I agree; the situation "young people know all about computers" was maybe a twenty-five year phenomenon; before that, there weren't enough computers for it to be generally true, and at some point you no longer needed to know all about computers to successfully use a computer for the sorts of things the general population does.
"Young people know all about computers" was never true either. It was maybe true for people like you and me, the type of people who now frequent places like HN. But for the vast majority of people, computers were never all that interesting.
>"Young people know all about computers" was never true either.
That's true, but only because not all young people owned or used computers. I was born in the mid 70s and got my first computer as a young child. Back then you had to "know all about computers" to use the computer and get it to function. These days, every kid grows up surrounded by computers, with a computer in their pocket, and very few have even an inkling of how they work.
Thus "young people who use computers know all about computers" used to be a true statement, but no longer is.
It wouldn't have been true even if all young people in our generation would have had all the access to computers they would've liked. Most people just don't like tinkering with technology and that's fine!
The whole argument is pretty dumb anyway. Just try replacing "computers" with any other technology and you see how weird it starts sounding.
- "People use roads every day but almost nobody even knows how to make asphalt from scratch these days."
- "People use electricity every day but almost nobody even knows the basic equations for electric generators."
- "Children these days use refrigerators only as consumers, they don't even understand the differences between HCFC and A3 type refrigerants..."
Computer programmers despairing about how few children understand computers has strong vibes from https://xkcd.com/2501/ IMO.
