Technology

As a younger millennial it surprises me how little others seem to get the generation divide here. Personal computers and keyboards were very common for millennials to grow up with in the house, but I think more and more people these days don't use desktops or laptops that often most people stick with tablets and smartphones. Gen z probably doesn't have the same keyboard skills as millennials because of that, but on average they are definitely better with tech than we are. Their typing skills are just on phone keyboards lol. Just my 2 cents

People who know nothing more than how to operate a smartphone are not tech savvy. They can't even do that properly. Never seen anyone from that generation use an ad blocker or revanced or anything else that combats enshittification.

Mavis Beacon would cry if she were around to see this

and this is why i believe that having "user accessible" UI is actually bad, now im not saying every computer needs to use punch cards. I'm just saying that we need to establish some sort of standard for competence here. Linux is a really good example here.

the entire stereotype that gen Z is amazing at technology is overrated, it's the same as the millennials there's some people who have excellent troubleshooting skill and are able to use technology with very little issue, and then there's some that you can tell that they operate technology strictly on memorization not actually understanding how it works. You can differentiate the two by modifying their environments slightly and seeing if they struggle to figure how to do the stuff they normally do.

It's actually more likely that with how user friendly environments are, that gen Z is less Savvy when it comes to using technology then the Millennials due to the fact that they've been pampered into environments that don't require them to think outside the box, when I worked in the customer service field, it leans towards technical service and most of my customers who requested help were either Boomer or Gen Z, Millennials overall seemed to have the troubleshooting skills to be able to figure out problems without involving a third party.

That being said like above, this was a person to person basis I did have some Boomers who were able to rock the kiosks or have the troubleshooting the skills to be able to do it; just as I had gen Z that was able to rock the kiosk as well I'm just stating my observation of what usually happend.

Then to address the keyboard skills, most of what gen Z uses is going to be touchscreen, the desktop / laptop is a dying technology as a primary device for the younger kids as a whole, my sister didn't even have one until she entered College(outside of a school laptop) because she just used her mobile phone or tablet, neither of those required a keyboard outside of an on-screen which you can't use with the home system layout that used to be taught in school. So it's only natural that gen Z might have fallen behind in keyboard skills

It seems like a kind of horseshoe thing where Boomers are computer illiterate because they weren't around when they were growing up, while Zoomers are computer illiterate because they grew up primarily interfacing with technology via the simplified, corporate-approved mobile phone platforms. Gen X and Milliennials came of age when computers were still more of a Wild West.

yeah.... i am typing this with my two pointer fingers by poking each key. typing the "right" way feels weird to me. i used a computer long before any kind of handheld device and i've always typed this way. i only learned there was a "correct" way from a 1 week lesson in my 9th grade tech class years ago, but i never really saw a point if i'm getting the words to the screen regardless.

They are adept at what they need to achieve whatever goal they're trying to achieve. Gen Z are much better at using proxies to get around content blockers than millennials are.

The article is kind of all over the place mixing high-school graduates and fourth-graders? I can see how you're sluggish at typing in fourth grade... The numbers for a 17 year old would be interesting... But yeah, 13 words per minute isn't impressive. And most young people I know use phones and tablets, not computers. So naturally a good amount of them isn't good around these things.

The number of people i'm seeing use caps lock instead of shift to do capital letters have been increasing. "Oh you can do that?"

typing isn’t as useful a skill as it use to be. Not many jobs need it.

Their parents don't even give them PCs, only phones, how would they even learn?

My sister is gen x and I’m a millennial, she’s asks me the most batshit insane questions like, how do I turn off my iPhone? What? You’ve had it 4 years!