> The generation below me (Gen-Z, Zoomers?) seem to be experts at using touchscreen devices and social networks.
And, importantly, it's not that they learned the new tech fluently while millennials haven't adapted—there aren't "modern" digital skills that aren't readily learned by millennials, but there certainly are fewer Gen Z adults who have learned to fluently use the still-more-powerful keyboard-based tech that we picked up as kids.
> ...it's not that they learned the new tech fluently while millennials haven't adapted—there aren't "modern" digital skills that aren't readily learned by millennials, but there certainly are fewer Gen Z adults who have learned to fluently use the still-more-powerful keyboard-based tech that we picked up as kids.
I agree, but it's so much more than keyboards.
Things that irritated me for years about smartphones were irritations because I'd been able to do them on desktops and laptops but suddenly couldn't on a smartphone. I knew that the hardware qualified it as a general purpose computer, and that it was locked down into being a more limited appliance. Features were added back over the years, and there's even an argument that we normalized much better security practices on both iOS and Android/AOSP because of that development cadence but, for most people whose first computer was a phone, the concept of a general purpose computer is simply missing from their awareness and "computer" becomes merely a word meaning black-box, magical appliance. And they don't discover what the appliance truly could be---its full potential---because it now works well enough for its specific purpose that they can leave the black box closed.
It may be a historically inevitable closing of doors, in the same way that cars stopped being machines most people understood long before the advent of the microcomputer, but I feel a sense of loss for other people. My reading of human history is that when there's a rough technological parity (i.e. parity of understanding, access, and usefulness) between individuals and large institutions, you tend to see more freedom. When there isn't, you see less-to-none.
I remember as a child being interested in computers. I had watched hackers, the Matrix etc and was just drawn to that world. And of course the people I hung around with too were like minded.
As an adult I find it strange how nontechnical so many people are. I really am concerned for them in the future as AI and scams get so much better and much more complex.
And, importantly, it's not that they learned the new tech fluently while millennials haven't adapted—there aren't "modern" digital skills that aren't readily learned by millennials, but there certainly are fewer Gen Z adults who have learned to fluently use the still-more-powerful keyboard-based tech that we picked up as kids.