Why are youngsters so useless with computers nowadays?

This board was better when it was just white Americans.

>>59887465
All the people saying that were thinking that every computer starts with a screen that just says "Hope you know BASIC, faggot" not just a web browser like we have now.

It all went wrong when computers stopped coming with huge fuck-off manuals about how to use them.

It's almost as if someone with an interest in computers has more knowledge about them than someone who doesn't have the same level of interest...

Because they've never been good with computers and their nominal expertise came from the fact that they HAD to use a desktop just 10 years ago.

I second this post so fucking much
when I entered engineering school in an Asian country, I expected classmates to at least know how to clean install windows
but noooo, they don't even know that preinstalled bloatwares slows their computer down
and ffs they even installed CM Clean Master

Consumer Culture
Instead of fixing something, you can just buy a new thing
This isn't limited to computers. You see it with cars, kitchen appliances, workshop tools ect

If you learn to fix something, you learn how something works and can appreciate that. You also then know where it's strong and weak points are.

But like >>59887539 said, it's also because people just want something that works and they only care if it works. You might have someone who's really interested in computers but when their washing machine breaks, they just get a new one instead of learning how to fix it.

>>59887549
In my experience, the Chinese specifically are one-trick ponies. They can be stupidly good in one field but even in closely related fields they have no clue what to do and never apply their knowledge.

>>59887465
because the frontend is getting dumbed down by the minute, in the old days you had to pretty much learn to program to do the most basic shit, nowadays you just touch a big button and that's it.

Kids know how to use the basic stuff, but most of them, just like a lot of older people, don't really give a fuck about how things work, or why something isn't working as it's supposed to, they just want things to work, if it doesn't either pay somebody to repair it or buy something new.

>>59887549
where did you study?

>>59887465
Because if you add one too many layers of abstraction and things can work well without having to consider how things work at base level, people tend to ignore or outright neglect that base level. People were more aware in the earlier days of tech and even up through the 90s because shit broke down more often and you'd need more in depth knowledge to use your things unless you wanted to hire a repairman.

It's sort of like living in real life. You don't have to know that we are made of cells to continue living, so most people are ignorant of the intracacies of biological function. As far as your concerned you just need to know how to move, think, drink, eat, shit, piss, and breathe.

>>59887465
The little dummies really don't know shit about any tech. I've heard numerous millennials gripe about their Android phones freezing. One might say "I think, maybe you should pull the battery or something." The response is utter confusion as they feverishly try to figure out where the battery could be. Idiots.

>>59887465

It's funny, everyone nowadays thinks that kids are so smart and good with computers just because a 5 year old kid can click a button on an iPad and skip a commercial.

The truth is, is that technology has gotten so much easier you don't have to know much in order to do things.

Many kids are totally clueless once things go wrong with their devices.


http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/

>>59887465
Like 95% of people in all generations are retarded with computers.

>>59887486
*the internet

>>59887586
in an Asian country, are you illiterate?

>>59887577
Chinese are dumb as fuck

>>59887486
So never?

>>59887465
GUIs and ease-of-use foster illiteracy. Young people can navigate social media well, because they're all consumers, but not much more.

>>59887555
This comes to mind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUipCIWj54E

the smart phone.

>>59887486
Fuck, is this why the quality of this board has gone downhill by 10000%?
Jesus christ, please rangeban all hispanic countries.

>>59887486
Finally, an intelligent post on /g/

>>59889262
I'm assuming he is asking the name of the school or the specific country you dense motherfucker

>>59889341
Can there be one cool black dude

You just said why. They are born with it. It doesn't feel like an exciting frontier anymore which is what got me into it.

>>59887465
Im a computer science major and my classmates do not know shit about computers outside the basic programming courses they havd taken. You don't need to know how tech works to use it anymore. Just plug shit in and ...derp. I feel autistic because I only talk to people who are 30+ but most everyone else is clueless. There are of course exceptions.

>>59889499
People have been talking about this for ages.

To be honest I'm actually worried about how reliant we are on computers, and how little we know of their functions. "We" as a culture I mean.

Imagine going to a telecoms operator in the 1950s and him going "what's a phone line?"

>>59889341
/g/ was never good, baka

>>59887465
Sounds great to be honest. I'm going to be the one reaping the benefits from their incompetence.

>>59889395
You should have assumed he was being a smartass, you dense motherfucker

Everything is pretty much setup and even if the user experience is shit nobody NEEDS to tinker around their shit anymore so nobody bothers learning anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

tl;dr we've been overwhelmed by idiots who don't care

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>>59889901
They talked about something similar in the BBS Documentary, where someone said "it had changed from 'computer hobbyist' to 'computer user'."

>>59889796
It's not like you can fix something even if you can tinker. It's not like, if you're having an issue, you can turn to your manual. I never understood why complex machines should "just work."
I think I understand all the complaints from mechanics when they talk about working on new cars.

