The physical keyboard is just a tool. There are alternatives like speech-to-text software, virtual keyboards with swipe features, or stenotype.
The goal should be to use whatever is most effective and efficient for yourself, so if Gen Zrs are more used to touch screen, maybe they should invent a touch screen interface that you can use with the computer, maybe even incorporating the mouse somehow.
For me personally the touch interfaces right now are fucked up - I always tap the wrong letters on my phone, the auto-correct and suggestions used to compensate for this often times make it even worse, and swipe doesn’t come up with the words I want, I often have to swipe multiple times. I can’t imagine operating a computer like this, but maybe for Gen Zrs it’s no problem.
Maybe in the future you just need to think the word and it appears on the screen, and typing would be obsolete.
Keyboards exist the way they are because typewriters did it that way for nearly 150 years, and had to be that way because they are a mechanical device. We havent even changed the design of PC keyboards since IBM basically perfected it in the 80s. Theres probably a lot of room to improve the keyboard, but we dont because simply its already a refined invention and fimilar. For example, qwerty made sense on a mechanical device, but it makes zero sense on an electronic device. But familiarity keeps people on qwerty. Funny enough, this effects touch keyboards too.
As a Gen Z, I just don’t get it. One-off message, note or comment is fine. But have you never happened to have a long-ish conversation while on your phone? You get tired soon and want to go for a normal-sized physical keyboard.
The goal should be to use whatever is most effective and efficient for yourself,
And if taught as they should be, that will be the keyboard.
Counting out 5*5 on your fingers works and might be the fastest way you’ve been taught to multiply, but that doesn’t mean we should excuse schools not teaching times tables and how to use a caluclator.
100%
Input methods will change over time.
Technology has moved from nitch nerdy thing to general public usage and as it did so it became usable without knowing what’s going on. Gen Z doesn’t know shit about technology, they just know how to use it.
When I was a kid, if you wanted to get a computer working you had to screw with the RAM settings or build the computer yourself from components. If you didn’t know how to do this you talked with someone who did. I’ve forced my kids to learn at least some of this, but the idea that they’re more tech savvy is ridiculous. They’re users of tech, but it’s become too complicated (and more user friendly), so they don’t know what’s happening behind their screen.
I had to teach some zoomers how to send an email, especially about using bcc, pretty funny I have to say
Gen X here. Honestly, I was a shit typer until I got a keyboard for my sega dreamcast and bought “Typing of the dead”.
I went from hunt and peck to well over 100wpm.
Typing of the dead
Still my favorite example of gamification: take a useful task and make it so fun that people will gladly devote hours and hours of their time to it.
I didn’t know I was learning a life skill at the time. I was having such a good time playing and wanted to get better and better. I guess this sorta holds true for any sport.
My girlfriend (wife now) at the time also played with me using two keyboards. She types over 120wpm.
Really shows the difference between Knowing how to work with, and how it works
The natural result of getting rid of computer literacy classes.
I was a terrible typer as a kid, two finger hunt and pecker. Got a job that necessitated fast typing while listening or reading. I learned how to touch type, or fake it enough, really quick. Humans are adaptable, that’s why we are everywhere, they just need the motivation to learn the skill.
For me it was AOL chat rooms and Star Trek role play that got my typing speed up, later followed by wow when voice chat was uncommon and communicating during a dungeon or raid required typing fast to not interrupt what you needed to do
I have 7 typewriters. My son will know how to touch type :)
Z is not savvy. They’re basically boomers when it comes to tech. It always worked so it should work. None of our z staff can fix a printer and in fact none are allowed to
Not a very enlightened take. As @nednobbins@lemm.ee correctly put it, tech savviness is the property of an individual and not of a generation. There are non-savvy Zoomers, just as there are non-savvy people from your generation.
For Boomers, cars was the latest tech that everyone was fiddling with. This caused even the boomer that wasn’t very interested , to know quite a lot. For later generations, car became more of a means of transportation, and the knowledge of cars was only for specialists. For gen X, computers were the high tech thing, everyone was fiddling with. Most gen x can setup if they have to. For later generations, computers are just tools, and the knowledge is only for specialists.
