• NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
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    1 month ago

    It’s funny because we always thought that the next generation’s technical knowledge would utterly eclipse ours, but instead they only know how to edit a short video to seem to loop infinitely.

  • shonn@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The next generation doesn’t know how to use a mouse because they do everything on the phone. And yes, I have met people like that.

  • AGD4@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Sadly if most computers weren’t ‘walled garden’ experiences then maybe the kids could learn to tinker and fix them. As it is if the issue can’t be fixed from a settings app then they’re stuck.

  • Friend of DeSoto@startrek.website
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    1 month ago

    Feels like it doesn’t it? I enjoyed taking apart and fixing the family computer as a kid but it was also out of necessity. If it wasn’t me? Then who else would or could?

    I’m still trying to decide if it’s a “when I was a kid I used to clean my own carburetor” situation. Like, is it a “back in my day men were men and we fixed our computers by hand”, or more so, there’s just not a need to dig into computers unless you enjoy it like any other hobby.

    • The Octonaut@mander.xyz
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      1 month ago

      I don’t think the meme should be exclusively about building/fixing PCs though. Half the young people starting in our business show the same ineptitude as my parents when tasks with clicking stuff.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    We are the bridge generation.

    We know and saw a world without the internet and we experienced it when first came to be.

    We saw the first mass produced computers and computer devices which broke often, didn’t work the way we wanted them to, they weren’t fast and they didn’t have much memory in any way. We were the first generation to see all this. Our parents were too old and busy to figure it out but we were young enough to be curious about it all. We also kept wanting to have the newest fastest hardware and software so we had no choice but to either buy, beg or steal these things to get them. We learned to swap parts, add parts, remove parts, install an OS, uninstall the OS, run backups, store data and learn it all on our own because there was no easy internet social media community to help you. Software was constantly changing and we had to keep up by either buying expensive titles or we either learned about Linux and open source software or we became digital pirates or both.

    Now the digital landscape has changed. Younger generations prefer handheld devices so to them everything is solid state … they never can imagine changing the RAM, HDD, SSD, CPU, GPU or the PSU or even bothering to learn what those things are. Because everything is built in and no one (or very few) people bother with fixing or tinkering with anything, there are fewer people who learn about software and about how or where to find it, install it, configure it and run it. To new generations who only know the digital world through locked devices, there was less incentive to learn or even have access to know how these things worked.

    We are the bridge generation. We got to see the world without the internet and the world with one. No one before us got to see what we saw, no one after us will experience what we went through. Our civilization dramatically changed during our lifetime and we got a front row seat.

    • jawa21@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 month ago

      I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Learning to edit config.sys to get some share ware game working without help was a rite of passage for many.

    • PlexSheep@infosec.pub
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      1 month ago

      It’s not like your bridge generation is the only one that know how to use a computer. To me it seems that there are a few ‘experts’ in each generation and the others don’t bother learning it. This is pretty normal and called specialization, the thing that civilization allows us to do.

      I grew up with computers, there was no strict need to change OSes or even hardware (of you got prebuilts). Even so, it’s amazing what unrestricted Internet access and an interest in videogames can lead to. And I know a lot of others who either have at least the basic skills, or are studying Computer science together with me.

      Perhaps there are trends in each generation, but acting like it’s just one generation that can do computer things is just wrong.

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        Poverty is also a driving force. I’ve never had a lot of money so I had to be creative in order to do a lot of things. I know how to fix repair and even build my own house. I know how to fix and maintain most things with all my vehicles. I know how to build fix and maintain my own computer systems because I could never afford expensive devices or to pay anyone to fix things for me.

        Because I couldn’t afford much, I’ve instead had to spend most of my time doing things myself.

    • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
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      1 month ago

      The PSU is the only thing you can change easily. I love that everything is USB-C and that I can plug in everything, everywhere.

      But I’m kind of happy everyone uses handhelds, I got really tired fixing everything for my entire family and friends.

      “My printer seems to be defectiv…”

      Entschuldige, ich kann kein Englisch. Muss weg, keine Zeit. Bye!

      • Soup@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        It’s like all the old geezers who cum into carbeurators but like, shouldn’t they be happy that fuel-injection is a million times better and more reliable? I work on my own car and I can handle that shit in my driveway easy but these people seem to want more work to do. Yes, Fred, carbs make more sense for dirtbikes but oh my god otherwise shut up.

