that can sometimes feel more fluid and changing than a got dam river

 

[Captain]

I'm a Computer Science / Technology Education teacher. On my blog I occasionally write about Tech Ed:
- TechEd-verse of Madness
and slightly less relevant:
- It's 2023: Students Hate Movies
I mention them for 2 reasons. First is that you're unlikely to read articles / posts about education where the writer doesn't have vested interests (they're career or business) and is willing to not tiptoe around topics. Second is that I wrote those earlier this year so I consider them pretty relevant.

My personal opinion on this discussion is many adults (parents and people in education) have a silly idea in their heads that just because kids grew up in this era of tech, that they've been tapping on an iPad since 2 seconds after popping out, they're naturally techie. They even came up with jargon for the idea: "digital natives"

It doesn't help that people in education by and large are not techie. A sorta "blind leading the blind" situation. I agree with @Captain that computer literacy training would do good, but as I write about in my posts tech is not and will not, probably for a good chunk into the future, be seen as crucial. For the majority of kids, it's an elective that they could go their entire school life without touching. And even if they do, lord help them that the warm body they threw into that classroom knows wtf they're talking about.

I'm not shidding on zoomers, btw. I could care less about the generational distinctions / "warfare". But kids are kids, no matter the era. They, generally, don't know shid. No-one is born into this world a genius, with underlying understanding of anything. Let alone technology that can sometimes feel more fluid and changing than a got dam river

Educators often don't see one big item. In the real world computers are still needed to do most things. Sometimes the education system paints a world for the students that doesn't exist. In my day it was teaching us legacy things that don't exist anymore or wouldn't for long. Today it seems to be the opposite and they think tablets and cloud apps are what the world uses. When education switched to Chromebooks they were doomed. Teaching a minority use case just because they were cheaping out. At least they could save some money to pay the overpaid superintendent.

Until the day the last PC is taken behind the barn and shot....computer literacy should be a thing. Desktops aren't going anywhere anytime soon and these now computer illiterate students, failed by the education system, are going to be at a disadvantage. Especially since we keep eliminating lower tier careers.

Our education system is a mess and is more worried about the pronoun situation than actually providing education. It's how to virtu signal and vote blue instead of how to survive in the world. When I worked in education I could see it starting back in the early 00's and I ran far far away. High school is especially a mess. In the early days it prepared you for the world with skills needed to work or move on to higher education. Now it's done away with any practical skills and decided to push everyone to college which is a waste of time and money for most people. Education caters to the business of college. It doesn't help that most educators have never been outside the education system and worked in a real non-ed job. Most just don't have the exposure anymore to prepare kids for the real world. It's hard to prepare someone for something you haven't seen yourselves. It's not everyone but there are a lot of people that fit that bill.

 

[outervoid]

Kinda strange that a group raised with only technology has no idea how to use it.

they do know how to use it. the machine has been very abstracted away from them at this point. it's the difference between having to "use" an automatic transmission rental car and a manual carbureted motorcycle that you have to fix yourself. they can get from point a to b and don't care about anything that isnt those specific tasks.

 

[Captain]

they do know how to use it. the machine has been very abstracted away from them at this point. it's the difference between having to "use" an automatic transmission rental car and a manual carbureted motorcycle that you have to fix yourself. they can get from point a to b and don't care about anything that isnt those specific tasks.

When you're only devices are iOS...100%

 

[imnotdeadyet]

I was just writing up a long-ass post regarding this topic. Oh well, anyways...

Has anyone ran into the zoomers with zero tech skills ?

All the time, most zoomers i know actually. I'm the resident "tech guy" so i get asked all kinds of shit even down to basic excel and email sending.
Working with them was a massive pain in the ass, trying to teach them the basics but they don't care and just want it done and if it's not done it holds up work. Unbearable at points.

I recently witnessed a boomer say "Now they want us to learn the computer" to a zoomer and he responded "ya sucks man, I don't know anything about computers."

Zoomers are so bad at tech that it's lead to them being "tech shamed" by boomers in their workplace .

Seems like we need to bring back the 90s computer literacy trainings. Kinda strange that a group raised with only technology has no idea how to use it.

We agree and so do they it seems. "More than a third (37%) of Gen Zers feel their school education didn't prepare them with the digital skills they need to propel their career... A majority (56%) of this generation added that they had very basic to no digital skills education."

they do know how to use it. the machine has been very abstracted away from them at this point. it's the difference between having to "use" an automatic transmission rental car and a manual carbureted motorcycle that you have to fix yourself. they can get from point a to b and don't care about anything that isnt those specific tasks.

