Indeed. My parents (age 80+, father was an engineer and gadget freak) flatly refuse to use smartphones. My dad has a bit of trouble with the new big-screen TV but can figure things out. My mom just can't cope with the new remote and user interface. My dad's enough on the ball that he doesn't fall for scams, but I despair for people who aren't prepared for this (or who don't realize that email is untrustworthy).
All this digital stuff falls naturally to me, but for the most part, people my age and older really don't cope well with the digital world. I'm an exception because I got my feet wet in the mini/timesharing environment, just as personal computing was beginning to take off, and didn't lose interest.
Also, how well are we really teaching the next generation? I see both good and bad in that regard, with Pi, Arduino, etc. being the brightest spot, and locked-down ecosystems and pervasive surveillance the darkest.
And, of course, there's the whole culture problem. The notion of "computer literacy" went from "knowing how to use a computer" to "knowing how to use Word and Excel" almost overnight. Are schools actually using things like the Pi and Arduino, or are we leaving it to parents to get such things into their hands?
> Are schools actually using things like the Pi and Arduino, or are we leaving it to parents to get such things into their hands?
Gen Z here checking in to say almost entirely the latter :/ .
Some schools have an elective that would get things into the hands of kids, but nowhere near 100% and they generally have a pretty low coverage of students at the school.
All this digital stuff falls naturally to me, but for the most part, people my age and older really don't cope well with the digital world. I'm an exception because I got my feet wet in the mini/timesharing environment, just as personal computing was beginning to take off, and didn't lose interest.
Also, how well are we really teaching the next generation? I see both good and bad in that regard, with Pi, Arduino, etc. being the brightest spot, and locked-down ecosystems and pervasive surveillance the darkest.
And, of course, there's the whole culture problem. The notion of "computer literacy" went from "knowing how to use a computer" to "knowing how to use Word and Excel" almost overnight. Are schools actually using things like the Pi and Arduino, or are we leaving it to parents to get such things into their hands?