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re: Kids don't know how to use actual computers anymore

Posted on 3/28/26 at 11:28 am to
Posted by Ace Midnight
Between sanity and madness
Member since Dec 2006
95563 posts
Posted on 3/28/26 at 11:28 am to
It seems bizarre, but it's true. Devices? Like another appendage. They can use them like breathing. An actual, literal computer? They might as well be 90.
Posted by SantaFe
Baton Rouge
Member since Apr 2019
7837 posts
Posted on 3/28/26 at 1:48 pm to
The price of punch cards these days is just plumb ridiculous .
Posted by Banned
Member since Feb 2026
321 posts
Posted on 3/28/26 at 3:05 pm to
quote:

Kids these days don't know how to use a compass, hunt or even learn how to be bored. Learning how to be bored and occupy time is an important skill in life. These young kids are passive participants in life. Content to spend it watching a screen live life for them.


Had a 18 year old tell me in a hurried up voice to start the truck so he could let the window down, he was hot.

In a 1998 dodge Dakota. He still didn't understand how to get the window down, once I started the truck.
Posted by Shorts Guy
BR
Member since Dec 2023
708 posts
Posted on 3/28/26 at 3:08 pm to
quote:

It’s pointless to teach this anyway


Cursive is definitely pretty stupid, but it’s definitely a nice skill to be able to read it (if not write it.) I’ve got a whole box of old letters and crap from my grandparents and great-grandparents. It’s hard enough to read for someone who knows cursive. Might as well be hieroglyphics for someone who doesn’t know.
Posted by HarryBalzack
Member since Oct 2012
16357 posts
Posted on 3/28/26 at 3:19 pm to
quote:

Saw a story today regarding teachers noticing that kids have really lost desktop computer skills over the past decade.
I taught at a laptop high school circa 2008. They had the same problems then: if they had a open a Word document they'd sit there for hours in befuddlement and claim it was impossible, but could navigate the far reaches of Ukrainian servers to find cheat codes and pirated movies.

They don't lack the ability to learn it, they lack the will to invest the energy into doing so. That's nothing new, unfortunately. It's why every time there's a massive software/systems conversion at my current employer you see all the folks who are eligible to retire do so instead of learning the new system.
Posted by northshorebamaman
Mackinac Island
Member since Jul 2009
38300 posts
Posted on 3/28/26 at 3:25 pm to
quote:

I hate reading cursive too.
This is why I laugh when people complain about kids not learning cursive anymore. If they had spent half as much time caring about legibility as they do whining about it disappearing, cursive might’ve actually kept a functional purpose.

Instead, you’ve got a bunch of people who “learned” it and now act like it’s some lost art, while writing in cursive that no one else can read. If the end result is illegible 90% of the time, is it really a skill being lost, or is it a waste of time that was finally shitcanned?
Posted by northshorebamaman
Mackinac Island
Member since Jul 2009
38300 posts
Posted on 3/28/26 at 3:32 pm to
quote:

The engineers used us to mine all of the gold on this planet and now the Sumerian demon will manifest itself and harvest our piss shite and semen to fuel itself.
Posted by meeple
Carcassonne
Member since May 2011
11156 posts
Posted on 3/28/26 at 4:47 pm to
quote:

Cursive is definitely pretty stupid, but it’s definitely a nice skill to be able to read it

Never thought of this. Topic like this probably deserves a thread.l
Posted by StansberryRules
Member since Aug 2024
5147 posts
Posted on 3/28/26 at 4:59 pm to
A lot of people have made several what I believe are false comparisons.

The car replaced the horse and buggy, the desktop PC replaced the punch card computer, and machinery replacing blacksmithing, etc.

However I would argue each one of those progressions actually introduced MORE complexity than the previous iteration.

They were much more powerful but actually required a deeper level of intellectual understanding to harness the power.

We are in a new era where the progression is simplifying things to the point of complete ignorance.

We aren't swapping one skill set for a new, better skill set. We are swapping skill sets for complete outsourcing of all thought and knowledge.

When every single thing in your life becomes "push the button and it happens" nobody will know how anything works anymore.

Child like ignorance means child like dependence.

There's a valid reasons to be fearful of this potential future.

Posted by Uncommon Idea
Member since Feb 2025
374 posts
Posted on 3/28/26 at 6:46 pm to
Star Trek really was ahead of its time:
Posted by greenbean
USAF Retired - 31 years
Member since Feb 2019
6354 posts
Posted on 3/28/26 at 7:56 pm to
quote:

This is why I laugh when people complain about kids not learning cursive anymore. If they had spent half as much time caring about legibility as they do whining about it disappearing, cursive might’ve actually kept a functional purpose.

Instead, you’ve got a bunch of people who “learned” it and now act like it’s some lost art, while writing in cursive that no one else can read. If the end result is illegible 90% of the time, is it really a skill being lost, or is it a waste of time that was finally shitcanned?



True. My 19 year old didn't learn cursive. He got a birthday card from my 90 year old mother (who writes nothing but cursive), he could read as much of it as I could.
Posted by Sofaking2
Member since Apr 2023
21061 posts
Posted on 3/29/26 at 12:20 am to
Why do you need a desktop? A laptop or tablet will do just fine.
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