        As for printers yea what the fuck. They all work differently even within the same company when all they need to do is take the exact same control module, maybe two versions of it, and slap it onto different bodies. But, instead, it’s just a giant fucking mess.

        • Cypher@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          I once turned down a job solely because they asked too many questions about printers during the interview.

          I won’t be the printer guy! That path leads to depression.

          Oh and cancer. Toner gives you cancer.

        • RobotsLeftHand@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          In healthcare IT there’s often a person who specializes in just printers. My friend makes a lot of money doing that.

        • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          My buddy worked tech support for a fairly large facility. They got tired of getting calls for a busted printer, only to walk all the way across the facility to discover it was out of paper. It got to the point that if someone called about a printer, they would wait an hour before responding. If nobody else called within that hour, they assumed the issue was resolved on its own.

          • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            The part that royally pisses me off is that a roommate used to work for Lexmark. One day he brings home an “all in one” printer, fax, scanner, and something else I am forgetting. Best scanner I have ever seen. No light bar. The thing worked by taking four pictures and digitally meshing them together. When you scanned a document, there was a series of 4 rapid flashes. One Magenta, one Cyan, one Yellow, one White.

            The damn thing was absolutely perfect at digitizing anything you put onto the unit’s scanning glass, but it did have a design issue where the scanning glass wasn’t parallel to the floor, and was instead tilted like a desktop picture frame.

            According to my roommate, that particular design flaw is why they decided to kill the printer, never releasing it to the public. AFAIK they never even tried that scanning tech in any other printer.

    • Throw_away_migrator@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      The comp for an older generation is cars. Cars saw similar growth and adoption in the 50s-80s. And they had similar growing pains, reliability and maintenance issues were common place. So being able to perform maintenance and having an understanding of how they work was far more wide spread than just hobbyist and professionals.

      As cars advanced the need to perform field maintenance and ad hoc repairs became less required so future generations (on average) became less knowledgeable and skilled at various car repair (and modification) activities, because cars just work now so there’s really no need to worry about learning how to fix minor issues, because they’re just not a common problem.

      • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        The difference is that you don’t need to be car savvy not to get into an accident. But you do need to be tech savvy not to be at risk of cyberthreats.

        Drivers truly don’t need to know how a car works, software is not like that.

        Also, you can get by without a car, whereas most people need at least an email address.

      • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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        1 month ago

        You also can’t wrench on a car anymore in the way you used to. It’s all computerized and you need special software to access and configure parts.

        I can’t replace my airbags without special pairing software that cost tens of thousands of dollars. It’s unlikely that I’ll learn by performing the repair because the tools are no longer available.

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 month ago

          Eh…that’s still pretty doable. Many things actually got easier for auto work. A $12 bluetooth obdII dongle and a $4 piece of software on your phone will give you most all the trouble codes you need to diagnose problems, and that’s it it doesn’t outright tell you the issue. Almost no car parts are parts paired and thanks to the internet there’s guides that are way better than a Haines manual to show you how to fix things, as well as a dozen different places to order parts from.

          In the past 15 years the only time I’ve used a mechanic was to replace a clutch.

      • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Case in point: I drive an EV and I don’t think there’s a damn thing I personally can do to fix it other than maybe change a tire. It doesn’t even have a spare and I wouldn’t even know how anyway.

        My god, I’m the iPad kid of cars.

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 month ago

          There’s a lot you can still do. All the suspension, battery cooler pump, brakes, wheel bearings, a ton of things to do with the electrical system and lights, fuses and relays, window and lock motors, blinker arms and switches, fluid changes, hvac and ac components, the traction motors themselves…generally the only thing hard for a shade tree mechanic is the battery itself. They’re really heavy and hard to remove.

