LadyButterfly she/her
Anyone find this? I'm old so don't
Feb 5 at 5:15amWeb
Show threadJo MiranFeb 5

My IT experience as Gen-X.

Boomers: Look to me because somehow they have avoided learning anything IT related in the last thirty+ years.

Millennials: Look to me because I have more experience and a wider breadth of knowledge. Thumbs up for Millenials.

Gen-Z: About as confused as Boomers but excusable since they just started. Surprising lack of basics in some. Those that do know enough, have less knowledge and experience than Millenials and way way less than us gray beards. So they rarely get to solve problems, thus they rarely get to grow and learn.

Show threadTrackinDaKrakenFeb 5

I was in a similar situation, till about eight years ago. So, what happens as more and more of us Gen-Xs retire?

Is AI going to fill the gap? I sincerely doubt it.

Show threadJo MiranFeb 5
My hope is that Millenials will have everything well at hand and Gen-Z will have more opportunities to grow as we leave the space.
Show threadbitjunkieFeb 5
The number of fresh out of school software engineers who still hunt-and-peck type is absolutely mind-boggling to me
Show threadcaptainlezbianFeb 5

In my experience as a millennial not in IT it’s

Boomers: know nothing or are wildly skilled in either everything or just what’s necessary to do their job, very little middle ground

Gen X: most have basic competence, wide range of skills including none at all

Millennials: higher floor, only the genuine idiots don’t know how to use a computer, wide range of skills, but the people who only know the basics seem to know less than equivalent xers

Gen Z: never met one

Show threadColeSlothFeb 5

Zoomers are the full on ADD version of people. All they grew up on was a tablet or phone that “just works” and they get their answers from a Google search or 1 minute video. Many of them simply don’t want to learn beyond the bare minimum they can get away with and just want the instant gratification or the answer. They don’t care about understanding why it’s the answer.

Wide exceptions to every generation, of course.

Show threadSoleosFeb 5
Depends, in some technical fields it’s starting to flip because kids don’t need to learn computer skills as much when they just use iPhones and tablets that “just work”.
Show threadhOrniFeb 5
Yeah. My friend from high school works in high school. Among others he teaches IT. Compared to today’s kids we were hackers. We knew how to crack a game, install a driver, replace some hardware. Today’s kids don’t know how to download a file.
Show threadJoshCodesFeb 5

I went to school with someone who didnt like deadlines, so she would do the following:

  • fill a word document with nonsense
  • open word document in hex editor
  • corrupt file through some means she googled
  • submit the file to our submission system
  • wait for teacher to open the file, get ‘corrupted’ message

She’d do the work at her own pace in the mean time, and when she got asked for another copy because it was corrupted, shed hand it up. She graduated with me, and I dont know what she does now but I hope she’s in infosec.

Show threadEmiFeb 5
Our IT teacher knew if we did something late because he would look at when the file was last edited. We had a great IT teacher that also wanted to teach us how to think instead of just teaching basic word and excell.
Show threaddarkdemizeFeb 5
Couldn’t you then just change the system clock before editing the file? Or hell, is the metadata able to be altered by the user?
Show threadGrailFeb 5
The server logs the submission time
Show threadjayciferFeb 5
Right, but in case the teacher knows the submission time will be late because they asked for an additional submission after the due date.
Show threadbitjunkieFeb 5
  • fill a word document with nonsense

