#and we're going to have to teach them

[theoraclephobetor]

I work in software support at a university, and I promise that this is as systemic a problem as it gets. It doesn't matter where an undergrad is from, ALMOST ALL that I have spoken with have had an incredibly hard time even IMAGINING that basic computer software has capabilities beyond a phone app.

When my office decided to create a free-for-all tech course, we heard a lot of administrators talk about using it to engage retirees and mature students. But most of the support cases that we used to justify the creation of this course were about students 22 AND UNDER.

A 4th year bio major didn't know that she could organize her computer files! An 18 year old 1st year didn't know that he could type a website url into an address bar instead of googling! A GRAD STUDENT didn't know that Word worked differently on computers because she'd only been using it on her phone!!

I taught a kid to right-click today. He was a lifelong Mac & touch-tablet user. He'd been given a cheap chromebook for school, and everyone in his life assumed he'd be fine learning a totally different OS during his first semester at uni. He came to me nearly in tears because he thought he was "too stupid to survive university", and only started to calm down when I started googling how the fuck Mac keyboard commands worked. I don't know if it was seeing me (a "tech person") desperately searching for a Mac/Windows Rosetta stone, or the validation of me calling the Mac/Windows translation process "a pain in the fucking ass", or just that someone was taking him seriously when he said something was hard. Somewhere in there, HE found a youtube channel dedicated to Mac people switching to Windows OS. And suddenly his world had a bit of hope.

But it took this kid a near-breakdown and a last-ditch attempt to ask for help before someone listened. He was about to drop out, or fail multiple courses. He still might for all I know.

And it pisses me off that he thought that the systemic failure of our education systems was an indicator of his own intelligence. Technology is hard, and he deserved to be taught how to use it.

I still remember being in grade 6 and finding out that it was the last year the school district was offering the computer typing course. We - children no older than 13 - knew that it was a bad idea. We told our teachers to fight for the class. But it was cut anyway, and now I help adults a decade younger than me to figure out how to right-click.

I can't help but see the connection.

seriously, though. i work in higher education, and part of my job is students sending me transcripts. you'd think the ones who have the least idea how to actually do that would be the older ones, and while sure, they definitely struggle with it, i see it most with the younger students. the teens to early 20s crowd.

very, astonishingly often, they don't know how to work with .pdf documents. i get garbage phone screenshots, sometimes inserted into an excel or word file for who knows what reason, but most often it's just a raw .jpg or other image file.

they definitely either don't know how to use a scanner, don't have access to one, or don't even know where they might go for that (staples and other office supply stores sometimes still have these services, but public libraries always have your back, kids.) so when they have a paper transcript and need to send me a copy electronically, it's just terrible photos at bad angles full of thumbs and text-obscuring shadows.

mind bogglingly frequently, i get cell phone photos of computer screens. they don't know how to take a screenshot on a computer. they don't know the function of the Print Screen button on the keyboard. they don't know how to right click a web page, hit "print", and choose "save as PDF" to produce a full and unbroken capture of the entirety of a webpage.

sometimes they'll just copy the text of a transcript and paste it right into the message of an email. that's if they figure out the difference between the body text portion of the email and the subject line, because quite frankly they often don't.

these are people who in most cases have done at least some college work already, but they have absolutely no clue how to utilize the attachment function in an email, and for some reason they don't consider they could google very quickly for instructions or even videos.

i am not taking a shit on gen z/gen alpha here, i'm really not.

what i am is aghast that they've been so massively failed on so many levels. the education system assumed they were "native" to technology and needed to be taught nothing. their parents assumed the same, or assumed the schools would teach them, or don't know how themselves and are too intimidated to figure it out and teach their kids these skills at home.

they spend hours a day on instagram and tiktok and youtube and etc, so they surely know (this is ridiculous to assume!!!) how to draft a formal email and format the text and what part goes where and what all those damn little symbols means, right? SURELY they're already familiar with every file type under the sun and know how to make use of whatever's salient in a pinch, right???

THEY MUST CERTAINLY know, innately, as one knows how to inhale, how to type in business formatting and formal communication style, how to present themselves in a way that gets them taken seriously by formal institutions, how to appear and be competent in basic/standard digital skills. SURELY. Of course. RIGHT!!!!

it's MADDENING, it's insane, and it's frustrating from the receiving end, but even more frustrating knowing they're stumbling blind out there in the digital spaces of grown-up matters, being dismissed, being considered less intelligent, being talked down to, because every adult and system responsible for them just

ASSUMED they should "just know" or "just figure out" these important things no one ever bothered to teach them, or half the time even introduce the concepts of before asking them to do it, on the spot, with high educational or professional stakes.

kids shouldn't have to supplement their own education like this and get sneered and scoffed at if they don't.

