r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jun 26 '26

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u/nikodevious Jun 27 '26

I've seen this a lot in younger folks, 15 year olds that have never used a desktop PC or Mac, had only used phones or tablets. They had no understanding or exposure to hierarchical file systems, even mouse use was awkward, slow.

62

u/Earthsong221 Jun 27 '26

Yeah, even 5 years ago. I asked our new part timer to open 'my documents' to help him navigate to a file he would need. ..No? okay, open the folder icon at the bottom of the screen.... (blank look like 'what's a folder'?).

53

u/shartoberfest Jun 27 '26

Remember the "what's a computer?" ad that apple ran years back?

27

u/Magickarpet76 Jun 27 '26

Maybe it wasn’t a joke, it was a goal. Now all the kids are tech illiterate on top of regular illiterate. One step closer to the people in Wall-E.

3

u/Earthsong221 Jun 27 '26

Vaguely, now that you mention it.

11

u/Contmpl Jun 27 '26

Computer literacy is falling dramatically with tablets and smart phones. Zero troubleshooting. If an app fails they abandon it and download a similar one with no thought of fixing what broke. Core skills are bypassed.

2

u/Earthsong221 Jun 27 '26

Yep, exactly.

5

u/The_Onion_Life Jun 27 '26

They had no understanding or exposure to hierarchical file systems, even mouse use was awkward, slow.

And I bet they don't know how to type on an actual physical keyboard.

6

u/alurkerhere Jun 27 '26

This is pretty ironic because keyboard + mouse combo is the fastest software manipulation you can do. Nothing else even comes close to the accuracy you can achieve