I mean this is like 90% of college even when you’re not gaming the system

Show threaddev_nullFeb 5
Well, not everyone knew how to crack a game, but many did know how to use an existing crack for a game
Show threadalekwithakFeb 5
I work in IT and this guarantee this person generates a disproportionate amount of tickets.
Show threadRedditRefugee69Feb 5
As someone who aligns more with the OOP and can all but confirm I generated a disproportionate amount of tickets, I tried to err on the side of over-reporting rather than under-reporting because while my colleagues would encounter a bug and declare IT and our equipment were awful and needed replacing before even trying a reboot, I figured if I reported all the problems I saw it would help both halves, especially considering the IT-impaired often gravitated towards influential positions.
Show threadalekwithakFeb 5
That’s great, and you are correct. Even just a paper trail is helpful even if you resolved the issue internally. What I meant is that there’s this specific type of person who thinks that just because they’re young or x or y that they know more than they do. And that unearned confidence is a killer! I don’t mean that they’re creating tickets to document problems, I mean they are so confident that they don’t need IT that they end up turning little issues into big issues. And the whole time you’re there trying to fix the problem they caused, they’re acting like you guys are on the same page and they’re being helpful when really they’re so incredibly in the way it’s exhausting.
Like the guy who tries to fix his plumbing issue but makes it worse, then stands over the Plumber the whole time like “Yep, exactly, I knew that was the problem” “Yep, that’s what I was going to do” Except the plumber can fire that customer.
Show threadRedditRefugee69Feb 5

I see what you’re saying now, but you went the opposite interpretation of the post that I now realize is ambiguous.

My interpretation, and experience, is that older colleagues will go to you long before they consider going to IT. It’s annoying and I think OOP was venting about that.

The extent of my helping colleagues, and potentially hers, is those laughably easily remedies like rebooting, wiggling cables, etc. Beyond that and it’s time to weigh the pros and cons of sending them to IT and irritating them versus acting like computers are magic and malicious black boxes conspiring against us and pleasing them.

Show threadalekwithakFeb 5
Oh, interesting. I hadn’t considered that.
Show threadKurtVonnegutFeb 5
Students are currently arriving at the university without any basic understanding of file hierarchies (folders containing folders and files). And they have no clue what a zip file is. Nor do they know what to do with it.
Show threadJohnmannescaFeb 5
Scary
Show threadrustydrdFeb 5

I used to be able to just say “please download the materials from [learning platform] and organize them so you can work with them before class” and that would be fine. Nowadays I have to give step-by-step instructions that involve things like “create a folder”, “navigate to your download folder” and “cut (ctrl-x) the files and paste (ctrl-v) them into the new folder” unless I want half the students to get lost.

Some don’t even have a concept of downloading a file. They’re so used to streaming and mobile UIs that they seem to think that a downloaded file is simply gone once you close it (and needs to be re-downloaded).

Show threadDamageFeb 5
God, that’s depressing
Show threadmrgoosmoosFeb 5

dude we have to do the same shit with people

literally step by step instructions with screenshots and they sometimes still don’t get it, and usually it’s not because the instructions were unclear, they simply did not follow what it clearly said because they fundamentally lack understanding or something I don’t fucking know

I used to think it was an unreasonable challenge just to get people to paste values and not formats in Excel. it seems like that’s going to be even more difficult going forward. I fucking hate it when I’m looking at a table with a half column of cells with a border on the bottom because my dumbass coworker doesn’t give a shit about quality and just dragged the first row cell down. like it takes no extra effort to do it cleanly, that shit pisses me off. and it’s not for lack of knowledge, they’ve been taught this and shown it explicitly and told that it’s the expectation to have cleanly formatted files. I couldn’t imagine handing in work that just had a giant shit stain on the front and thinking that’s okay.

Show threadGathorallFeb 5

I wonder if it is the IT magic. Recently I needed a group to fill a table with values from a test that produced a radar chart. Click on the point, get a numeric value, not too hard. The only complication was that it was “totally legally disctinct” so translated differently and truncated from the proper test. So I worked out translations and a table in order.

My instructions was that you start at 9 o’clock and fill in the table clockwise.

Cue constant question regarding translations and where whatever value should go, while I had done the work and all they needed to do was follow a simple instruction to fill it out as directed. I did that work for them, I don’t even remember, that’s why you should follow the simple instruction.