They know how to use social media, i wouldn't exactly call that knowing "how to use it". They don't know emails, basic troubleshooting or how file systems work. They lack basic tech fundamentals, not how to work with hardware or software on a lower level. So no it's not like having to fix up a manual motorcycle yourself. It's like knowing how to start a car but not that you need to put gas in it or what type it takes, that you have to do an oil change sometimes or even how to use blinkers. You might be able to get from a to b with a driver like that but I'd just take over driving their car in that case before checking the gas and oil.
I will agree though that the way modern tech is presented is very "abstracted" as you say, they don't need to know basics of the machine they're using to do what they want to do. Back in the day if you wanted to do something, you had to learn at least the basics of the software, system and ui, which would also carry over most of the time from one system to the other, now you just type what you want on the system based search and it's right there.


I think some of the blame has to be placed on the attitude zoomers have, which is similar to how boomers are. And while you can explain away boomers having cognitive loss or whatever, zoomers just don't want to bother. If it's not in the system wide search then they don't care about it, do it for them or it won't be done because they can't and won't do it. At best they'll look on tiktok for something so they can be spoon fed on it and copy how it's done or just give up. Google became objectively worse so it can spoon fed answers quicker but it wasn't enough for the average zoomer.

 

[MorphedSnowman]

I might get backlash for this, but I can't really imagine thinking it's super dramatic or something what's happening. Like yeah lot of zoomers don't know how to use lot of things on desktop pc and what not, but there's a pretty good reason for that. It's just because they don't have to. People lived for millenia without desktops and they did just fine. All that really happened was that there was just a bit of hype around 70s to 2000s that desktop is the next big thing and some huge shift, but really, all of computer software is pretty much immitation of paper. It's sure is easier to do spreadsheets on a desktop but it's not like it's a world away from paper or anything. And all the so called "tech skills" is pretty much just learning the (arbitrary) UI of some computing product you buy. There is nothing fundamental about computing in file directories or desktop interface. It's just standards few people picked and they stuck around. And frankly all the computing skills can be picked up in few months at worst. Most people don't do it because they just don't care. And I'm not surprised really. It's not like it improves your life in any big way. Most of computing is just for entertainment, which is not surprising because what else would I need it for? It's not like it can help me learn much better than a book. It's not like I do calculations in my daily life that require me to do something else besides arithmetic. If I want my way to somewhere a paper map does just fine. Pretty much all of the little things that are useful in daily life can be done without a desktop, and nowdays you can get them in your phone.

I mean, yeah I use a desktop daily, but my work is directly related to it, and so are my personal hobbies. Sure, there are interesting things to do with computers where having a desktop is close to necessary, but so are there thousands of other interesting things where you never have to as much as look at a desktop. So I can't see this as something terrible or anything.

 

[Regal]

Our education system is a mess and is more worried about the pronoun situation than actually providing education.

Kinda apples and oranges comparison there. It costs nothing to talk about ethical issues. It costs quite a bit to purchase and train people on technology. And schools (in the US anyway) are criminally underfunded.

Something I've been thinking about for a long time: kids who grew up on the internet prior to smartphones might be the most technologically advanced generation. They had to learn a lot to use the internet/computers and had to be motivated to learn. Wanted a cool MySpace or forum? Had to learn HTML/CSS. Needed to learn how to make cool graphics for those places? Well now you're learning how to pirate and use Photoshop. Want to make new friends on the internet? Now you're hanging out in some shady, unmoderated IRC chat room. Etc, etc.

Now "the internet" is smart phones and Tiktok/Youtube. Kids don't need to learn anything beyond the basics. Not that that is "bad". It is progress that the technology has been so simplified and now there are many resources for free. But yes, there is no longer the level of skills required to be a netizen.

 

[WKYK]

I think a lot of people conflate the terms Gen Z and normie. Yes, many people in Gen Z are normies, and therefor have very little tech knowledge, but I know a ton of Gen Z people who are very tech literate. I would also be willing to bet that there are just as many millennial and gen x normies who also don't know shit outside of facebook and email. It doesn't matter how old or young you are, just how much you use critical thinking.
I'm probably biased though seeing as I am an older member of Gen Z, but I swear we get portrayed as utter retards online when in reality a lot of Gen Z people I know very smart and cool.

