I was recently talking with my brother, who has the misfortune of teaching CAD to secondary school students, and something I found interesting was that he had to teach the students how to use Windows for the first week of the class. Admittedly, I found it semi-absurd that students technologically-interested enough to take a CAD elective had to be taught how to use file explorer, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

Students today are, for all intents and purposes, the first generation to have had access to touch-screen based devices for their whole lives. Kids aren't sitting down in front of the 'family computer' anymore, they're using tablets and phones. These devices, whilst extremely powerful for what they are, utilize a fundamentally different method of interaction than a computer.

I think that's a big reason why we're seeing non, with a lack of a better word, nerdy, teenagers staring at the keyboard as they type and asking questions about basic computer usage. For those not into computing as a hobby, or not yet in the workforce, computers seem to have become largely obsolete.

Even in the schools where computers are used on a regular basis, Chromebooks are often used, so students, whilst great at typing, lack knowledge of the Mac/Windows operating systems that they'll likely use for work. I also just hate Chromebooks as a whole, but I don't get paid enough to write more about that.

This isn't a bad thing per se, I mean, it's inevitable that technology changeas over time, but I do think it's important for people to at least have a fundamental understanding of computer usage prior to entering the workforce. I suppose with all the notes you take in university, that'll be taken care of. Schools could re-implement computer classes, but I doubt that many schools are too eager to re-open their computer labs after all these years.

This isn't to say that kids are just flat out not learning computing, either, There's plenty of teenagers on Nekoweb/Neocities with sites, it just seems as though, in general, less do. It's more of a hobby now, as opposed to a mandate like it once was. From an irrational standpoint it kinda annoys me that less people use computers, but it only makes sense.

tl;dr: i'm mad about technology changing. TM out.