• @Psythik
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    11 months ago

    [a student] had resorted to learning from videos on YouTube but describes being nervous when eventually faced with the real thing.

    Wait, what? How was he using YouTube if he couldn’t figure out how to use a computer? This implies that he knows how to use some sort of computing device. Dude figured out a phone but not a PC? I always thought that if you could learn to use one, picking up the other could come naturally, even your first time. I mean back in 2012 I picked up on Android pretty quickly after only ever having PCs and brick phones since the 80s.

    • wootz
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      11 months ago

      If I’m not mistaken, there’s a weird trend here.

      My SO worked in admin at a school for a few years, primarily young people of less fortunate backgrounds, immigrants, etc.

      To her great surprise, almost everyone aged 16-22 knew how to use a phone, but an equality small percentage were comfortable with PCs, macbooks or other desktop systems.

      That surprised the hell of me. Like you, I grew up using brick phones, then command line systems, then gui computers. I grew up being better at computers than my parents generation, a digital native who was expected to fix the older generations computers, fully expecting to be one day out-done by the younger generation who would grasp the newer more advanced tech faster than me simply by virtue of having been around it longer.

      Somehow that seems to both not be the case and very much be the case. Mobile devices are the native device now, but it seems like being native to mobile does not translate backwards to knowing how to build a computer or what a file system is.

      My best bet is that it’s a matter of UX and accessibility. You don’t learn how to troubleshoot installer errors when everything runs through an app store, the same way I didn’t learn how to fix a car like my dad did. I didn’t need to.

    • @V0lD
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      111 months ago

      Yup, calling bs on the article, since a pc is both cheaper and easier than a phone. Besides, if you know how to navigate a window and type into a textbox (both required for YouTube) you know how to write a digital form

      This article is made up drama

      • Quokka
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        11 months ago

        Mate.

        Phones are massive in the developing world. A computer with a power plug for it and the monitor is not cheap or practical when your power goes out frequently. And a laptop battery costs so much more to fill up than a phone and lasts half the time.

        Everyone uses phones, even homeless people in my “developed” country use phones over computers.

      • @Sarmyth
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        211 months ago

        You are out of touch. All over the world, people use cell phones. Desktop computers require stable power and space. They also aren’t cheaper than a cheap cellphone.

        Even the most destitute people have cellphones these days. If the country is in good enough shape that a person could procure a computer, then cellphones are likely more available and cheaper. In fact, your cellphone is likely the source of your data connection even if you do have a laptop or some other computer in a remote area.