>>59887465
>I remember the meme about how the upcoming generation were going to be experts on all tech stuff but frankly they're utter retards.
Because they don't give a shit apart from accessing fagbook and youtube, it's not so much as them being retarded as them having no real interest in computers. My mother in law had a $2k 486dx back in the day and knew how to use it, nowadays she can't do much more then play candy crush and install malware.

>>59887465
I don't want to waste time to explain you why, but I can tell you one thing.
Will the solution to question you are asking in anonymous forum going to help you with something ?If yes then better try asking it to yourself.
>---------
Do you have an answer of your own? If yes try putting it after the question you ask.
>-----------
You subject are youngster and looking at your question it can be said that you are not of of them. Why are you bothering about another group of people which you are not part of?
Isn't life about start fixing oneself, then family, and then rest of humans?
>---------

In case you didn't understand why above question are relevant to you, you must be real faggot. A person who put his dick in another man's anus. In this context it is expected for you to not understand. So all is well.

>>59887723
Fuck you phaggot, im one and I know my around a computer, thats dudes i7 was slow probs coz of porn , who gets a 16 year old his own laptop, I didn't get one till I joined the army and got one

OP is worthless also

>>59887465
>I should say it's not merely an anecdotal experience, I've seen plenty of

It's not just anecdotal evidence because I have more anecdotes.

Not that I disagree. About 50% of the population has a double digit population. How good do you expect them to be at anything?

>>59890232
>About 50% of the population has a double digit population

It has nothing to do with IQ you elitist prick. How many tradesmen or mechanics do you think are geniuses?

>go back to my technical school to help them with a thing
>new graduates are still pretty good
Sounds just like you found one of the plebs

>>59890274
Quite a lot, considering that the IQ test is based on logical thinking and not facts.

My youngest sister is worse with computers than my mother. Some people can hop on a computer and easily figure it out with trial and error, other people are complete morons and can barely operate a web browser. Social media bullshit exacerbates the problem, encouraging people to be fucking zombies that only know how to left click things.

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>>59887465
Everyone who cannot install Arch is a subhuman anyway, so It does not matter.

>>59890916
>following instructions is hard

Any idiot can install Arch or Gentoo. Debugging and patching software when it doesn't work requires some effort, however.

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The reason is that everything is now a closed system in which you just press some buttons and everything is done for you. You aren't even allowed to see what happens under the hood anymore (like the boot sequence). This has been an ongoing trend for decades (e.g. Windows hiding file extensions by default), but has been accelerated in recent years.

When I was 9 years old, I had to learn DOS commands and even in Windows 3.1, everything was not fully intuitive and involved a bit of tinkering. I sometimes had to type in commands to install software, navigate through directories, etc., and even in fucking video games I occasionally had to configure my sound card IRQ settings, which I still don't quite understand to this day, but still managed to do it. Nowadays, a 9-year-old using a computer presses big icons on a tablet or phone, has one-click install/uninstall, and "reinstalling" an OS just means doing a factory reset. Even on PCs, we're seeing this trend. You can't even choose your updates anymore.

>>59887465
>They receive classes about this shit,

They do? They didn't teach much back in my school, only simple stuff like using ms word and paint.

>>59889499
I took some computer classes and the people who were 30+ didn't even know how to create a new folder or save files. They all gave up, except for 1 lady.

>>59891327
Like I said here [ >>59890028 ] the issue isn't just that people wont learn, it's that a lot of the time things are set up in such a way that it would be very hard for them to. People always shit on BASIC, but its inclusion on the computer as a point of manufacture, and the inclusion of a manual in how to use it, did more for computer literacy than all the government initiatives put together.

It's easy to say "install gentoo to learn about computers" but that doesn't really tell you all that much about the hardware itself as a machine.

>>59889499
>taking a genetics class
>doing a 3-hour computer lab for the class
>end up finishing within 1 to 1.5 hours simply because I can pick up how to use the software and navigate quickly through it, copy/paste, etc. without taking much time

Every time we had to work in the computer lab, whether it was for biology or chemistry classes, it was the same thing. Goddamn. I should have become a bioinformatician.

No idea, but the more computer illiterates are raised, the longer I keep my job(s). So please continue raising tech retards.

>>59887539
It's almost as if you should learn how to maintain and do basic things with an expensive piece of equipment. The amount of straight up adware or malware I see on some people's computers is absurd.

>>59893124
Someone like that has no desire to learn though. They'll just take it to geek squad and get windows installed on it for $200.

>>59893152
Hopefully hes too tech illiterate to even go there :^)

>>59893124
global rule 2

You will immediately cease and not continue to access the site if you are under the age of 18.

>>59893124
>>59893419
Fucking called it

>>59887465
>h3
Looks like you're the youngster.

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>>59893124
>>59893567
underage get out get out get out get out

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>>59893124

>>59893567
And? You are still breaking a rule, "calling it" doesn't make it any less wrong

>>59887465

Blame Microsoft and Apple.

