The entire reason I even began commenting on this thread is because someone said this.
teens are not geeking around with computers, they are watching reels and scrolling recommendations and doing other bullshit
My entire argument the whole time has been that back in the day, plenty of kids weren’t doing computing related things. Plenty were doing “other bullshit” back then. My point has been the same the entire time. Just because computing as a hobby has a lower barrier to entry doesn’t mean that there are less people overall interested in learning more. You just keep repeating back to me that proportionally less people who use computers today really know them deeply. I’ve never said anything otherwise. I jist see no reason to believe that as a whole there are less people who want to know them on a deeper level.
You point out things like files being a difficult concept for younger people today because it’s been abstracted away. My response to that would be merely knowing what a file is was never what we’ve been talking about. Of millennials, what percentage knows about files and how to save them? 99% or so? Just a guess, it doesn’t really matter the exact number. Do you believe 99% of millennials are tech geniuses on the way to becoming “FOSS graybeards”? No! Of course not! Basic computer usage has always been a different skill set than what I’ve been talking about.
Unless you have some sort of data about the amount of young people going into things like computer science is substantially lower today than it was in the '80s then I see no reason to believe otherwise. We live in a golden age of cheap electronics and easily accessible information. The barrier to entry for curious people wanting to learn more about computers than having them act as basic machines that can make documents, edit pictures, and play games is arguably lower than ever.
The days of old required everyone to learn more to be able to use computers, but I don’t believe this translated to more experienced people then than today overall, especially not more people willing to contribute back to the community back then than today.
The entire reason I even began commenting on this thread is because someone said this.
My entire argument the whole time has been that back in the day, plenty of kids weren’t doing computing related things. Plenty were doing “other bullshit” back then. My point has been the same the entire time. Just because computing as a hobby has a lower barrier to entry doesn’t mean that there are less people overall interested in learning more. You just keep repeating back to me that proportionally less people who use computers today really know them deeply. I’ve never said anything otherwise. I jist see no reason to believe that as a whole there are less people who want to know them on a deeper level.
You point out things like files being a difficult concept for younger people today because it’s been abstracted away. My response to that would be merely knowing what a file is was never what we’ve been talking about. Of millennials, what percentage knows about files and how to save them? 99% or so? Just a guess, it doesn’t really matter the exact number. Do you believe 99% of millennials are tech geniuses on the way to becoming “FOSS graybeards”? No! Of course not! Basic computer usage has always been a different skill set than what I’ve been talking about.
Unless you have some sort of data about the amount of young people going into things like computer science is substantially lower today than it was in the '80s then I see no reason to believe otherwise. We live in a golden age of cheap electronics and easily accessible information. The barrier to entry for curious people wanting to learn more about computers than having them act as basic machines that can make documents, edit pictures, and play games is arguably lower than ever.
The days of old required everyone to learn more to be able to use computers, but I don’t believe this translated to more experienced people then than today overall, especially not more people willing to contribute back to the community back then than today.