this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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My wife and I started talking about this after she had to help an old lady at the DMV figure out how to use her iPhone to scan a QR code. We're in our early 40s.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

As a millennial that was born near the end of the cut off I think millennials will adapt well and likely better than most any other group except maybe Gen x.

We were brought up in the infancy of personal computer technology where everything was more difficult and convoluted than it is for preceding generations. We started out at minimum using DOS and having to circumvent the older operating systems where even the simple task of chatting with your friends online was a multi step process. Since that point things have really only gotten simpler.

If we were to create a meta person who has the general computer competence of their generation and tested them I think we would find that Gen x and millennials are not only as well adjusted to modern technology but also faster to adapt to it. They will likely be faster at solving issues and problems as the skills and knowledge they had to adopt early in life to do even simple things still applies to the basis of all computing that we have today. Even very simple things like file navigation, adjusting basic computer settings, setting up a computer, modifying files, and even using web searches to troubleshoot problems are strengths that millennials and Gen x will have that will likely see a fall off from there after in the other generations.

Computer incompetence has become increasingly more common over time to the point we are reaching now in the United States where it's fallen off so much is becoming a crisis as kids growing up now can simply only use phones and tablets and actual basic computer skills have become an issue. With the cheap cost of electronics there is even less interest in kids to learn how to solve issues on their devices as they see it as easier to just buy a new device altogether and avoid troubleshooting altogether.