In this interesting and extremely unscientific poll from @darklyadapted@zirk.us:
86% of ppl under 30 can touch type
75% of ppl over 30 can touch type
https://zirk.us/@darklyadapted/111801137294584194
I’ve heard a few old-man-yells-at-cloud grumbles about The Decline of Typing Classes and how Kids These Days Only Know Phones and etc. Apparently, as usual, the reality is subtler than the cranky grumblings.
Why do I mention this?
1/
My teaching job has given me a 13-year-and-counting longitudinal slice of the lives of people around 20 years old: their personalities, abilities, interests, struggles, worries, hopes…. And the longer that slice gets, the more keenly I notice (1) how obsessed the world at large is with these young people, and (2) how grossly the public discourse becomes detached from reality.
It’s a general lesson: your (and my) hot take about people you don’t know is probably embarrassingly ignorant.
2/
To the question of the OP, as a simple example: my students definitely know how to type, certainly no less than they used to. There is perhaps a subtle phone-driven shift in students’ awareness of the existence of a computer’s hierarchical filesystem (i.e. files live in folder/directories, which you choose when you save the file and can use to organize the files).
It’s not that the generational shifts aren’t there, but they aren’t always what we assume.
3/
“Nice, Paul, who cares?! shut up already”
I mention the above because the outlook and behavior of college students have (once again) become a politically motivated lever people to use to try to counter young people’s pushback against racism, transphobia, and fascism in general. “Oh, these intolerant kids and their safe spaces blah blah!”
Yeah. The lived reality of that situation on campus is so far removed from all the popular press wankery I don’t even know where to start.
4/
@inthehands My kids and their friends are so fierce and active and smart and beautiful! I’ve been pushing back against the “kids these days” complaint for years.
@avirr
Keep up the noble work!
@inthehands Mine is just commentary, you’re the one on the front line
@avirr Hey now, don’t sell yourself short; it takes a village to change a culture