As someone living in more rural demographic, replace grandma with every person with a cpu driven device. To quote my dad regarding his cellular trailcams "Wtf is updatefirmware? Stop making up words."
The whole "old people are bad at tech" thing is a bit long in the tooth now. Many people who grew up with computers are now old, and many young people are just as baffled by the command line as any grandmother.
There really was a magic learning window 1990-2010, I think. Some people who were there are still bad at technology, and a select few from before are good at it and maybe even helped build those systems, but the prevalence is night and day.
That could be, it was a rough period. I wasn't around for the beginning, and even the end is approximate as locked down mobile OSs and similarly user-opaque systems gradually came to dominate.
Kids today can still learn computers, but they have to explicitly try. I think something analogous happened with early cars. The first guys had to be able to personally maintain and repair the whole thing, and then over time it gradually became an area for experts and the odd enthusiast only.
Reminds me of the Hollywood trope of a character saying “In English please” after any reference to something on a computer.
I hate it so much when they do it. The writers should just say it the way an IT admin would and move on. Pretending that the character is speaking another language is just anti intellectual bullshit.
Have you ever seen A Touch Of Cloth? It's a superb send-up of police procedurals. There's a scene where the main character, Cloth, is explaining some not-very-complex idea like you said and one of his lackeys replies, "Can you explain it like I'm some kind of viewer, guv?".
Mine was convinced that cell phones and landlines were two different networks. Like you couldn't call a landline from a cell and vice versa. This went on for decades, even after we infront of her proved it worked.
It same when i was called by friend who worked at police HQ, updating linux with showing terminal at full screen because i want to know if udate successful or not while i reinstal windows at some computer in that room.
all police that station almost killed me because they tough i hacked police database just because they saw terminal with some progress bar installing linux update.
man that was the command that first got me into the terminal lol
it was also how i made a christmas tree when there was none: launch cmd, change the colors to a christmas-y palette (spefifically red on green) and run tree. bam. christmas tree. look heres a screenshot
One of my favorite comparisons is computing to magic. They say that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
A lot of people have a hard time drawing that comparison, but if you tell them that there are very special, rare silica rocks that you can only find in specific places on earth, and that if you inscribe one of these rocks with billions of tiny transistors runes and then power infuse the rock with electricity lightning you can actually make trick the rock into a processor thinking, and that this now let's you create software incantations which explain to the processor thinking rock how to execute a program do specific things for you, then they begin to see why.
"I'm gonna pop out and get some lunch because this is going to take a while and definitely isn't just an SSH into an Ubuntu box running apt update/upgrade in a loop."
43 Comments
AmazingAwesomator@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 358d
y'all motherfuckers need Bash
bombadil@feddit.org · 16 pts · 358d
Give someone bash, and they'll shell for a day. Teach them fish and they'll shell for the rest of their lives.
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 3 pts · 357d
teach them batch, theyll ask for an ibm pc and a floppy
teach them basic, theyll ask for a c64 instead. and a cassette, apart from the floppy
11111one11111@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 359d
As someone living in more rural demographic, replace grandma with every person with a cpu driven device. To quote my dad regarding his cellular trailcams "Wtf is updatefirmware? Stop making up words."
floofloof@lemmy.ca · 34 pts · 359d
The whole "old people are bad at tech" thing is a bit long in the tooth now. Many people who grew up with computers are now old, and many young people are just as baffled by the command line as any grandmother.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 33 pts · 359d
There really was a magic learning window 1990-2010, I think. Some people who were there are still bad at technology, and a select few from before are good at it and maybe even helped build those systems, but the prevalence is night and day.
floofloof@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 359d
Yes but I'd say it started 10 years before that, growing in numbers through the first few years of the 1980s.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 5 pts · 358d
That could be, it was a rough period. I wasn't around for the beginning, and even the end is approximate as locked down mobile OSs and similarly user-opaque systems gradually came to dominate.
Kids today can still learn computers, but they have to explicitly try. I think something analogous happened with early cars. The first guys had to be able to personally maintain and repair the whole thing, and then over time it gradually became an area for experts and the odd enthusiast only.
