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Comment by coldtea | Hacker News Reader

>People who don't know anything get confused, but this is going to be older people who are struggling to use computers, the people that call the Microsoft Edge icon "the internet".

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.

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I see this a lot working with grad students and professors.

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.

I don't think that's true. Tech illiteracy was built in to the 'minimal' design of iOS, which influenced every mobile interface that followed. Design today is 'mobile first', meaning the starting point is to hide functionality, then add the barest minimum possible for the user to complete a task. I remember needing to switch from my tablet to a real computer when I had an issue with an Airbnb booking and couldn't find the support option.

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

>I don't think that's true.

From what you've written here though, it seems that you do agree with me...

10-15 years ago a lot of people were saying, that the "digital native" generation will be tech savvy and will surpass everyone with their IT knowledge.

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.

> 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?

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...

Yes, and there are also coding environment apps that go all the way from coding to the app store in iOS.

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.

Yeah, good point and well said.

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