In a (rare for me) defense of Boomers, goddamn, the one dude I knew who learned COBOL on his GI Bill out of Vietnam...
that man was a fucking wizard.
He actually cackled to me when he told me how C Suite knew he was retiring in 6 months, they were not planning on hiring a replacement for him... he was planning on being hired back as a contractor within 2 years, seeing as he personally built the company's entire transaction accounting payroll and billing systems in the mid 70s, and no one else had any idea how any of it worked.
... For an international logistics company, with over 100 offices all over the world.
But yes, the rest of the Boomers csn go back to Minions memes and being catfished by AI Brad Pitt or whatever it is they do these days on the 'puter.
Ours included. I get the idea millennials are supposed to be best with computers but I'll be honest that shit ain't true. Plenty of people I know are complete bozos
A few of you. The rest can barely operate a smartphone let alone do online banking, much less understand a phishing scam.
The problem though isn't that people in general lack the understanding or capability to operate computers, it's that we live in a society where continuous learning is not encouraged nor funded. Education is seen a means to an end, and learning isn't seen as a way of life.
If the government either provided or paid for lifelong learning, things would be very very different. For example when new tech comes out affecting everybody, it should be encouraged to take a week or two off work, at full pay or paid for by the government, to stay current. But right now, only the wealthy and lucky few can even afford that.
Most of ‘us’ were street smart in our glory days and would not have fallen to the current day scams then. But even without dementia involved, our cognitive abilities degrade and our ability to adapt to changes slows down.
Unfortunately, your generation will get there too.
Needed to add my phone number for 2FA on a website. Something went wrong :( checked network tab and the error being returned from the API was too short phone number, they'd made an assumption based on the country they were from.
I still had to message their support to let them know, but... They could've made it easier to find out the reason at least.
Never forget that they took away our moving progress bars w/ descriptions of the task being performed at each stage and gave us shitty spinning circles.
A spinning circle requires just two threads, one to do the work and one to spin the circle. And they don't have to talk to each other.
A progress bar is the same thing, but now the work thread has to periodically communicate the progress to the bar thread, and inter-thread synchronization has to be setup. And how do you know how much progress a single file transfer represents? Or how many progress points is a registry edit versus a file transfer? It's hard to figure out in advance, which is why so many progress bars are shitty estimates of progress.
Hahaha! Were so fucking quirky! How did you get here? Uh-oh, that wasn't supposed to happen! ThIs iS nOt ThE PaGe YoU'rE lOoKiNg fOr! Hahaha! Like in The Star Wars, which is a nerd movie! HAHAHAHA! Oh noes too mani kittens 😺😸😹😺😸😹😺😸😹!
Ballsy of you to assume that it got "easier for normies", the answer probably lies in asking "easier for what?". Computers have been redefined as consumption devices in a scheme to extract maximal profit out of their captive users. So it's certainly "easy" for a growing number of users baited into dark patterns to hand over their credit card details and get addicted to antisocial networks and whatnot. But using modern devices as traditional computers, with intent, as a productive tool? It got much harder, except maybe for the Linux users, normies and "geeks" alike.
A Gen X old person once said to me "Oh you're not familiar with computers, that's okay" because I was typing awkwardly on a shitty old work keyboard in a new job
My nerdy millennial ass has literally never been more offended
My Gen Alpha kid refuses to learn when I offer to teach him. I am not going to force him to become technologically literate. (I'm Gen X and write software professionally). Maybe it's my fault because my teaching style is incompatible with his learning style? He won't accept my offers to send him to classes either.
38 Comments
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 91 pts · 112d
In a (rare for me) defense of Boomers, goddamn, the one dude I knew who learned COBOL on his GI Bill out of Vietnam...
that man was a fucking wizard.
He actually cackled to me when he told me how C Suite knew he was retiring in 6 months, they were not planning on hiring a replacement for him... he was planning on being hired back as a contractor within 2 years, seeing as he personally built the company's entire transaction accounting payroll and billing systems in the mid 70s, and no one else had any idea how any of it worked.
... For an international logistics company, with over 100 offices all over the world.
But yes, the rest of the Boomers csn go back to Minions memes and being catfished by AI Brad Pitt or whatever it is they do these days on the 'puter.
Speculater@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 112d
We often forget that half the boomers were the hippies, pioneers of the Internet, and activist that got the civil rights act passed.
onlinepersona@programming.dev · 32 pts · 112d
We forget that it was a minority of them. The majority is like every other generation: kept disinterested and selfish.
deft@lemmy.wtf · 3 pts · 102d
Ours included. I get the idea millennials are supposed to be best with computers but I'll be honest that shit ain't true. Plenty of people I know are complete bozos
onlinepersona@programming.dev · 1 pts · 101d
Every generation
MartianRecon@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 112d
Half the boomers were absolutely not hippies.
Amberskin@europe.pub · 9 pts · 112d
Well, we (boomers) actually invented the PC…
onlinepersona@programming.dev · 22 pts · 112d
A few of you. The rest can barely operate a smartphone let alone do online banking, much less understand a phishing scam.
