Generalizing that "users don't understand" from some autocomplete suggestions does not logically follow.
You'd be surprised. Research has found that the "digital native" generations (younger people born into/after the internet age) are no better at these things than the "older people" - the whole "digital native" thing is a myth in this regard.
It's mostly about being interested in tech/a nerd vs not. Kids that don't, might know 100 ways to use Instagram or specific tools they need, but can't tell a URL bar from a search bar (and other basic distinctions/skills) either.
Older than a certain age = much more likely to have less experience with computers as they didn't grow up learning how to use them/only learned specific tasks and applications as needed for work and online communication/shopping/etc.
Younger than a certain age = much more likely to only have experience with mobile, "apps", and turnkey solutions. Knows the details of popular platforms but little in terms of troubleshooting, workarounds, or generally anything that can't be solved by clicking a link or pointing to a picture on a screen.
Granted, there are loads of exceptions because, as you say, there's nothing stopping you from learning about something if you have an interest. It's more a matter of who has run across a need to look into something in the course of their life. If you grew up in the period between personal computers becoming common and the explosion of web apps/mobile devices, chances are you had to figure out how to do something at some point. That's not necessarily the case before or after.
It's why there's no such thing as an iOS/Android power user.
The vast majority of users simply accepted the defaults provided, and their ability to understand computing principles suffered due to:
- No accessible file system
- No way to sideload applications
- For ages, no support for mouse/keyboard input
- No USB mass storage
- No support for audio/video codecs other than Apple-approved ones
From what you've written here though, it seems that you do agree with me...
Yeah, right. A few months back in 2021 I was asked how to "make an app on the phone". Not FOR a phone, ON a phone, the complete development only using a phone. WTF?
And no, it wasn't a 12 year old kid, it was a 21 year old guy with a Bachelor of science degree.
You jest, but it's possible. There is an Android IDE that includes a compiler that runs on Android.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aide.ui&hl...
But in this case it's 99% more likely that the person asking didn't have these in mind, but just misunderstood what it takes to make a regular mobile app and though it obvious that regular mobile app development happens on the phones themselves.
So they were correct by accident, and only because there are some niche environments very few actual apps - and no major one - were ever made on. So it's like being correct that there are aligators in Australia, but not because normally there would be as local fauna (which is what you had in mind, confusing them with crocodiles), but because it happened that some actual aligators escaped from some zoo and procreated in the wild outback.
Correct. They also crash cars into trees, shoot themselves in the foot, and vote for orange people.
Computers and the internet are intrinsically complex. I regret efforts to make them seem simple.
In fact, tablets and smartphones are a serious effort to put a simplified skin on computers and the internet; but I don't want that simplification when I'm using a real general-purpose computer, with a proper keyboard. I wish smartphones and tablets would get off the freeway, and leave it free for real drivers.
The people who "don't know anything" need their own road network.
The 'myths' it discusses are all absolutes along the lines of "it's impossible for old people to learn anything" or "old people hate computers and will never use them". The myths are constructed so that there is no possibility they are correct, and yet in the conclusion they still say there is some truth to them!
Anyway, "old people tend to be confused by websites significantly more than other groups" and "it's impossible to train an old person to know what search boxes are" are not remotely similar statements.