From 2013
I remember this article from years ago. The problem has only gotten worse.
Smart phones have been the true executioners of computer literacy. I was shocked to learn recently that a great deal of families in my kid’s class don’t even have a proper computer in their household at all. Not even a bloody laptop.
Their only experience with typing are the rinky dink chrome books they use at school.
They dont ask for them and parents dont want to make an unnecessary expense, as a kid all I wanted was a thin and light small laptop with a touchscreen (those were either not a thing yet or insanely expensife/mid) I get why they go for tablets and don’t think of laptops. Everything they could want works and is easily accessible. Ipads are better than the laptops I had access to as a kid, like the software available for free is much better (even if it isnt I didnt have the processing power to handle much at at least 3x the price of a tablet these days)
Tablets have word processing, they have art apps that are great, they have video editing apps liked davinci, they are getting blender soon, you arent missing anything with a tablet, you have access to more than the past
Maybe I’m just old but knowing how to type on an actual keyboard efficiently is an important skill to learn. Oh and things like basic file management, directory structure, knowing the parts of your machine, how to clean the fan, and so on.
If all you have is a walled garden with fisher price squares to click on you learn and know nothing.
The walled garden and lack of control is an issue, but yall act like they do nothing productive when plenty can be done lol, and most ppl at that age buy pcs to game and not use it for anything else
This is a really badly written article. Like a really stupid boomer rant.
Flash forward to 2025 and the real thing motivating the move to Linux is the enshittification of windows not some embrace of privacy netsec culture. The kid’s aren’t just computer illiterate, they are illiterate illiterate.
Hot take but teaching kids to code or use computers beyond being specific accessibility aids isn’t a good use of their time. They should be building neurons and confidence with a pen and paper. Learning any technology is easy once you understand the principles of how it should work, stay calm, read the fucking manual and think critically about the problem your trying to solve.