The problem though isn't that people in general lack the understanding or capability to operate computers, it's that we live in a society where continuous learning is not encouraged nor funded. Education is seen a means to an end, and learning isn't seen as a way of life.
If the government either provided or paid for lifelong learning, things would be very very different. For example when new tech comes out affecting everybody, it should be encouraged to take a week or two off work, at full pay or paid for by the government, to stay current. But right now, only the wealthy and lucky few can even afford that.
Amberskin@europe.pub · 7 pts · 112d
Most of ‘us’ were street smart in our glory days and would not have fallen to the current day scams then. But even without dementia involved, our cognitive abilities degrade and our ability to adapt to changes slows down.
Unfortunately, your generation will get there too.
Maerman@lemmy.world · 80 pts · 112d
I mean, for gen alpha, that's an intentional effect. Tech is becoming more and more obfuscated by design.
OwOarchist@pawb.social · 98 pts · 112d
Error messages when I was growing up:
Network Error: TCP protocol not installed.Error messages now:
Something went wrong. :(Maerman@lemmy.world · 46 pts · 112d
Exactly. That second example infuriates me. Just give me something to troubleshoot, for fuck's sake.
henfredemars@infosec.pub · 18 pts · 112d
It infuriates me because it’s disrespectful. The message insinuates that I wouldn’t be able to figure it out.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 18 pts · 112d
Needed to add my phone number for 2FA on a website. Something went wrong :( checked network tab and the error being returned from the API was too short phone number, they'd made an assumption based on the country they were from.
I still had to message their support to let them know, but... They could've made it easier to find out the reason at least.
sours@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 15 pts · 112d
Never forget that they took away our moving progress bars w/ descriptions of the task being performed at each stage and gave us shitty spinning circles.
We used to progress, now we get fucked around.
mkwt@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 111d
A spinning circle requires just two threads, one to do the work and one to spin the circle. And they don't have to talk to each other.
A progress bar is the same thing, but now the work thread has to periodically communicate the progress to the bar thread, and inter-thread synchronization has to be setup. And how do you know how much progress a single file transfer represents? Or how many progress points is a registry edit versus a file transfer? It's hard to figure out in advance, which is why so many progress bars are shitty estimates of progress.
nightlily@leminal.space · 5 pts · 111d
I mean we used to just put them on the same thread and block the window message handling loop, causing Windows to freak out. And we liked it.
rain_worl@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 76d
message passing duh
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 112d
I'll just check the logs then...
The logs:
Gonzako@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 112d
rmuk@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 111d
Hahaha! Were so fucking quirky! How did you get here? Uh-oh, that wasn't supposed to happen! ThIs iS nOt ThE PaGe YoU'rE lOoKiNg fOr! Hahaha! Like in The Star Wars, which is a nerd movie! HAHAHAHA! Oh noes too mani kittens 😺😸😹😺😸😹😺😸😹!
Retail4068@lemmy.world · -14 pts · 112d
You mean being made easier for normies?
Year of the Linux desktop and day now.
u_tamtam@programming.dev · 15 pts · 112d
Ballsy of you to assume that it got "easier for normies", the answer probably lies in asking "easier for what?". Computers have been redefined as consumption devices in a scheme to extract maximal profit out of their captive users. So it's certainly "easy" for a growing number of users baited into dark patterns to hand over their credit card details and get addicted to antisocial networks and whatnot. But using modern devices as traditional computers, with intent, as a productive tool? It got much harder, except maybe for the Linux users, normies and "geeks" alike.
Retail4068@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 111d
👌👍 Linux is easy to use out of the box, bug free, and works on common hardware that people use without issue.
Maerman@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 112d
The word 'normie' is just insulting. It implies a hierarchy of knowledge that I just don't accept.
Retail4068@lemmy.world · -7 pts · 111d
👌 however you want to deal with the fact that your in a massive minority.
rmuk@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 111d
I can't dance as well as a ballerina, but they're in the minority and so should be forced to plod like the rest of us.
taiyang@lemmy.world · 52 pts · 112d
Not for my daughter, I'm starting her early on Arch (she's 4 but she will learn to love the terminal lol)
Speculater@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 112d
"Now sweetie, find the etc directory or no ice cream."
Chais@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 112d
You mean like that's difficult?
Speculater@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 112d
We all start somewhere!
flameleaf@programming.dev · 12 pts · 112d
You've got a hacker in training there
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 13 pts · 112d
A Gen X old person once said to me "Oh you're not familiar with computers, that's okay" because I was typing awkwardly on a shitty old work keyboard in a new job
My nerdy millennial ass has literally never been more offended
HuePony@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 112d
Guess who to blame
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 5 pts · 111d
Epstein?
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 2 pts · 112d
Time?
collapse_already@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 111d
My Gen Alpha kid refuses to learn when I offer to teach him. I am not going to force him to become technologically literate. (I'm Gen X and write software professionally). Maybe it's my fault because my teaching style is incompatible with his learning style? He won't accept my offers to send him to classes either.
dosuser123456@programming.dev · 2 pts · 106d
so real
im sick of being the classroom it guy just because i know how to use the computer beyond clicking stuff onthe desktop