Group of all ages, most

Show threadValmondFeb 5

9 o’clock? I’ve left the office at that hour.

/j

Show threadmrgoosmoosFeb 5

that’s what pisses me off about going the extra mile and making such clear instructions

like why the fuck am I doing it if you’re not going to read it

a separate issue to this is the feedback I’ve been getting from management lately

  • “so and so needs more clear instructions, you need to accommodate that as a supervisor”

  • “your messages are too long, they need to be more concise” — meanwhile it’s literally a flow chart in bullet point form of “if this do that, else go to next bullet”

like what the fuck do you guys want from me, I’m doing extra here to make it simple, if people are fucking stupid that’s not my problem

a guy who just quit routinely turned and work that had some shit wrong with it. just today I found something that was wrong in yet another way every time I looked a bit deeper at. the short version is: “this thing needs to be able to move in the positive x direction. here is a message that this guy sent me showing that he intends for it to move in the positive x direction. here is what this guy designed, that moves in the negative x direction.” okay I’ll go fix that, wait the way this is set up clearly shows that this was not a simple mistake and that he simply fundamentally misunderstood what this thing is supposed to do, even though he sent me a diagram of what it’s supposed to do.

/rant

Show threadViatorOmniumFeb 5
Time to bring back the manuals from the 80s when students were seeing computers for the first time in university.
Show threadCrackhappyFeb 5
80s… pshaw. Try the 60s.
Show threadevidencesFeb 5
I looked up Baggage, I don’t think it would make a difference.
Show threadCrackhappyFeb 5
Nice troll. ;)
Show threadbitjunkieFeb 5
The guy who started the video game store?
Show threadNikeluiFeb 5
Time for the “How to… For dummies” series to make a comeback.
Show threadGathorallFeb 5
For Dummies? That’s ableist. Then again I don’t think the presses will cool before whatever new word they choose is done going trough the euphemism treadmill.
Show threadNikeluiFeb 6
Pardon, the new edition shall be called “Instructions for dumdums”
Show threadHobbitFoot Feb 5

Reading? In this day and age?

It has to be YouTube videos.

Show threadValmondFeb 5
Well, why not? I mean they seem to not magically learn it today either.
Show threadCrackhappyFeb 5
Or any concept of the physical realities of what a computer actually is.
Show threadwonderingwandererFeb 5

It took me years to get over the fact that I can’t simply copy and paste stuff from folder to folder anymore. Most phones these days won’t even let you do it, and some computers won’t either.

Apple and Google are the worst, but even Microsoft tries to be more like them. I just don’t use a computer anymore, haven’t in years. When I do again, I’m definitely switching to Linux…

Show threadGathorallFeb 5
Google Photos be like bet you certainly don’t want pictures you’ve recently taken or downloaded on the front page. Like what the hell if you don’t give me folders at least offer me the most likely things I’d want to do things with up front.
Show threadwonderingwandererFeb 5

“Here’s this embarrassing photo you forgot you took of yourself a year ago instead, and we went ahead and made a slideshow of random photos you took throughout the year with the data that we appropriated from your device. Oh, and here’s a map with pinpoints of all the locations where you’ve taken a photo.

Oh, what’s that, you thought you turned off location permissions? Well, not since your last update you didn’t!”

Show threadsmhFeb 6
Hey, it’s the anniversary of that time your dad went into the hospital and never came out. Here’s a picture of him on the beach!
Show threadTrackinDaKrakenFeb 5

I mean, they’re close to illiterate, and can’t focus on reading anything longer than two paragraphs, according to what I’ve read on /r/teachers. Phones don’t have apparent file management, so they don’t know about it.

Idiocracy indeed.

Show threadGathorallFeb 5

Phones are aggressively hostile to any file management. Many apps just straight up don’t give control of actual directories to end users. Manually modifying the directories of software is effectively hidden under an exploit.