Video games and getting them to run on computers taught me most of what I know about them via “fiddling,” so this checks out for this Xer.
80s millennial here and same. Getting games to run was so much work back in the 90s that I learned about computers. I think I got my first IT job because I was able to install and setup Word.
installing minecraft mods are what got me to where I am today, I approach tech stuff with a “I’ll learn how to do this” (fiddling) rather than a “oh i’ll just call the PC guy” that my mom would do.
As @nednobbins@lemm.ee correctly put it, tech savviness is the property of an individual and not of a generation. There are non-savvy Zoomers, just as there are non-savvy people from your generation.
You’re making the argument that the exception proves the rule, which is a misleading way to think about it. Most people in this thread are generalising the generations because that is a more accurate way to think about common behaviours or abilities across a very large group of people.
Of course, but the percentage of capable zoomers who are actually tech savvy is much smaller than millenials, for the reasons already stated.
Just the other day I witnessed a zoomer grad student who didn’t know how to use a file explorer on his new windows laptop because he had grown up with an iPad and iPhone.
People are saying it’s an individual issue but I will say that kids who grew up on iPads and iPhones definitely are less tech literate when it comes to using PCs. Utilizing file explorer or even a command line (gasp) is completely out of their comfort zone.
If something doesn’t work like it should, they generally call tech support to figure it out rather than Google and solve it themselves.
This is generally. I taught fifth grade math and science for five years and the lack of a true computer resource class has really hurt kids. I had to spend 4-5 weeks each year teaching 10-11 year olds how to use computers. What copy and paste is, how to sign on to programs, how to attach a document, how to navigate a web portal, how to type on a keyboard, how to navigate Google slides/powerpoint or Google docs/word, etc because before fifth grade they had iPads instead of Chromebooks. Out of the 40-50 students I’d have each year, maybe 2 would know how to do even three of these things.
Most didn’t even know how to sign on because they were able to use faceid or use a QR code to sign in before fifth grade.
Z is not savvy. They’re basically boomers when it comes to tech. It always worked so it should work. None of our z staff can fix a printer and in fact none are allowed to
they can be savvy, it just depends on how based and tech pilled they are. If they’ve only ever used a phone for example, they aren’t. If they use linux as a daily driver, they definitely are.
Statistically, on average, gen z is less likely to be tech savvy though.
although in defense of gen z, fuck printers.
Fair enough
fuck printers.
Agreed :(
single worst human invention ngl
I blame the attempt to make devices user-friendly. Convenience kills skill.
Gen X graphic designer here. I did not properly learn how to type on a QWERTY keyboard, but have been exposed to it for many years so I know how to type on it. Hasn’t ever been a problem not typing fast.
Gen Z is app savvy, not tech savvy. Very very different.
Their parents don’t even give them PCs, only phones, how would they even learn?
The number of people i’m seeing use caps lock instead of shift to do capital letters have been increasing. “Oh you can do that?”
They use apps.
On phones.
They aren’t tech savvy.
I’d also argue that your WPM typed on a keyboard doesn’t make you tech-savvy either. 1950s secretaries could type fast on a typewriter and that didn’t make them tech savvy either.
It’s a pretty good indicator. If you spend all day working with computers chances are you’ll be able to type quickly
I don’t even know how fast I can type on a phone.
Even with word completion I find myself hesitating between the choice of word or typing it out.
I know it’s not near as fast as on a physical keyboard where is used to be around 90-120 wpm if I remember correctly. (Been a while since I had to do that at an employment agency)
Anyway, it’d be fun to see a thumbs only tiktok/Snapchat typer vs a mechanical typewriter type off.
And, tbf, most people are far from tech savvy.
Most are consumers. Some are really good consumers. Some are power users. Some know how to do things.
Very few actually understand it.
But, there was a time where there was indeed a necessity if you used the tech, you had to understand it.
There are a wide range of computer skills. Being able to interact with a word processor extremely efficiently is a highly valuable tech skill. Someone who knows about processor architecture but can’t touch type is arguably more tech-savvy but also less useful in most office jobs. So I’d say that the secretaries were indeed tech-savvy in a way that was useful for their positions.