 

[Regal]

I mean, whatever the majority of people do is the definition of "normie." If the majority of people were tech literate then being tech literate would be "normie." Being "normie" is only bad in places like Agora where it is cooler to be a schizo who got too old for 4chan and too racist/transphobic for reddit.

 

[manpaint]

Well on the bright side, you can get payed to do simple file transfers lol

 

[WKYK]

I mean, whatever the majority of people do is the definition of "normie." If the majority of people were tech literate then being tech literate would be "normie." Being "normie" is only bad in places like Agora where it is cooler to be a schizo who got too old for 4chan and too racist/transphobic for reddit.

I think I just have a different definition of what a normie is, I go more in depth about it on this post from a few months ago: https://forum.agoraroad.com/index.p...-theory-human-ai-co-evolution.5752/post-76174
Essentially when I talk about "normies" I mean people who don't think critically often, which is a bad thing in my opinion. Maybe I should use a different word though if everyone else uses the word normie differently than me.

 

[Regal]

I think I just have a different definition of what a normie is, I go more in depth about it on this post from a few months ago: https://forum.agoraroad.com/index.p...-theory-human-ai-co-evolution.5752/post-76174
Essentially when I talk about "normies" I mean people who don't think critically often, which is a bad thing in my opinion. Maybe I should use a different word though if everyone else uses the word normie differently than me.

You're probably meaning what most internet people call "NPC." IDK though. These words are new and don't have established meanings.

 

[Soloninja]

I mean, whatever the majority of people do is the definition of "normie." If the majority of people were tech literate then being tech literate would be "normie." Being "normie" is only bad in places like Agora where it is cooler to be a schizo who got too old for 4chan and too racist/transphobic for reddit.

curious I hear racist being used in everything so what is that consider and what is transphobia these days ?

 

[Regal]

curious I hear racist being used in everything so what is that consider and what is transphobia these days ?

Not really going to spend time on this, but look around here long enough and you'll find antitrans, antisemitic, etc sentiment. The antitrans sentiment here is kinda infamous and bordering on established meme for derailing threads.

Edit - I don't think the majority of people here are racist or transphobic. If that was the case I would delete my account.

 

[WanderingPariah]

The antitrans sentiment here is kinda infamous and bordering on established meme for derailing threads.

I was tempted into responding to this, but it would have proven the point. You sly bastard

On a serious note, how would one go about to inspire those who lack tech skills? The lack of computer acumen exists because there's neither a want nor a need to gain an understanding of these tools beyond what's present at their surface level. What Muse do we turn to and prop up so as to motivate the technologically illiterate?

 

[Yuiui]

Has anyone ran into the zoomers with zero tech skills ? It is at a sad level

Absolutely, I'm like the guy that gets called every few days from some idiot in my class who knows fucking nothing about computers thats like "uuuh how dat work?"
They don't get the most basic stuff on a computer they use everyday, it's really wierd. I thought that people who use computers should be really good with this stuff/ at least know the basics.

When you're only devices are iOS...100%

That's what I've noticed too. People who are in the so called "Apple Ecosystem" throw around a bunch of marketing words they picked up on and don't know shit about their devices but
always insist that apple devices are sooo much better.
There's also people in my class that don't have computers but phones which after hearing really fucking disturbed me. I can't imagine having to be stuck with just
using a phone.
They also use their phone like a LOT. From most people I've heard they said they use it like 5-8 hours a day. What do people do all day on their phone?
Do they really use social media that much? I've never really used social media a lot and use my phone like 15 mins a day while on the way home.

 

[Regal]

They also use their phone like a LOT. From most people I've heard they said they use it like 5-8 hours a day. What do people do all day on their phone?
Do they really use social media that much? I've never really used social media a lot and use my phone like 15 mins a day while on the way home.

They probably watch a couple videos, play some games, listen to music, and talk to their friends. Not much different than you on your computer, no?

 

[Yuiui]

They probably watch a couple videos, play some games, listen to music, and talk to their friends. Not much different than you on your computer, no?

Do people seriously play mobile games? idk
But I just would feel uncomfortable using a phone since it's all so restricted and browsers are unintuitive and you can't really multitask.
Also I program a lot on my PC and do almost everything via terminal so that isn't really doable on a phone