          Now some components are going to be hard to get a hold of because there isn’t any third party companies making replacements, but eventually as need arises, they’ll get made. Until then there’s places like pick n pull where you can go take used parts off used vehicles or buy used and tested components from ebay if the manufacturer won’t sell you something. I bought a new oem hybrid battery just a couple years ago from a Toyota dealership and installed it myself.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 month ago

        Here I am at 41 and know how to screw with everything. I stayed inquisitive and stayed a tight ass. I think I’ve paid for a professional to do something twice in the past 20 years. I didn’t want to take on the task of replacing a clutch on a front wheel drive suv on the ground in my driveway.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I’m not sure what the generation breakdown is. I’m in my 50’s and fix PCs. My brother in law is in his 70’s and fixes PCs. One of his 3 daughters (40) fixes her own PC.

      It seems like it’s everyone between 40-80.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        GenX is what the comment is about. Millennials were born to home computers but the early ones had to contend with much the same mess we did.

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 month ago

          Early millennials are definitely thrown in there and remember “before the internet and cell phones” where a thing. I was flipping dip switches on my motherboard to make my swapped out components work. My first pc I got a hold of ran on dos and 5 1/4 floppies. Teens of the 90"s are probably the most pc tech literate ones.

        • Kadaj21@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Yeah, early millennial and OPs comment fits to a “T” for me, though I think some of my experiences had a bit more socialization in context, like ICQ, Aol chat, and MSN messenger. The rise of cell phones, text messages, T9, etc. My kids are amazed when I pull out the VHS tapes at my parents, or my dad pulls out some cassettes or vinyls (though those have been more popular of late).

        • Cypher@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Millennials were born to home computers

          The majority of Millennials probably first got a PC in the home in their tween/teen years.

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        I think your family are tinkerers, and they are a rare breed. A group of people who just love taking things apart, bringing them back together and doing all sorts of other things with them. My family is a bit like that but we never had the technical expertise. I’m indigenous from northern Ontario and a lot of my cousins and relations have a grade school education but there is a whole lot of excellent small engine mechanics. I have one cousin who barely spoke any English but her regularly swapped while engines from trucks to keep old vehicles running.

        I tinker myself which is why I learned about computers and computer technology on my own but never to a really high level.

        So every generation has their outliers and your family were probably the same group of people that made things or fixed things in earlier generations.

      • aimizo@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        My government teacher in 12th grade got hit with an RIAA suit for seeding thousands of hours of music on Kazaa. When she found out that it was “illegal pirating” she deleted the icon off the desktop and thought she was done.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I’m reasonably certain that all four of my housemates, (58 y/o +) don’t have any idea how to close a program either on their laptops, or their phones. Thankfully I’m the only desktop guardian.

        • precarious_primes@lemmy.ml
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          1 month ago

          Defragmenting often to free up some precious megabytes. I felt like the king of the world upgrading from 4 to 20 GB.

          Now I treat a few gigabytes the way I used to treat a few megabytes (like they’re nothing)

      • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        It’s not easy growing up in houses, watching our parents complain about tiny things while cashing huge paychecks… And now they tell us it’s our fault we can’t afford that lifestyle.

        Boomers are real pieces of shit, as a whole. Not all of them, of course… But man, there’s a very real trend.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Our parents didn’t think it was important. Our kids don’t think it is necessary.

    Imagine how horse farmers felt about engine maintenance on the first automobiles. Early adopters probably knew everything about how to fix tractors and cars. But today, how many people know how to change their own brakes or flush the coolant?

    Life evolves, and transitions come faster with every generation. It’s good that nobody knows how to use a sextant or a fax machine.

    • drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      Farmers right now are fighting a legal battle for the ability to repair their own tractors.

      It’s not good for farm equipment to be locked down and sealed off just like it’s not good for operating systems to be locked down and sealed off.

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I agree with you on that. I’d also like to be able to replace the battery on my phone or control my social media. But that wasn’t really my point. Disposable goods are bad for consumers and bad for the environment, along with fast fashion, factory farming, corporate conglomeration, and the vertical integration of news media.

        And I think that’s the new frontier, which is really just reclaiming the old frontier from the profit-takers. People are learning to sew and knit, how to cook, how to farm, how to repair their stuff, and how to evaluate propaganda. That’s the shit our kids will say we never bothered to learn, and if they do it right, maybe their kids won’t have to learn.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      My dad thought computers were important. He got me a VIC-20 soon as they came out, and that was $1,800 in today’s money, not an amount he spent lightly.

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Sure, obviously there were exceptions or we wouldn’t have half the modern conveniences we do. My parents were very enthusiastic about computers, and my kids are each building their own desktops. I’m speaking in generalities.

