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theres a generation of kids who don't understand basic directories because of the mobile market and never actually used a pc in a regular usecase.
put in perspective, there are those who are more proficient on a touchscreen keyboard more than an actual keyboard.
I've also found (I'm a teacher) this generation is far less proficient at search. They (generalisation) type a whole question into Google, and read the Google created text box to get their answer, taking it as gospel - regardless of if Google has completely gone off the mark.
Contrast this to a generation that grew up with needing to refine search terms with key words, who can find far more relevant info quicker.
It's hard to get them out of the rut and teach them to be more critical of sources. They're so used to having what they need served straight up for them. LLMs (AI) are feeding into this more - they struggle to believe that AI hallucinations exist until I show them.
Again all this is generalisation - when I say 'they' I don't mean 'all'.
How do you demonstrate a hallucination?
Ask it esoteric questions on something you are intimately familiar with. Heck it doesnāt even need to be esoteric. I asked Bing who won the 2023 World Series and it confidently told me that it was Astros vs the Phillies that the Astros won in 5 games.
I asked Llama 2 the same question and here is the answer. Idk if it is acually right, I don't watch sports.
Sure! Here's the answer to your question:
According to the search results, the Texas Rangers won the 2023 World Series. They defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks in the championship series, winning four games to one.
Wikipedia confirms that info.
I generally get ask it to provide sources for its work, and then show the students that most of the time those sources don't actually exist.
Like it'll have a real author, and a real journal, but a fake article name that the author supposedly wrote.
Or a real website that 404's - once is fair enough, websites change, but when ten of the sourced websites are all 404s that's not right. You also try to search for the article that's meant to be on the website, but even the website doesn't think it exists.
I've even been in an argument with Bing where it was adamant that an article existed on a university website, and it shut down the conversation with me when I kept pointing out I couldn't find it.
Ask it for something non-existent.
Like a town full of mimes in Croatia.
Let it create a simple quizgame with easy question amd tell it to create some backround info on the correct answers.
It will claim the wrong answer correct and tell you the opposite in the backround info quickly
Couple of years back I used to help this kid with computer related stuff, and it really baffled me how he was nearly computer illiterate. He had no idea what make his laptop was, no idea what OS he was on, or any of the specs.
He called it a gaming laptop because he played games on it, but it was a pretty decent school/work thing without a dedicated GPU.
Iād always envisioned the younger generations getting better and better with tech, but it makes sense that wonāt be the case as tech moves to be easier to use, more reliable, and less intrusive.
Modern iPads are nothing like the BS DOS/98 I grew up with.
Similar thing happened with cars. My grandpa would take them apart and reassemble them. my dad (somewhat generalizing to generations a bit) were really into cars and engines and would do some basic diy. I know nothing about them and donāt care to learn much.
I think computers are doing a similar thing. Millennials sit in the middle of the adoption and saw it emerge from more of a technology wild Wild West to being central to modern society. We could take the time to delve into details (since they mattered), but now itās more taken for granted and things are there.
I guess, Iām just thinking itās some sort of technology adoption thing that naturally plays out in a āvictim if itās own successā way.
Thatās such a good point. Kind of blew my mind with it haha.
I would guess that's it's a combination of what you mentioned and also the generation rasing it not bothering to actually teach them properly about that sort of stuff. I never learned about car stuff, never had anyone to teach me. Now as an adult I know enough to do the basic oil change stuff but nothing more.
Yes but unlike ChatGPT giving you made up answers, cars don't drive you to 200 km away from where you wanted to go on their own. At least not yet.
Oh, that's definitely happening when the five-years-away promise of fully self-driving vehicles as promised a decade ago make their appearance in 2050.
I think the situation is also somewhat different with cars. Old cars used to be much simpler to take apart and tinker with than modern cars. Computers and operating systems are still just as easy to pry apart (since the fundamentals haven't changed since the 90s lol).
