Do little kids today still know how to use PC's

[nanette1985]

My 4 children are in their 20's They all are very computer literate and as small children used to spend lots of time playing around with our PC's.

Now, the grandkids don't use the computer - they all have devices.

Is being iPad or iPhone or Tablet literate as useful as being PC literate? What kind of technology literate are todays little kids going to be?

 

[blackdogdeek]

My 7 and 10 year old girls are laptop/desktop and ipad/itouch literate. I don't think one precludes the other.

 

[lxskllr]

My daughter isn't as literate as I'd like. She just doesn't care about computers, and when something doesn't work, that's it; it's broken until someone else fixes it. Even dumb crap like a dog chewing through a charging cable. It never occurred to her to splice the ends together. So obvious, yet she doesn't have a clue. I blame facebook, and think stupidity's contagious.

 

[vi edit]

They are going to be as "PC" literate as your average person is "Car" literate.

IE: They'll be able to walk up to one, use it for 99% of the things they need to do without any drama or assistance and then when it breaks they'll either pay somebody to fix it or buy a new one.

They aren't going to need to know how to go to a command line and reformat, or know the clock multipler of a CPU or even the speed rating of RAM. It just isn't going to be necessary moving forward. Computers are moving to an appliance model and that's really the end of it.

 

[MrDudeMan]

My daughter isn't as literate as I'd like. She just doesn't care about computers, and when something doesn't work, that's it; it's broken until someone else fixes it. Even dumb crap like a dog chewing through a charging cable. It never occurred to her to splice the ends together. So obvious, yet she doesn't have a clue. I blame facebook, and think stupidity's contagious.

Forcing interest won't work, but learning the skill is something you can help. She may not have the inclination to be creative in this space, but you could teach as the moment presents itself. Eventually she'll learn enough to be sufficiently educated even if she has no real interest.

 

[vi edit]

Even dumb crap like a dog chewing through a charging cable. It never occurred to her to splice the ends together. So obvious, yet she doesn't have a clue. I blame facebook, and think stupidity's contagious.

Eh. Somethings just aren't worth the trouble. I used to make my own patch cables. There's no point anymore when you can can get a factory terminated one from monoprice for $2. Same as this. I wouldn't dick around with trying to splice together something that provides power to a several hundred dollar device. I'd go to Monoprice, spend a few bucks and get a new one.

I guess it's nice knowing that should I ever be in a life or death situation and I needed to make my own patch cable in a T568-B scheme (sorry never took the time to remember A) I could. So I have that going for me. Which is good.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

They are going to be as "PC" literate as your average person is "Car" literate.

IE: They'll be able to walk up to one, use it for 99% of the things they need to do without any drama or assistance and then when it breaks they'll either pay somebody to fix it or buy a new one.

They aren't going to need to know how to go to a command line and reformat, or know the clock multipler of a CPU or even the speed rating of RAM. It just isn't going to be necessary moving forward. Computers are moving to an appliance model and that's really the end of it.

Me 20 years ago: "Dad, I broke it."
My dad 20 years ago: "Well, fix it."

My kids in X years: "Dad, I broke it."
Me in X years: "Well, fix it."

The circle of life. I have no intention of giving them an option.

The learning process is not about efficiency.

 

[lxskllr]

Eh. Somethings just aren't worth the trouble. I used to make my own patch cables. There's no point anymore when you can can get a factory terminated one from monoprice for $2. Same as this. I wouldn't dick around with trying to splice together something that provides power to a several hundred dollar device. I'd go to Monoprice, spend a few bucks and get a new one.

It's just a charging cable. It either works or it doesn't. A splice won't affect it either way, and can be fixed free. Sure, you have to buy the electric tape, but that'll fix a few hundred $2 chargers. There's also the question of waste. It's wasteful throwing away those resources when they can be repaired for almost nothing. Everyone's too quick to get rid of their stuff, and give more money to China.

 

[alkemyst]

Most kids here have devices and laptops. Sort of hard to do school work on just a device if that's where you are going with this.

 

[alkemyst]

Eh. Somethings just aren't worth the trouble. I used to make my own patch cables. There's no point anymore when you can can get a factory terminated one from monoprice for $2. Same as this. I wouldn't dick around with trying to splice together something that provides power to a several hundred dollar device. I'd go to Monoprice, spend a few bucks and get a new one.

I guess it's nice knowing that should I ever be in a life or death situation and I needed to make my own patch cable in a T568-B scheme (sorry never took the time to remember A) I could. So I have that going for me. Which is good.

I agree. Unfortunately, I find myself lately soldering and heat-shrinking "my" kids cables late at night because they left them out and our cats made them toys.

I just buy new myself.

Now with patch cables, residential definitely. On a job site with only a 15' cable they gave you and you only need 3', or you have 10 cables you can interconnect to add up to the 50' run you have to do plus a unopened box of cable, a compressor, and 1000 ends....make your own.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Being in the lower middle class, I learned to take care of my crap when I was younger. Managing a Win ME system as a little kid was probably what tempered me to managing and repair my own systems today. (god, that OS was horrible comparing it to modern OSs). I think little kids learning to work an actual PC would be far more useful than simply learning devices, due to the versatility offered in desktop OSs, and superior hardware performance for tasks like video encode, rendering, and such.

As for cars, I don't have a lot of tools at my disposal, so beyond stuff like brakes, pulleys, oil, and most recently, my exhaust, I prefer to have a pro do it right, especially since I don't quite savor the thought of being stuck somewhere in a broke down car due to having fudged something up in a repair.

 

[mmntech]

They are going to be as "PC" literate as your average person is "Car" literate.

IE: They'll be able to walk up to one, use it for 99% of the things they need to do without any drama or assistance and then when it breaks they'll either pay somebody to fix it or buy a new one.

They aren't going to need to know how to go to a command line and reformat, or know the clock multipler of a CPU or even the speed rating of RAM. It just isn't going to be necessary moving forward. Computers are moving to an appliance model and that's really the end of it.

Computers are becoming increasingly disposable so I doubt many will pay for repairs. Apple et al don't want you fixing stuff. Though I agree with everything else said here.

Tablets now are designed to be idiot proof. Walled gardens prevent malware, and all files used with an apps are stored within that specific app. Which is a good thing for the vast majority of users. On the flip side, I learned computers due to a huge number of issues I had with XP in its early days. I knew how to use them before then, but that's how I progressed to a power user and hardware guy.

 

[JTsyo]

When I got Roku, my 3 yr old and 1.5 yr old (at the time, I upgraded to a 3.5 and 2yr model now) walked up to the CRT screen and tried to touch the Disney channel to get it running. Most of their "computer" time has been on a tablet.