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Kids don’t know s&*t about computers

(via Ars) According to a report by the British Library and the Joint Information Systems Committee, kids aren’t very good at finding information on the net, even though popular opinion seems to say quite the opposite.

From Ars:

A new UK report on the habits of the “Google Generation” finds that kids born since 1993 aren’t quite the Internet super-sleuths they’re sometimes made out to be. For instance, are teens better with technology than older adults? Perhaps, but they also “tend to use much simpler applications and fewer facilities than many imagine.”

Given the sponsors, the report mainly deals with students and libraries, but from my own experience, I venture to guess that the problem goes far deeper than using Google alone.

According to various PEW studies, kids are oh so good at using the net They mash-up stuff like hell, post pictures online, write blogs, fix friends computers and god knows what. (I would argue this is because the PEW studies use extremely broad definitions of most online activities, by the way).

My personal experience tells me this is BS. I have been dealing with college students for the last seven years and I can tell you that they don’t know crap about computers or the net. Sure, they can send messages on Facebook, if you are lucky, they can even figure out how to read email. The smart ones know how to attach a camera to their computer and download pictures with the built in wizard. But that’s about where it ends.

We live under the assumption that every college student knows how to download music and movies from the local DC++ hub and can fix their parents computer. But that isn’t the case.

Kids only get credit for this because their parents’ generation is so completely baffled by computers that they forget to use common sense (e.g. if there is only one place to plug the cable in, then that’s probably where it belongs; or: if it doesn’t turn on, check the electricity cable).

The average kid can perform a very limited set of operations on a computer (Facbook, IM, Google, photos, music). That doesn’t make them masters of the internets. They are great at consuming technology, but that doesn’t mean they understand it.

Personally, I would disagree. I and many of the people I hang out with have been tech-savvy beyond this level since high school. I’ve interned with companies as both company and consumer tech support. I’ve built my own computer. Twice. So before you go ahead assuming every college student is an incompetent lush who doesn’t understand the technology he or she uses, don’t forget about those of us who keep severs like yours running.

Dan, obviously I was a bit facetious in my post – there are lots of smart, tech-savy college students out there (much smarter and tech-savier than I am). However, there is this general assumption that kids in general know oh so much about computers – and I find that to be patently false.

So I’m not attacking YOU personally, but the false assumptions a lot of adults have about kids and computers.

i agree wholeheartedly. also, lol @ DC++. i don’t reckon nearly as many people use that as they do bittorrent.

I’m one of those ‘kids’, and I’d completely agree, provided you’re talking of “average” kids.

You should classify what knowledge you expect from kids when it comes to their usage of the internet. Even professionals find it hard to accurately search for stuff they want on the net because they get swamped with unneeded articles with every search from google and others.

Good talking point though.

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