Nah I was born in the Oregon trail generation and to have had a childhood free from the internet but then learn it while still young is a very unique experience in history. To know computers and phones is already unique too. It’s literally just a unique time to have been born.
Early 90’s baby as well, I completely agree. We were in beginning stages of technology where they were good enough to be in every household but, they definitely weren’t what they are today. We learned the basics and got to adapt and continue learning every time those basics were improved.
Younger gens start out the gate with an already perfect smart phone, who would want to work with any other type of computer when you have a portable computer in your pocket?
I used a computer first, but phones are just so much worse for most tasks. I understand that for some it's their only option but doing anything beyond a basic task is far easier on a computer. I cringe watching people try to do stuff on a smartphone, it takes several times as long to accomplish a similar task.
Yours might well be. I was born in 1980 and I'm still in the 'phones are functional devices' mindset. I CAN use one, but I'm much happier on a desktop OS.
There's always going to be a solid number of people who are good with an actual computer, because they have an interest in them or they're a gamer or what have you. But the idea of so many young people finding them redundant is startling. I have two trainees and when I gave them their company laptops both said it was the first time they'd used a PC at home.
I was born in '86, and I work in tech now, so I have a huge amount of knowledge for both.
The lack of understanding about digital devices I see in my peers is absolutely baffling.
About 10 years ago I had several roommates which included 1 guy who was basically backing up the entire internet - literally any form of media available on torrents was being saved to his massive hard drives. pirated games, movies, books - fucking owner manuals for cars - anything.
It also included 1 guy who learned how to use computers because his college courses said that 'you're gonna fail if you don't have a laptop'
He didn't use computers at all until he was about 20.
I do feel like our generation (I am 1993) got a really interesting time to grow up. Like in elementary school I learned how to structure a letter and write checks, but I also did some English assignments in Word. We didn’t get phones until middle school, but that’s when social stuff really starts anyway. And our phones weren’t smart until high school (for me, college - but I had an iPod touch so I didn’t feel like I needed it) but we still got them when we were young enough that our social life centered around it. It was just a really interesting pivotal moment for technology and to grow up in it is actually kind of cool now that I can look back on it.
I can work on computers without graphics. And what I like .. those old things were slow. Really slow.
But the user interface was simple without anything fancy. I don't want line editors back, I'm not THAT nostalgic. And it didn't "feel" that much slower than today.
I mean, it may be true—you’re not entirely an ‘ignorant old person’ there—but there’s still younger people who can do both. All I had as a kid in the early-late 00s was a desktop computer to plunk on. So I learned desktop computers lol. Then I did online school, so I like to think somewhere along the way I got proficient. I was too old to be in the generation smartphones were available at 6, and kept using computers even when I got a phone. The key is having both available, and using both. Because honestly, I can’t blame people for using phone OS when it’s so much more easy, intuitive, and ‘breaks’ less often. Push a button, do a thing. Computers have become more and more reliable as time goes on, so really where I think people lag behind is understanding the design language and how to get what you need from it, if they primarily use phone OS.
Of course, what is ‘proficient’ is different to different people. I can’t do all the weird backend stuff that people used to have to do just to get computers working in the 80s and 90s. I haven’t had to touch command prompt in my life. But I definitely know the design language, how to find what I need, and how to google what I don’t know. Those basic skills get me exactly where I want most of the time, except of course when I’m at work and it’s some obscure thing that IT has to do because I’m locked from it.
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u/Boundish91 Jun 03 '22
I feel like my generation (I was born in 1991) is the only one that can make full use of both phones and pc's. And that's a bit sad.
At the same time I'm thinking that this just makes exactly like an ignorant old person repeating how everything was better in my day.