My theory is that as tech came to a wider appeal and became more user-friendly, more people are using it who don't run into issues that need technical knowledge. Early OSes needed highly technical knowledge to use. Modern OSes can be operated by a monkey. Therefore, their inclination to learn about the computer is less because it just fades into the background.
I think you have some good points, but Iām not 100% sure I agree though. Modern computers are much more complex than earlier ones if the 80s and 90s. (I guess Iām ignoring the earlier VAXs and stuff and thinking more of personal computers.) I saw a keynote from an OS conference which was pointing out that there are very few actual os papers, as the hardware is so much more complex and actually multiple smaller osās managing the various system on chip components.
Also, Mac has over the years gone to great lengths to hide how things actually work. Like 5 years ago I remember getting really confused just attaching a debugger to a c simple C program I was toying with.
At the end you say that OSs are so easy monkeys could use them, and I think thatās my point too. They intentionally get easier to use and fade into the background and donāt really encourage tinkering with the lower level stuff.
You are correct that the basics of computers are similar and thatās why arduino and other microcontrollers are still basically the same as they were years ago, just the main difference Iāve seen is moving to more and more RTOS and trading off a bit of speed and memory, whereas a decade ago it was a lot more low level assembly optimization.
Good points though! I appreciate them. I teach some computer engineering stuff and I think about a lot of this and how best to talk about some of the lower level stuff.
Fr I think this is my problem with the new āadvancementsā and why I find myself more drawn to Linux as time passes. The āfoolproofā of modern tech is also troubleshoot resistant and difficult as hell to do anything with.
I often say I am lucky that I grew up in the narrow window between when computers became a household commonality and when running and repairing them was affordable, because in that narrow window it was learn or buy. Learn to fix it or shell out for a new one, and they werenāt stable enough for buy to be an option for most households for what was basically a toy. So fam being broke, I learned. Iām not in IT or anything (donāt have the credentials to get hired and entirely unwilling to get them when I already know how to do all the things, Iād rather be unemployed than spend more on worthless credentials.. see? Millennial.) but I love running my own hosting and stuff, which means constant learning how to maintain. If I didnāt grow up at that exact time, would I bother, considering this isnāt a job for me and never will be? Probably not, honestly.
I hated the iMac lockdown (and deleted the hard drive registries from every iMac I came across while it was an option to do so, essentially bricking every device I came across, because thatās just piss poor management to allow a group user to brick the entire deviceā¦ š ) I hate the windows forced-maintenance (11 doesnāt give a fuck what my active hours are, because I have them set to everything but a 6 hour span of morning when I actually wonāt be using it. Still does updates mid afternoon, breaking everything I host on it until Iām home to confirm login even with all security disabled and resume settings enabledā¦)
I just hate everything except DIY, and I grew up with that. It so difficult to get it to do what -you-want it to do without bowing to the overlords who dictate how it can be used and Iām so over it.
(The swap off Linux was of necessity 2x, the Beast died due to mobo failure and I bought an off the shelf win tower to replace it, but also needed to run the VM for work and Linux couldnāt manage the niche client they went with.. but now Iām not employed, buh bye windows! Nevah again.)
What is a hard drive registry? Or: a properly managed Mac canāt be bricked by a user š¤·š»
To play a devil's advocate: could this be them learning how to use a search engine? When I was a young teen learning to use a computer for the first time I would type full on sentences into Google and not get any results.
Another teacher here. Teaching English for the first time. I didn't realise their skills were this bad unless I saw with my eyes. Glad I'm not alone in this battle!
Unfortunately this generation google is getting less proficient at search as well. Itās like it treats the search term as a vague idea and any syntax as a non binding suggestion.
And many sites use seo to attract traffic but dont have any content you are actually looking for. And ads.
i can actually type slightly faster on a touchscreen keyboard, despite spending most of my time on my pc.
typing special characters is painfully slow on touch keyboards tho