> No challenge, no learning.

>>59892850
(Thou)

>>59887549
India is not an Asian country, Rakesh.

>>59890195
What are you even doing on /g/?

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>>59891327
The actual idea of good user interfaces is to free time people would have spent learning how to use a program for other purposes, e.g. performing better at their job. Having good communication interfaces enables division of labour, specialist professions and large-scale scientific, infrastructural and economical efforts in the 21st century.

The problem here are corporations and human greed:
Admitting that a program is not perfect and can break down, giving access to its inner workings so that people can fix it just in case, and documenting and structuring programs well clashes with the greed for power over consumers and products and the unwillingness to spend the time and money to build something that can truly last.

>>59891327
In some cases, a closed hood is like "childproofing" your house - if somebody opens the product, there is a clear "wait, are you sure?"-Moment that makes sure only somebody who knows what he is doing meddles with stuff.

>>59893955
This is also what led to the Henderson/Katz shit storm.

>>59890195
I had my first laptop when I was seven, and my first desktop when I was 8, and many of my friends got computers around that time.

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>>59887486

>>59887539

what a redditor thing to say

>>59887509
I am from the days that there was just a flashing cursor at startup. I don't miss pre gui days at all
>>59887555
this too, our washer started leaking. I decided to attempt diagnosis and fixed the bad coupler and pump myself for $43 with a little help from google. 2 hose clamps and some clips, easier than installing a 212 evo.

>>59894076
>Henderson/Katz shitstorm
as google is of no help, I would kindly ask you to throw me a bone or elaborate what it is

>>59887509
This.

The more "user friendly" computers become, the less people want to learn.
So next gen computers are made even more "user friendly" to cater to the dumbed down audience.
And next gen people are even more lazy and stupid.
etc. etc.

>>59894359
Yeah, and then tech salaries sky rocket because now it takes 8 years to get through school

>>59889264
I am studying for my masters with all kinds of Asians and I have yet to see one who has above average intelligence, in fact majority of them were stupid be it Korean, Chinese, Japanese. I guess their parents were the smart ones who built their countries and the new generation is dumb as fuck.

>>59893955
I make software for professional use.

I have to balance between keeping everything simple for newbie users vs. allowing advanced users to do more powerful stuff.

Simple example: I can text search with simple string match, or allow users to search with regular expressions.

Put short: they want maximum simplicity so employees don't have to spend 1 day learning it before using it on a daily basis for the next 5 years.
Everything needs to be dumbed down and if that means lowering productivity then so be it.

>>59894294
Thom Henderson writes compression software called ARC in the time of BBS. He worked mainframes and sent it out with source code as well as the compiled program because how else would the user be able to properly use it and adjust it for their needs? He released it as shareware and asked for donations. He even said he "did it for the mail."
Phil Katz got the source code, then released it as paid software called PKARC. In Katz' defence he did make improvements to the software, but it was still a shitty thing to do.
So Henderson managed to get a copy of Katz' source code and took Katz to court over it since Henderson's colleague's spelling mistakes were still in Katz' code.
But at the time it was spun that Henderson was some mega-corp stepping on one poor guy trying to make some money (in reality they each only had two people working with them).
So there was a massive hate campaign against Henderson where they send him hate mail rather than fan mail, so even though Henderson won the battle in court he lost the war in terms of usage and people bought Katz' stolen program to support him over Henderson.

Today the ZIP algorithms are based on Katz' software.

But the happy ending is that Henderson is doing fine and Katz died a drunk.

>>59887465
Mental lazyness

>>59890611
>technical school
they actually teach useful stuff there unlike (((academia)))

>>59889232
Is true, most people are garbage regardless of age.

>>59887465

Anon, some day you may find yourself working for tech support/computer repair.

Not only is this kid "normal" but grown-ass adults back in the 1990s, when I used to do tech support/repair, were not only the same, but worse. And it is still that way.

People think computers are magic boxes and simply don't care to learn anything about them, like your friend. This is why tech support for anything will always be in demand.

But it is mind-numbing after a while, and requires large amounts of beer. I won't do it again.

>>59894470
Interesting story, thanks.

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>>59894454
There's been a breakdown in long-term business thinking across the board.

>>59894408
The thing is that none of it used to be necessary since a kid would learn BASIC, understand what each part of a computer did, then move on the assembly and essentially be a wizard by the time they're 20, by modern standards.

And it's not even an age thing as Mike Singleton never even touched a computer until he was nearly 30, having been an English Lit teacher beforehand, then was writing assembly less than 5 years later.

Having this stepping stone, this rock-solid foundation is so important. It's the difference between learning an instrument from tabs, and learning from scale and chord structure.

>>59894508
One thing I've noticed is that the smug "I don't know about computers" semi-brag of the older generation is now being echoed by the younger.

I only this week found out my mom didn't know about scrolling with the trackpad edge, she had been using the side bar.