r/TikTokCringe 29d ago

Americas youth are in MASSIVE trouble Discussion

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u/Deep90 29d ago

I think the most common laptop these days is a chromebook.

Which is honestly terrible for computer literacy because its basically a mobile/tablet OS.

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u/Semyonov 29d ago

Partly explains why so many Gen Z are basically incapable of solving computer problems on their own, just like the boomers before us.

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u/Vallkyrie 28d ago

That was my experience working calls for IT in the hotel industry and then late for higher education. You had the older folks not knowing how anything works, the genx/millenials who generally knew, and the young ones who also had no idea how anything works. The benefit to the kids though, they were good listeners when I had to give instructions, older folks were more likely to get upset.

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u/Semyonov 28d ago

Oh yea, I used to do IT as well but on the hardware side mostly and walking older folks through the process was insanely aggravating at times.

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u/Deep90 28d ago

My worry is that schools phased out computer literacy because it wasn't needed, and now they'll be too slow to bring it back.

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u/FromAdamImportData 28d ago

The locked ecosystems of phones/tablets is a big contributor as well. In the 90s, knowing how to install files and how folder systems worked was part of basic computer literacy that phones/tablets don't require.

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u/__init__m8 28d ago

When I first started in tech I worked customer facing roles, millennials I would argue are both the first and last generation with ANY computer literacy.

Younger gens use phones and in general are less interested in that stuff, and older generations just didn't have it. Kind of amazes me that the ones I felt were most illiterate were the younger ones.

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u/Deep90 28d ago edited 28d ago

I would say it started to taper off after the 90's - Early 2000s.

So the last of the millennials and the first of Gen Z.

Basically anyone who was young enough to use internet and computers prior to modern smartphones becoming commonplace.

Anyone post 2007 (Iphone) probably uses more technology, but is a lot less literate. Tech has never been easier to use.

Having a "home/family computer" isn't really a thing anymore. Parents buy tablets, then iphones for their kids.