Paul Cantrell
In this extremely unscientific poll @darklyadapted:
86% of ppl under 30 can touch type
75% of ppl over 30 can touch type
https://zirk.us/@darklyadapted/111801137294584194
I’ve heard a few old-man-yells-at-cloud grumbles about The Declines of Typing Classes and how Kids These Days Only Know Phones and etc. Apparently, as usual, the reality is subtler than the cranky grumblings.
Why do I mention this?
1/
Paul Cantrell
My teaching job has given me a 13-year-and-counting longitudinal slice of the lives of people around 20 years ago: their personalities, abilities, interests, struggles, worries, hopes…. And the longer that slice gets, the more keenly I notice (1) how obsessed the world at large is with these young people, and (2) how grossly the public discourse becomes detached from reality.
It’s a general lesson: your (and my) hot take about people you don’t know is probably embarrassingly ignorant.
2/
Paul Cantrell
To the question of the OP, as a simple example: my students definitely know how to type, certainly no less than they used to. There is perhaps a subtle phone-driven shift in students’ awareness of the existence of a computer’s hierarchical filesystem (i.e. files live in folder/directories, which you choose when you save the file and can use to organize the files).
It’s not that the generational shifts aren’t there, but they aren’t always what we assume.
3/
Paul Cantrell
“Nice, Paul, who cares?! shut up already”
I mention the above because the outlook and behavior of college students have (once again) become a politically motivated lever people to use to try to counter young people’s pushback against racism, transphobia, and fascism in general. “Oh, these intolerant kids and their safe spaces blah blah!”
Yeah. The lived reality of that situation on campus is so far removed from all the popular press wankery I don’t even know where to start.
4/
Paul Cantrell
The typing question is a vaguely interesting digression. This larger category of question — What is actually a generational shift, and what is in fact a change in the •observer•? — has major society-level implications.
Actually listening to people, understanding them, and getting to know them is anti-fascist. Young people included.
/end
Paul Cantrell
@darklyadapted Nobody is making you read my posts, and I will happily edit the OP to un-mention you if being mentioned has got sand in your ice cream.
Madame Decadent Sneezy-Bottom
@inthehands MUST you go on so?
Also: most of the people who are saying they can touch-type don't actually know what the term means. A trainer told me this 20 years ago and I've no doubt it's got worse.
Paul Cantrell
@chargrille
Thanks for the encouraging word!
Erin Conroy
Thanks for this grounded and sane commentary.
Avi Rappoport (avirr)
@inthehands My kids and their friends are so fierce and active and smart and beautiful! I’ve been pushing back against the “kids these days” complaint for years.
Paul Cantrell
@avirr
Keep up the noble work!
Paul Cantrell
@avirr Hey now, don’t sell yourself short; it takes a village to change a culture
Avi Rappoport (avirr)
@inthehands Mine is just commentary, you’re the one on the front line
standev
@inthehands I have a narrower view (“20 year old people who joined the US military”), and Society seems less interested in military folks than college students, but *even within my peers* I see some bizarre “kids these days” takes.
Paul Cantrell
@standev
Huh, it occurs to me only now reading your post just how much society is fascinated with college students as “kids these days” harbingers of generation change, but views young soldiers essentially as faceless adults even when they’re at the same point as n their lives and represent the same generation.
Paul Cantrell
@standev
Yeah, and also “how to adult“ as in taking care of yourself, being kind to others, making good decisions about how you think and how you act, etc.
I’m always saying of my students, “no kids here, just very inexperienced adults.“
standev
@inthehands a pretty significant part of the job is teaching people “how to adult” — navigating buying a car, paying bills, avoiding debt traps (if they listen), etc.
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