[confuzing]

My Super secret AU were Airplane and Cucumber Bro live in the same apartment building but don't figure that out until the entire building and it's tenants get transmigrated into Proud Immortal Demon Way post realms merging.

It's super secret because the stuff that's interesting to me is the apartment residents banding together to figure shit out. If I wrote this we'd probably be 20 chapters deep before any known PIDW characters showed up, and Demon Lord Luo Binghe isn't showing up until after the retired electrician grandpa and the engineering students (apartments were near a college so there's a bunch of students in the building) have figured out how to make their own solar panels.

(Also this is secretly about giving Mu Qingfang a happy ending because his canon PIDW situation is Real Sad- he shows up at the apartment and adopts the small gaggle of med students and starts a clinic.)

(Also he might start a lil cultivation school because a bunch of the residents got brand new shiny spiritual veins when they transmigrated and they have no idea what to do with them.)

Ok I gotta stop talking about this.

[waywardsalt]

with the bit abt noelle mentioning berdly saying she should get a crt, berdly being a gamer and the thing abt crts being good for particular games, i could see later down the line susie mentioning offhandedly around berdly that she helped re-home kris's old crt tenna to mettaton and him immediately trying to get her help trying to convince mettaton to let them hang out and play games on it at some point. maybe if mettaton's got the confidence for it i bet it'd be interesting for berdly to drag susie, noelle, and kris over to play games on that crt for a little bit

[pushing500]

how do the jones boys feel about recent subcore creation developments?

They haven't finished researching High Mechtech yet, so they haven't had any 'recent developments' unless you count the subcore softscanner they've had for a while.

When they do figure out ripscanning, I think Mechi (as the evil twin) will probably be fiendishly delighted at the opportunity for revenge on any raiders who dare try to interrupt his peace and quiet, while Kwahu (as the good twin) would have one or two reservations about killing people in the name of furthering his Mechlord aspirations. He'd still do it, though. He's not that good.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

just got the funniest idea for a stream

[lieutenantselnia]

I'm currently unsure whether I should be happy or stressed about the fact that there are only like 5 more weeks until the end of the semester - on one hand the summer holidays can't arrive fast enough so I can rest and have free time again but on the other hand there's still so much to finish within that time frame and ugh I'm just tired😵‍💫

At least today (or more like yesterday by the time I post this) I had a fun day, I went to a wildlife park with friends (a trip we've had planned since a couple weeks already), I'm sure I haven't been to the place in like a decade but it was really fun! I didn't think to take a lot of pictures of the animals, but here's a plush trout I got at the souvenir shop🐟

[rokkzalm]

Star Queen Exyl

6BA8FD / 203FC6 / 00E87B / FF11A1 / E551EF

[pomodoriyum]

like as somebody who does invasive species management / removal in my free time i still think its so fucking stupid whenever people freak out about hybridization of an invasive species with a v similar native one like. ok you little eugenicist obsessed with purity. i think youre wrong AND an asshole.

[itspileofgoodthings]

my whiniest most negative most exhausted seemingly not interested class when i say I don't think we're going to finish David Copperfield: noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[im2tired4usernames]

You know if your church has an attitude that child education is a waste of time because God and revolutions is coming anytime and the world's just gonna end so the children don't need to waste time to know math and that you need to train them up right they just need to study the Bible and love God your church is lit just a dooms day cult and not even trying to hide it

[knight-intraining]

The fact that there was once a time where I was like, "being a theatre teacher is not for me. Alas, I must find a new path posthaste".

When I directed my first play in literally 5th grade and then got to middle school and was like "I think I want to do this for the rest of my life" is kind of hilarious, I'm not gonna lie

Like the kids ask me about my life path or whatever, and I'm like yeah this will be my 10th show I've directed, and I knew in middle school I wanted to do this forever. And then I have to be like - but worry not! For there was a time in my life that I was incredibly stupid and thought this was, in fact, not my correct path 🤦🏼

[gender-euphowrya]

my therapist telling me i'm his point of reference when he deals with other trans patients

[butterflies-and-bumble-bees]

*screams into the void*

[gibbearish]

are we really back to "oh you support (blank)? name ten people who (do/are) that right now or else youre lying for allyship points and everything you have to say should be disregarded". i thought we left that back in like. 2012 misogynist nerdbro culture

[thebluebygracieabrams]

real

[cosmicrhetoric]

treating my family friends like my cousins has 100% improved my relationships with most of them.....like i can finally admit that theyre annoying as shit sometimes but i will still love them forever <3