So I would not blame youngsters that don’t have personal computers. Mobile OS obscure the use and neuter the potential of learning the file system, there are massive hurdles for fringe benefits, completely different from especially PC use in our time where this was fundamental knowledge and enabled doing all kinds of interesting and useful stuff.

Show threadfoodandartFeb 5

My IT experience as a “Generation Jones” Boomer.

Older Boomers: Ugh. Please… let me sort it and you just go back to watching TV.

Gen-X: Ah, you got that? Fantastic!

Millennials: You’re going to need something better than a phone to set that network up with. We have to do some port forwarding on the new modem, so the camera system can connect, so at minimum we need the office laptop. Can you squeeze under the cabinet and pull those ethernet lines I snaked up from the basement? I think they’re just inside the bottom of the pocket…

Gen-Z: That is awesome that you want to help! Let me show you a few neat tricks. I’ve got some ancient laptops you can dabble with… they’re bang-up for running torrents, I know you are tight for cash and streaming costs and arm and a leg now. Lemme show you how to save some money.

Show threadikiddFeb 5
If I need someone to wind up a SpeakNSpell or onboard an iPhone for someone, I’ll call you.
Show threadfaizalrFeb 5
It needs a young backup.
Show threadStefan_S_from_HFeb 5

How old is this screenshot?

Young people don’t even know what a directory is.

Show threadDon_alFornoFeb 5
You can be pretty old and still the youngest person in the office.
Show threadRememberTheApollo_Feb 5

They’re on X, and I refuse to install it to guess at this person’s age. From the look of it they’re in their 20’s/30’s, so I think they’re one of the exceptions to the rule that most young people don’t know shit about computers.

Hell, even my kids don’t understand that mobile phones, slates, car stereos, gaming consoles, and even musical greeting cards can be computers. To them a computer is a desktop PC. They’re getting there, though.

Show threadRooster326Feb 5

You can be the youngest person in an office and a Millennial.

Source: Me. I am surrounded by boomers.

Show threadideonekFeb 5
I don’t know what the age gap is in her office, but my personal experience is that the top “basic computer skills as a default” were picked before her generation. Except plugin the projector. No one knows how to do it.
Show threadSiethronFeb 5

The projector? You mean that thing that shines a light through clear sheets and then through a lense and mirror making anything on the sheet appear on the wall.

All other forms of projectors are the product of a Drunken Satan trying to immitate tech bros.

Show threadPM_Your_Nudes_PleaseFeb 5
As someone who used to do projection mapping professionally: I agree
Show threadsmhFeb 6
Let me introduce you to the epidiascope. It could project both transparent and opaque originals. The one I’ve touched worked with glass lantern slides. It expected a bright burning light of some sort, but we retrofit it with a modern electric lamp. They’re so cool.
Objects of school days past - Epidiascope

Epidiascope used to project transparent slides and opaque images, circa 1945.

Show threadTrackinDaKrakenFeb 5

Gen-X here. I showed my Gen-Z kid how to build a gaming PC, and then he showed his friend how to do it. So, now, they’re the “IT” guys for the group.

The kid has been sitting in front of a computer since he was four. It occurs to me just now that I didn’t really teach him anything about file management, drives, etc. He learned the same way I did, I suppose. By wanting to, and searching for answers. He was the first one to switch to Linux a couple of years ago. I don’t know his motivation for doing it, but it prompted me to make the switch soon after.

Show threadbitjunkieFeb 5
Yeah or oldest, anyone reaching adolescence after the advent of the iPhone is reliably dumber with tech than boomers who used a computer for work
Show threadcaptainlezbianFeb 5
I’m not IT but I’ve been the only engineer under 50 which meant IT occasionally conscripted me when a problem looked like it might be too physical in origin
Show threadAceticonFeb 5
It was true 20 years ago, but is it still true nowadays when it’s the 30-40 year olds who mostly grew up with the kind of computer used in business settings whilst the 20 olds usually grew up with smartphones instead?