- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27501866
source: @[email protected]
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27501866
source: @[email protected]
Classic Lemmy Linux users forgetting that access to a PC and the knowledge to use it is a privilege not afforded to most unlike budget smartphones which cost less than the keyboard you own and are becoming more and more of a necessity than a trivial toy as it was when we first had them.
Lamenting generational failures is a pastime reserved for the old to soothe their egos. If you actually care, understand the systemic reasons why young people are less tech literate and take the steps to reach them.
Yes and no. Computers have never been cheaper, but back in the 90’s and 2000’s there was only The Computer :TM:. Now a computer is in your pocket, on a tablet, a laptop, or a desktop. You can get a PC for cheaper than a smartphone (beelink anyone?)
I don’t blame zoomers for not knowing proper desktop/laptop computer usage. You can do basically everything without them these days. But it is an objective fact that the consequence is lower computer literacy. Whether that’s a big deal or more like not knowing how to write cursive is up to you and largely depends on what job they plan on holding one day. This may comes as a shock to Lemmy users but in the 2020’s you can completely function without ever touching a mouse and keyboard.
So no, access is not necessarily a privilege unless we are talking about populations that already can’t access smart phones and tablets, in which case that’s a decades-old problem and not relevant. That’s just basic access to any computer device writ large, not a discussion about PC’s.
Most people carry a smartphone more expensive than my all organs combined to be fair, at least in US.
Linux and technology in general is not that hard as long as you aren’t scared of clicking everything and messing around. And I say this as someone who didn’t have internet access until 2020.
I understand the reasons, but so many people I’ve had to deal with don’t seem to want to learn.
Bingo. I have noticed a huge downfall in curiosity and engagement with not only technology, but pretty much everything in the world. People just want to be spoon-fed and will fight you throw a hissy fit rather than just… learn or make an effort to figure things out on their own.
I used to be a part of a DIY repair space for tech and mechanics and left because around 2022 it went from fun to just… a bunch of lazy people showing up and whining that other people were not doing the work for them. And you’d explain it was a DIY space for people to self-learn and they would just give you this vague look and get angry and then complain that ‘I thought you were suppose to do it for me.’
I don’t know what it is, social media or phone addiction or what. It seems to be just as bad will millennials now as any other gen. People just… don’t want to try anymore at anything. And trying is the only way you properly learn anything.
Also, people don’t seem interesting in figuring tech stuff out, its so easy to just google an error message, and read what it says.
You say that yet we all know Google has gone to shit the last 2 years. Not to mention all the good forums are either shuttering or putting up motes so they can’t be scraped, which means they can’t be found. Discord has been a disaster for tech solution searching online.
Sure, but google an error message + one or two tiny details still will 70% of the time return something useful.
Its gotten worse, but not that bad yet.
Yet!
At that point, as silly as it sounds, run it through a locally hosted LLM
they got trained on the documentation for a lot of these softwares, they’re shockingly good at error code lookup and providing correct solutions because they basically print out the help page that’s now hidden by search engines
I still sanity check every answer I ever get, but it helps narrow shit down when Google or others aren’t fucking behaving themselves
I bought a 2013 MacBook Air for $60 a year ago to take with me on a backpacking trip.
It is running the very latest release of EndeavourOS and runs it well. It can do video calls. Honestly, there is little it cannot do.
You can use it to learn to program C, C++, Rust, Python, Go, Java, C#, and F#. It runs Distrobox and Docker so you can learn about containers. I guess after using QEMU/KVM to learn about VMs. You can use it to run K3S. You can run Postman, RestAssured, and Selenium to learn about Web APIs and testing. It runs WASM. You can orchestrate AWS or Azure from it as it runs both Terraform and OpenTofu great. It can run a host of cybersecurity tools including BurpSuite. You can run both SQL and Document databases. You can use it to package your own software and contribute to Linux distro development. You can emulate older machines and even run digital design tools and PCB layout. Obviously it runs all the major modern web browsers and a couple different Office suites. It can even do basic video editing and run smaller LLMs. It can run Steam if you are happy with older games. I know it can do all these things because I have.
Without going on and on, I think you could use it to rotate a PDF.
It comes with keyboard, trackpad, screen, and networking built in. It takes up hardly any space. And it is considerably less expensive than most phones and tablets. Of course, there are many less expensive computers that would also do the trick if you cannot afford $60 and just want to learn.
I don’t think you can argue that basic computer skills are elitist. We are not talking F1 racing here.