Translation by yours truly. Original source [A]
Clicking and swiping.
Years ago, I reported that people in the IT industry told me that they are facing increasing numbers of school graduates for some internships and apprenticeships or side jobs who can't operate a PC. operate a keyboard. Who cannot operate a normal desktop computer.
Why?
Because they know nothing but phones and tablets. They don't know about working on a PC, but only swiping around on a touchscreen with a trivial user interface.
Now, I am ready to admit that, in the meantime, there are a few applications with an excellent user interface on the tablet, that generally work better than equivalent applications on the PC with mouse and keyboard. I don't want to downplay tablets, I've got a few of them myself and like using them. But they are just a supplementary tool and a way to access a simplified GUI. The invention of tablets (as far as I remember, Apple with the first iPad, just like the iPhone was just a derivative of their MP3 player, what was that thing called? iPod? But the idea existed earlier in old science fiction) was a great idea, I definitely wouldn't want to lose those things. Those things are brilliant. But they are also just a mere supplement, not a replacement.
And the Tagesschau
Another long-running topic of mine. That has annoyed me 25 years ago already. Around 2000, the stupid German press and the leftist people of arrogance blathered that the generation like mine was just a "digital immigrant" and, as long as we live, we'd have a hard time with computers just like with a foreign language you learn late in life. For example, I didn't have a smartphone or Internet at school. We had dial-operated telephones at home. My first mobile phone - not a smartphone, a pure cell phone that could only do phone and SMS and nothing else, I had ... no, my first one wasn't a private one, I started with the second one, I was over 30 years old already, done with university studies. My first mobile phone was a research phone at the university which I pushed for to use PCMCIA data card (Nokia 2110, they used a PCMCIA card for data transmission) to make my crypto telephone mobile (officially, I gave them a different reason). That caused a big outrage because the bill got talked about up to the presidency level and they were terribly upset that a research assistant could have the first mobile phone of Karlsruhe University, even ahead of the principal and director - you can't do that, because it is obvious that the director is entitled to the first and the principal is entitled to the second mobile phone at the university. That is why they immediately ordered mobile phones for themselves, without even knowing for what purpose, but it was inappropriate that I as an assistant had one and they did not.
After which "my" professor freaked out because he couldn't tolerate that the director and principal had one and he didn't. I got tasked to get him the first Nokia 9000 Communicator (he had no idea what those things are used for, but somewhere he was an advertisement according to which you need one of those now to be important) in Germany, and go tell Nokia what an important person he is, so that Nokia can't help but give him the first one. Unfortunately I had to inform him that that was no longer possible, no matter what I told Nokia, because it is on the market already and the first one is sold already. I then got him one and spent some time setting the thing up and hooking it up to the mail system.
A few days later, he came to me furiously, I allegedly embarrassed him to the bone because he relied on the fact that the thing worked, he wanted to brag about it in London and it didn't work. I should immediately get that thing working. Tried it - worked flawlessly. Then looked at the logs: He simply didn't know and didn't understand what a mail address is. The input field said "Address" and he thought it meant "Salutation" and wrote in "Dear Mr ...". It was not possible to explain to him what a mail address is and what it's good for. He then returned to pen, paper, and hotel reception fax. Just computer science professor things.
Back then, half of the computer science professors could read neither e-mail nor websites, but needed everything on paper, printed by the secretary. And the other half couldn't handle e-mail on a normal system, but only on the back-then brand new Macintosh using the mouse, not more.
This, that is, the generation above me, was the one that had enormous problems with digitalization and which had no idea about computer science whatsoever, outside of a few theoretical areas. And those were the ones who are responsible for giving the journalists this stereotype, they believed that everyone born before 1990 or 2000 was a mere "digital immigrant" and would never be able to handle computers, while the ones who get born after would grow into them brilliantly and become able to operate them with superhuman excellence.
I already thought that was nonsense back then.
I was aware that my generation, and maybe the one right after is the one who knows computers best. Because we still understood them in their entirety. And because we invented and built all that stuff. Back then we connected the first companies to the Internet, and they're telling us baloney that we are just digital immigrants.
The generation after mine was very privileged. They weren't better at understanding computers - but better in understanding business models. We understood how computers worked. They understood how to use them and make money with them.
But then, when the "digital natives" arrived, things went downhill, because the machines were too "done" by that point. You can't understand them anymore, you can only use them.
And worse: You don't need to understand them anymore. With our computers from back then, you couldn't do anything as long as you didn't understand them. Today it's simple swiping.
And thus, we did not arrive at the journalist-envisioned age of computer virtuosity, but in the age of a decadent consumerism.
The prognosis was completely wrong.
In the last 10 years of my work activity (and a former colleague and long-time friend feels the same way) I always found it very poignant when you notice that the youths think you're the "old guy" or the old fart, the senior generation just ahead of wheelchair, diaper, and level of care 2, but they have to ask for help and explanations or are left dumbfounded when you hold trainings and lectures, or when you know what system administration skills you have and what you know, or when you easily outspeed them in troubleshooting and find errors much quicker - or find errors they would never have found because they couldn't even imagine or understand them when you explain them to them, including the solution.
When it comes to programming, many people's understanding doesn't go beyond stitching together libraries and finished procedures.
I am even afraid that digitalization may even go the other way around.
I am already noticing now how many open-source projects no longer get maintained and developed, because there no longer is anyone around who understands them. There are now people who don't even know anymore what software maintenance is, and who aren't there to understand and reply to and follow questions and bug reports, but instead make sure that they are phrased politically correct with gendered language and pronouns, and then just leave them there.
Can you imagine what's going to happen when the boomers retire and the - much less - capable people of the next generation can't catch up or are fed up and leave. And then the migrant approach will be dominating.
The things that are going to happen here...
