That’s great. It seems like Gen Z didn’t learn typing. Maybe I’m over generalizing, but my three niblings can’t type for shit. The only things they know about computers are what I’ve taught them and then what they learned outside of school using the computers their mom and I got them.
I hope you taught them how to pirate. ;-) Seriously though, my 20-something associates have absolutely no idea how to, they think it’s some kind of dark art rather than clicking on a link.
I did not. They are terrible with computers, especially the 15 year old boy. I debloated the computer I gave him less than a year ago. He downloaded so much malware and spyware. I got it all fixed up and he told me it wasn’t running games fast anymore since he switched bedrooms. I’m proud of him for setting it up again himself but he had the HDMI plugged into the onboard graphics instead of the GPU.
I acted like I didn’t see all the porn and deleted it from his history.
That doesn’t mean they weren’t taught, they probably just didn’t practice. My kids (elementary school) play Minecraft, write stories in my computer, and like searching for stuff online (Amazon and YouTube).
That said, we don’t let them use tablets or phones very often, because we don’t want them getting that much screen time. So it could come down to parenting. That said, I’m a software engineer, and I’d teach them if the school didn’t (in fact, I started teaching my first, and stopped because they taught it in school).
What I don’t understand is they teach cursive when that’s quite useless. IMO, they should spend that time on more typing practice and maybe calligraphy (much cooler than cursive).
Yeah fuck cursive. Bury it in a dump and then set the dump on fire. My handwriting now is mostly regular, with cursive flourishes and joined letters here and there that I picked up. My handwriting is terrible for what that’s worth. I want to go fast like a keyboard and it ends up looking bad.
These kids are older, 21, 15, and 14. They’re such cool little shits. The younger two were stuck on Minecraft or specifically videos of adults playing Minecraft and screaming like fucking idiots. I’ll never understand the appeal.
The youngest, I taught to play Superhot with mouse and keyboard and she was a total natural at age 11. Jealous of that neuroplasticity for sure.
They used to beg to come stay with us on the weekend. I loved it, but many times we just didn’t have the energy after working all week, so we said no. Now they don’t want to hang out with us at all, which is sad. So it goes.
specifically videos of adults playing Minecraft
My kids like it too, and I ended up banning those videos. I told them I’m fine with things like learning to use red stone, but they’re not allowed to watch regular Let’s Play or “challenge” videos. In other words, educational content is fine, entertainment needs to be vetted by us, which is a fancy way of saying “no.”
If the video says, “Minecraft, but…,” they’re not allowed to watch it. Simple as.
So my kids are way better than me with red stone, which is awesome. They make elevators, traps, and all kinds of other stuff, which is dope. They’re also not allowed to play F2P nonsense with MTX, so they tend to play creative, sandbox-y games (mostly Minecraft). They used to complain, but when the alternative is no computer use, they adapt (oldest still whines about Fortnite, but that’s a hill I will die on).