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 358d
i didnt say any grandma, i said specifically mine, who follows that trope. idk how yours is but mine is like that
SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 358d
Reminds me of the Hollywood trope of a character saying “In English please” after any reference to something on a computer.
I hate it so much when they do it. The writers should just say it the way an IT admin would and move on. Pretending that the character is speaking another language is just anti intellectual bullshit.
rmuk@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 358d
Have you ever seen A Touch Of Cloth? It's a superb send-up of police procedurals. There's a scene where the main character, Cloth, is explaining some not-very-complex idea like you said and one of his lackeys replies, "Can you explain it like I'm some kind of viewer, guv?".
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 358d
in my case replacing my grandma with "everyone at my school" also works, i chose my grandma just to vary a bit
justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io · 27 pts · 358d
Jokes on you, my Oma worked in Dos until her retirement.
She was an absolute master at it.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 358d
I bet one of her previous titles was literally "computer"
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 5 pts · 358d
thats one of the nicknames the school jocks came up with about me
and i just accepted it bc i actually found it fitting so they had to think of another one lol
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 3 pts · 358d
mine doesnt even know how to add a custom ringtone to her phone
Tanoh@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 358d
Mine was convinced that cell phones and landlines were two different networks. Like you couldn't call a landline from a cell and vice versa. This went on for decades, even after we infront of her proved it worked.
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 357d
wat
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 358d
Do you?
Ziglin@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 358d
Do be fair that took me longer than installing the operating system too.
devilish666@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 359d
It same when i was called by friend who worked at police HQ, updating linux with showing terminal at full screen because i want to know if udate successful or not while i reinstal windows at some computer in that room.
all police that station almost killed me because they tough i hacked police database just because they saw terminal with some progress bar installing linux update.
st3ph3n@midwest.social · 15 pts · 358d
Thanks, Hollywood!
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 4 pts · 358d
yay
alezyn@feddit.org · 22 pts · 358d
My wife calls it “the app with lots of text”. She’s very beautiful.
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 5 pts · 358d
yes thats what my music teacher calls trackers too
czardestructo@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 358d
At least she even comments. Mine just waves her hand in disgust. She knows it enables her whole technological life, but couldn't give a shit.
lemmyng@piefed.ca · 14 pts · 359d
That's because the default color scheme is white on black. Just change it and Poof! Blue magic, red magic, yellow magic... so many possibilities!
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 4 pts · 358d
is the blue magic another name for the bsod
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org · 1 pts · 357d
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/color
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 356d
man that was the command that first got me into the terminal lol
it was also how i made a christmas tree when there was none: launch cmd, change the colors to a christmas-y palette (spefifically red on green) and run
tree. bam. christmas tree. look heres a screenshotexu@feditown.com · 13 pts · 359d
Batch is a very cursed shell/scripting language though
obstbert@feddit.org · 2 pts · 358d
I like typing arcane runes.
nyan@lemmy.cafe · 1 pts · 358d
Nah, that's APL.
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 356d
or uiua
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 359d
Just wait until she hears about the Linux shell.
somerandomperson@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 9 pts · 359d
pacman -S neovim-"Are you trying to play pacman?"
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 4 pts · 358d
yes my favorite game is the arch package manager
Ziglin@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 358d
yum
napkin2020@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 358d
Wait until you type
topcupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 358d
as a bottom i refuse
dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 357d
as a middle i refuse too
golden_zealot@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 357d
One of my favorite comparisons is computing to magic. They say that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
A lot of people have a hard time drawing that comparison, but if you tell them that there are very special, rare
silicarocks that you can only find in specific places on earth, and that if you inscribe one of these rocks with billions of tinytransistorsrunes and thenpowerinfuse the rock withelectricitylightning you can actuallymaketrick the rock intoa processorthinking, and that this now let's you createsoftwareincantations which explain to theprocessorthinking rock how toexecute a programdo specific things for you, then they begin to see why.rmuk@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 358d
"I'm gonna pop out and get some lunch because this is going to take a while and definitely isn't just an SSH into an Ubuntu box running apt update/upgrade in a loop."
ceenote@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 359d