source: @n7gifmdn@lemmy.ca
this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2025
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Would love some older internet gen input here: is this a "gen [whatever] is so [negative trait here] because they are [generation group]" or "younger ppl be stupid"?
Context: Am a millennial. At my first "real job" (as in, in the industry I got my degree in) I worked with ONE (1) other person, who was an early Gen-Xer. After developing a report with each other and becoming friendly, he lamented to me about how it seems like "millennials (not you, of course)" seem so helpless - like they can't figure things out on their own. Always asking "where is-" or "how do i-" before even examining the problem at hand and/or the resources available.
This dude was a self-proclaimed "blue fish in a red sea," and we worked with a wide age-range of sales ppl. I mention this, bc in the two years I worked with this nerd (and he was a fucking nerd, taking into account modern day and late 80s-early 90s standards of the term), his complaints about millennials never sounded like media parrot-speech. He was literally befuddled about the operational differences between generations.
It 100% seemed like an ageist thing. This was the late 2010's, pre-covid.
I'm in my 30s now and am equally baffled when my teenaged niece (weird familial age gap - not relevant here) doesn't know how to make the tap water hot when there's only one knob instead of two. She asked outloud but I refused to acknowledge or answer her. Niece figured it out shortly on her own, as expected.
So-... maybe younger people are just, yknow, dumb? Or recognize that, when surrounded by more experienced others, it takes less effort to ask for guidance than to waste energy through trial and error-?
Not trying to prove a point here. Just legit curious if anyone older has had similar experiences and can offer insight into whether this is a "zoomers are-" or "younger people are-" observation.
I've definitely noticed the younger ones are used to asking any question and having it simply answered. They grew up with the internet, it's obvious I suppose, and chatgpt is just going to make that worse. The juniors and entry-level people coming in are smart, but I feel like I'm seeing lower problem solving and critical thinking.
Things like "it doesn't work", okay well what you you tried? What things did you attempt before giving up. Idk, definitely a different mindset.
Part of it is that they've grown up with smartphones and tablets, so they don't understand the basic functions of computers.
Schools have mostly moved to Chromebooks, so kids don't learn how to save and organize files locally. Everything in their lives is in the cloud or in a specialized app.
Trying to work on a PC with a shared file server on a business network without additional training is like trying to converse in a language they've never spoken.
GenXers and elder Millennials were the last people who learned tech skills on PCs first. There are very few younger people who ever needed to learn basic DOS prompts or how to troubleshoot problems.
They're used to everything just working without additional intervention, and they have no idea where to start looking for answers when it doesn't. Most of that is our fault -- we've made things far too easy for them because it's more comfortable for us as parents and teachers to give them the answers than to guide them as they struggle with the challenge.
It is a deliberate choice by corpos to dumb everything down so that they can lock people in their ecosystem.
If you don't know how things work, it's a lot harded to switch to a new ecosystem.