    • Ech@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      It’s certainly partially that, but that’s not the whole picture. Before, every old thing “everyone” knew how to do was replaced with a new thing “everyone” knew how to do. But at the moment, is there a new thing? I can’t think of one. All but the most niche products are built to be as easy to use as possible, and if it breaks or slows down, replacement is more preferred than tinkering. I don’t see the same need anywhere to get our hands dirty that leads to widespread proficiency like the image is talking about.

    • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      I think the modern car climate is a better comparison than the change from horse and buggy to Model T. Many people work on their own cars, but it’s mostly for fun and the increasing levels of computers and sensors in cars makes it more difficult to do all the work yourself. And then you add in the nuts and bolts car companies make that can only be unscrewed using special tools that the companies also make to force you to bring the car to one of their dealerships.

      Tech literacy rates are falling like the skill to use a car with a manual transmission. Since everything kids do is on their phone, and phones are like that one car company that welded the hoods of their cars shut, they never need to pick up the skills with computer software that the work world expects them to have (but who really wants to know how to use Word and Excel anyways), nor the skills with working on your own hardware.

      Sidenote: Fax machines are, unfortunately, still very much a thing. At least, if you ever have to deal with the federal government or the medical industry, they are.

      • variants@possumpat.io
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        1 month ago

        I’m still mad we print so much stuff at work, it’s 2024 just update a spread sheet. I don’t need an email much less a physical copy of something I saw the update for an hour ago

        • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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          1 month ago

          I had to print out a PDF the other day because the software wouldn’t let me sign it, and then scan the document back into the computer.

    • WalnutLum@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      It’s good that nobody knows how to use a sextant or a fax machine.

      Modern Naval officers are taught to do navigation by starlight for backup purposes. Cause GPS ain’t that infallible.

  • Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    My four-year-old daughter is shockingly proficient with a mouse and keyboard. Kid goes to town on Spyro: Reignited. My wife snagged an old PC from her office and we want to set it up for her eventually for learning, light gaming and MS Paint. We figure in another year or two we can set up a family Minecraft server and get her in on it. The dream is to get her playing Valheim with us when she’s older.

    Hoping she will be as good with PCs and I am, and would love to help her build one when she’s grown.

    • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
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      They don’t understand a lot, but when you say things like “browser to the D: drive and attach the document called ‘not porn.jpg’ to an email, and send it to me”, you will likely get that email.

      You can’t say the same about other generations because they don’t interact with the technology in the same way, if at all.

    • warbond@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I think it’s pretty clear that the post is referring to people who are old enough to grow up with computers and now have children who are old enough to be fixing computers on their own.

      It feels pretty squarely aimed at millennials.

  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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    Boomer here. As a lifelong software developer I’ve always known more about computers than most people in my age group generally, but I’ve always assumed younger people know more than I do because they’ve grown up with so much more tech. Maybe they tend to be more at user-level with it. I’ve never thought about that.

    • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Among other things I am responsible for setting up our users with software, and the young folk are not really any more capable than average boomers with PCs. They don’t understand the file system, basic cables, or even the most basic Windows settings.

      • woodenskewer@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        basic cables

        Bless his heart but we had a new guy setting his dock station up a couple years ago now, he tried daisy chaining his monitors display input together to make a dual display set up. We were small talking about our PC setup a little bit before this interaction. This was my moment of “what happened?”

        • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
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          I get that sometimes people don’t know exactly how something works and they get confused, like ethernet splitters not allowing you to split the output of one cable to two PCs. Fair enough, people used to cable TV and phone lines might not expect that behaviour.

          What could possibly make you think monitors can be daisy chained? Nothing else in that space works that way either… Though now you’ve got me wondering about USB-C monitors and what kind of unholy hell of client confusion we might be bringing to our doorstep with those.

  • Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 month ago

    But if you are the parent that knows everything about this why not teach your kids? Great bonding opportunity and they get to not be clueless about it.

  • shapis@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Idk. I built my first computer at 6 and ran an irc server for my class mates back in middle school. And I’m sure not many people would have done that back then either.

    Im sure there’s plenty of curious and tech inclined kids these days. They just aren’t the majority. But we weren’t back then either.