There’s a saying going around that if you ever tried to mod Minecraft, you grew up to be good with computers. Now this saying is not a catch-all for my generation, but I have been noticing some problems with computer literacy.
To preface, I myself am generally well-versed in technology. I’ve taken a few computer science classes in high school so I know what I’m doing – 90% of the time. So take it with a grain of salt that many people are outside their wheelhouse with technology, I may just be an outlier.
A study by the International Computer and Information Literacy Study found that computer literacy has declined in Gen Z between the years of 2018 and 2023. While some of this can be attributed to the pandemic, the real culprit is that machines have become too easy. For example, the introduction of the Chromebook.
This machine acted as many student’s first personal computers because they were cheap and locked down. Since these systems are so locked down, there are no file systems. Everything just works, which isn’t good for students in the long run. They should learn the ins and outs of programs they will be expected to use in the future, like Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and other vital software.
iPhones and iPads are a culprit as well. The file system and software “just works.” There’s no reason to tinker around with it or try to make it better. This leads to kids not experimenting with their devices, which means they won’t learn the skills organically to export a file or connect a printer.
When I was in high school, I loved trying to get the school computers to do stuff they were never designed to do. I used to play emulators or listen to music on a USB drive when I finished my classwork. It was just harmless fun. Nowadays you have kids just logging onto a website to play games because they physically can’t mess with anything on the computer. I’m not calling for complete open access to everything, just a little wiggle room to experiment.
I asked my 13-year-old brother if he had taken any computer classes in school. He told me that he hadn’t, which shocked me. Even as far back as elementary school we had a dedicated period every week to go to the computer lab and learn about how to use a computer. It ramped up in middle school when we learned how to create Powerpoints from scratch and type efficiently.
Nowadays students rely too much on the technology they are given that works, yes, but it diminishes their ability to think critically about machines and logic problems. Compare using an iPad to a Macbook: the iPad can do some things that a computer can do, but the Macbook can do so much more if the user knows how to do it. The iPad is so locked down that you can’t do what you want to do, you have to do what Apple wants you to do.
In conclusion, I believe that computers have become too oversimplified. While that is good in some respects, like not having to write your own code, it’s also lowering people’s abilities to push machines to their limits, or even their basic functions.