Clicking and swiping
No, not whooshing and waving.Clicking and swiping.
Years ago, I reported that people in the IT industry told me that they are facing increasing numbers of school graduates for some internships and apprenticeships or side jobs who can't operate a PC. operate a keyboard. Who cannot operate a normal desktop computer.
Why?
Because they know nothing but phones and tablets. They don't know about working on a PC, but only swiping around on a touchscreen with a trivial user interface.
Now, I am ready to admit that, in the meantime, there are a few applications with an excellent user interface on the tablet, that generally work better than equivalent applications on the PC with mouse and keyboard. I don't want to downplay tablets, I've got a few of them myself and like using them. But they are just a supplementary tool and a way to access a simplified GUI. The invention of tablets (as far as I remember, Apple with the first iPad, just like the iPhone was just a derivative of their MP3 player, what was that thing called? iPod? But the idea existed earlier in old science fiction) was a great idea, I definitely wouldn't want to lose those things. Those things are brilliant. But they are also just a mere supplement, not a replacement.
[emphasis added by Danisch]
And the Tagesschau
Another long-running topic of mine. That has annoyed me 25 years ago already. Around 2000, the stupid German press and the leftist people of arrogance blathered that the generation like mine was just a "digital immigrant" and, as long as we live, we'd have a hard time with computers just like with a foreign language you learn late in life. For example, I didn't have a smartphone or Internet at school. We had dial-operated telephones at home. My first mobile phone - not a smartphone, a pure cell phone that could only do phone and SMS and nothing else, I had ... no, my first one wasn't a private one, I started with the second one, I was over 30 years old already, done with university studies. My first mobile phone was a research phone at the university which I pushed for to use PCMCIA data card (Nokia 2110, they used a PCMCIA card for data transmission) to make my crypto telephone mobile (officially, I gave them a different reason). That caused a big outrage because the bill got talked about up to the presidency level and they were terribly upset that a research assistant could have the first mobile phone of Karlsruhe University, even ahead of the principal and director - you can't do that, because it is obvious that the director is entitled to the first and the principal is entitled to the second mobile phone at the university. That is why they immediately ordered mobile phones for themselves, without even knowing for what purpose, but it was inappropriate that I as an assistant had one and they did not.
After which "my" professor freaked out because he couldn't tolerate that the director and principal had one and he didn't. I got tasked to get him the first Nokia 9000 Communicator (he had no idea what those things are used for, but somewhere he was an advertisement according to which you need one of those now to be important) in Germany, and go tell Nokia what an important person he is, so that Nokia can't help but give him the first one. Unfortunately I had to inform him that that was no longer possible, no matter what I told Nokia, because it is on the market already and the first one is sold already. I then got him one and spent some time setting the thing up and hooking it up to the mail system.
A few days later, he came to me furiously, I allegedly embarrassed him to the bone because he relied on the fact that the thing worked, he wanted to brag about it in London and it didn't work. I should immediately get that thing working. Tried it - worked flawlessly. Then looked at the logs: He simply didn't know and didn't understand what a mail address is. The input field said "Address" and he thought it meant "Salutation" and wrote in "Dear Mr ...". It was not possible to explain to him what a mail address is and what it's good for. He then returned to pen, paper, and hotel reception fax. Just computer science professor things.
Back then, half of the computer science professors could read neither e-mail nor websites, but needed everything on paper, printed by the secretary. And the other half couldn't handle e-mail on a normal system, but only on the back-then brand new Macintosh using the mouse, not more.
This, that is, the generation above me, was the one that had enormous problems with digitalization and which had no idea about computer science whatsoever, outside of a few theoretical areas. And those were the ones who are responsible for giving the journalists this stereotype, they believed that everyone born before 1990 or 2000 was a mere "digital immigrant" and would never be able to handle computers, while the ones who get born after would grow into them brilliantly and become able to operate them with superhuman excellence.
I already thought that was nonsense back then.
I was aware that my generation, and maybe the one right after is the one who knows computers best. Because we still understood them in their entirety. And because we invented and built all that stuff. Back then we connected the first companies to the Internet, and they're telling us baloney that we are just digital immigrants.
The generation after mine was very privileged. They weren't better at understanding computers - but better in understanding business models. We understood how computers worked. They understood how to use them and make money with them.
But then, when the "digital natives" arrived, things went downhill, because the machines were too "done" by that point. You can't understand them anymore, you can only use them.
And worse: You don't need to understand them anymore. With our computers from back then, you couldn't do anything as long as you didn't understand them. Today it's simple swiping.
And thus, we did not arrive at the journalist-envisioned age of computer virtuosity, but in the age of a decadent consumerism.
The prognosis was completely wrong.
In the last 10 years of my work activity (and a former colleague and long-time friend feels the same way) I always found it very poignant when you notice that the youths think you're the "old guy" or the old fart, the senior generation just ahead of wheelchair, diaper, and level of care 2, but they have to ask for help and explanations or are left dumbfounded when you hold trainings and lectures, or when you know what system administration skills you have and what you know, or when you easily outspeed them in troubleshooting and find errors much quicker - or find errors they would never have found because they couldn't even imagine or understand them when you explain them to them, including the solution.
When it comes to programming, many people's understanding doesn't go beyond stitching together libraries and finished procedures.
I am even afraid that digitalization may even go the other way around.
I am already noticing now how many open-source projects no longer get maintained and developed, because there no longer is anyone around who understands them. There are now people who don't even know anymore what software maintenance is, and who aren't there to understand and reply to and follow questions and bug reports, but instead make sure that they are phrased politically correct with gendered language and pronouns, and then just leave them there.
Can you imagine what's going to happen when the boomers retire and the - much less - capable people of the next generation can't catch up or are fed up and leave. And then the migrant approach will be dominating.
The things that are going to happen here...
