🇪🇷Götterdämmerung
Tech literacy escalates each gen: what was wizardry for Boomers became competence for Gen X, baseline for Millennials & oxygen for Gen Z. Falling behind shifts from quirky to disqualifying.
Boomers: clicking "Allow" is courage. We sigh then forgive.
Gen X: knows enough to fix it or find you. We don't intervene; we value self-preservation.
Millennials: if it spins, they rage. If it syncs they breathe. Baseline or bust.
Gen Z: interface is destiny. If you can't navigate you can't participate.
Eugen Rochko
@Gotterdammerung As far as I can tell, tech literacy has gone way down for Gen Z compared to Millennials.
Eugen Rochko
@Gotterdammerung Fluency would have increased through the simplification of user interfaces. Every app is mostly one happy path now. It is not mastery of the technology if we imagine that as doing something that the tech companies haven't optimized for.
🇪🇷Götterdämmerung
@Gargron Yes then again Gen Z "decline" in tech literacy is just the baseline shifting. Millennials tinkered cuz systems were fragile. Half of the job was fixing what broke. GenZ lives in seamless ecosystems so literacy isn't repair, it's fluency. They don't code shit but breathe the interface.
Different skillset, same ratchet upwards.
Eugen Rochko
@Gotterdammerung I said that fluency would have increased through the simplification of interfaces, not that the simplification has caused illiteracy--although, I will say that now. The consequence of streamlining, removing power features and hiding what's "under the hood" of technology, removing the opportunity for exploration and experimentation, could hardly *not* lead to a loss of skill.
🇪🇷Götterdämmerung
@Gargron Calling GenZ illiterate cuz UIs are streamlined is like mocking pilots for not flapping their arms.
Literacy isn't repeating the struggles of the past. It's mastering the traps of the present.
Boomers debugged syntax.
Millennials tweaked code.
Gen Z hacks attention economies engineered to addict them.
If you think that's easier, you've already aged out of the interface.
Eugen Rochko
@Gotterdammerung The problem is that this fluency that you speak of, however much it helps people perform better within the confines of the current systems, it is not transferrable. It binds people to these systems, with big tech deciding what's possible and what's not. In my view... That's not good.
Eugen Rochko
@Gotterdammerung It sounds like our definitions of tech literacy differ. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with what it sounds like you are arguing. But you have to admit, Millennials had the opportunity to develop a unique affinity for using computer systems that seems to not have been replicated in younger generations. Being able to setup and troubleshoot a computer, finding answers through search engines by using keywords instead of asking someone, ripping and burning physical media, and so on.
🇪🇷Götterdämmerung
@Gargron Exactly! Their literacy is system bound. But that doesn't make it illiteracy. It makes it capitvity. Every generation reads the text history gives them.
And Gen Z reads shackles, still manages fluency inside the cage.
That's not dumber. Just darker.
Eugen Rochko
@Gotterdammerung Also, I would disagree with the generalizations that Boomers debugged anything, or that most Millennials had anything to do with tweaking code. Those things would be true if we're discussing just programmers but then the literacy aspect doesn't change much between generations. However, Millennials who were not programmers were exposed to code a little bit more than other generations through things like MySpace and Geocities. We even had classes in school teaching HTML.
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