Computer Illiteracy?

[Drake_XIV]

http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/

Thoughts?

[Rutarete]

I agree pretty much completely. Though I kind of wish the article had brought up the words of Common Sense, even though you get the impression of it when reading.

[Naesala]

While I agree most of what this guy says is true, his manner of presentation is horrible.

People have different sets of skills. People are ignorant to other sets of skills. Bitching that people can't use computers is, in my opinion, offensive. Just because you deem the information important does not mean the information is vital to all humans and those without it are "illiterates". And since computers (at least in the areas I'm from) aren't classes taught to all people like reading is, "Computer illeteracy" is the same as "Mechanics illeteracy", that is, just someone bitching that people don't know how to do what they know how to do (granted in the article he says in his region there is more importance on it). What's worse, i think most people are quite embarrassed if they're shown how to fix something in a single step, so pointing this stuff out just makes people feel worse.

Also I highly suspect this line is bull-hockey. "‘Bloody thing won’t connect to the internet.’ she says angrily, as if it is my fault" Right, she's mad at you and not just generally frustrated as most people are when met with something they don't know how to do.

Complaining that making operating systems easier to use makes people worse because now they don't know how to do it falls under the same complaint as people who drive a stick shift. Again, bull-hockey. His metaphor about driving is almost to good. Surely, it is better to suffer and waste time and effort learning things you don't need to know than it is to relax or use the time to focus and learn more important things.

"This is scary and I’m sure the real statistics would be scarier still. It’s something we should all be worried about." I'm sure 99% of us own cars, and maybe 1% or less can rebuild the engine. Most people know how to do enough with their car to keep it running, have someone they're related to who can help, or when in doubt, can pay a mechanic. What is the problem here?

Finally, at the end, he stresses that we need the computers for everything. See car metaphor again.

Now as to one point, which is assuming kids are all natural with the web, true this is a misconception, but kids generally are better with computers if they've had more time with them than adults. I'm not that bright with computers, but I'm smarter than my parents with them just because I have used them more, and had more time to experiment and learn. True of all things

[Drake_XIV]

Yeah, his initial tone was something that many people took some issue with.

[Leodip]

I thoroughly enjoyed the post, mainly because it spoke the truth, even if it had some holes.
Let's start from a personal point of view: I'll be 16 in a little less than a month, but I already experienced some kind of programming and I'm wishing to study that at the university. At the same time, I developed Mathematical and English skills, considering that both help with Computers and stuff. HOWEVER, I'm not really that much of a geek, I always fixed my pc by myself, except the times where it broke internally (I'm allergic to dust, so that part is litterally off-limit for me, and thus I never really studied about internal components: I know basic stuff, though, how to upgrade the ram, change the fan and so on), I like to try most of the things that are related to Computers, like various OS. I already tried Chrome OS, Chromium OS, tons of Distro Linux (and I'd want to try the Arch one as soon as I get more skills on programming), and Windows. Never got a Mac OS, though. I applied my skills on Pokemon games (I'm not really a pokemon fan, but if I were to suggest someone a way to start programming, that'd be it), both on programming and graphics. I managed to kill various Viruses, bypass some protections, discover some glitches (mainly on games for consoles, though, I don't play much on my Computer) using my knowings on how a game works and always had a solution ready for my friend's requests, like where to store all of my stuff on the internet so that I can access it, how to do this kind of stuff on Excel, how to store my account's data with pass in a protected file and so on, simple and trivial stuff, but still I learned this way. However, I still don't call myself an Hacker (of course) neither a PC Geek, because there's a loooong way to that.
My little brother, on the other side, has 12 years and, while he exaggerates a little bit on being an hacker that cracks and patches games (internet-downloaded stuff, not like he programmed them), he's still pretty good, while I hate admitting it. He's easily learning stuff about games, but, sadly, that's all he thinks about while on pc. Last time I noticed the problem the blogger posted, he deactivated the Antivirus because he thought it'd have slowed the system down. At the same time, in order to improve his "internet's speed", he deactivated the firewalls. No need to say that the day after I took his Computer in custody and did all there was to it, like the already named "Techno-dad to the rescue". However, I knew that he'd have ignored what I did and said after a couple of weeks and would have uninstalled the Antivirus again and deactivated the firewall. What I did was telling him this: "Stay here, you can't do anything till I finish, simply it isn't regular that I work on your disasters while you do other stuff, so watch this right and learn: this'll be the last time. I'm going to install an antivirus, CCleaner, some better firewall (he kept getting viruses after viruses, malwares and spywares because of what he installed without checking), a Spyware detector and I put those cleaning stuff alongside the defragmentation software all together. I won't make it automatic, but I'm saying it'd be better if you did a general cleaning every month and if you uninstall with this other program all of the programs you don't use anymore. Said this, I'm off, you're free to ignore what the antivirus says and install what he considers being a malware, but it'll be under your responsability from now on. Good luck"
It was a month ago, and I noticed he isn't installing useless stuff (not a lot, at least) and, since my cleaning, it has slowed down only a little bit. Maybe when he'll be 14 he'll surpass me in something computer-related.

This is, IMHO, the only good way to lead someone on the right way. I became that good only because the only one who knew something about computers in my family was my father, and, given that he uses that for work, he's not really right in the mood to talk about PCs when he's not working. I became the family technician since then. I'm hoping my brother could do the same thing, but he has terrible english skills.