Me trying to show a zoomed where a file is on the network.
Me: “Open file explorer”
Zoomer: “What?”
Me: “Files…”
Zoomer: “Huh?”
Me: “Just click the folder.”
Zoomer: “Ohhhhhh”
Almost as bad as watching my boomer coworker open notepad and drag a file into it. Just double click or right click open with. Ahhhhh.
A few years ago I saw an article that Gen Z struggled with file organization. In basic terms, search functions have gotten so good that the majority of Gen Z doesn’t use file organization on computers or phones. When in a work setting they are confused when digital items need to be organized into a file structure. Part of the problem is that most of them have never had to use a real world filing system. Part of the problem is that they are only used to handling their own disorganized files. In a business setting it generally isn’t acceptable to dump all your files into a local “Downloads” file and rely on the search function to locate mission critical files.
When the article I am referencing came out other people stated that they had experienced similar phenomena in the PC world. They remembered when soldering was an expected norm of PC building, but with the passage of time it was no longer necessary or expected.
There has never been an IBM PC-compatible that expected soldering of its user in order to function. Maybe if you wanted to upgrade the RAM on your motherboard prior to inline memory modules, but that’s hardly an end-user task, you’d take it to a technician to do that.
I don’t really know if search got good. I am gen z admittedly on the earlier side of the generation but I try keeping my files organised in a sensible way. Never use search because I uave not had good experiences with it. I hate organising files on my phone because apps just save stufd into 5 million diffeent folders for no reason.
I teach CS at the freshman level. I don’t use a Mac, but I had to spend ten minutes over zoom teaching the basic functions to a student who didn’t know where the notepad equivalent was.
Having to explain what a text editor is and what a text file is to grown-ass adults has become a recurring waking nightmare. Trying to explain the difference between a Word document and a text file? Fucking FORGET it.
My family had a Gateway computer, so my parents weren’t complete babes in the woods… but it still drives me nuts to this day to see my mom double click on URLs. They think because they had to double click icons on their Windows 95 desktop 30 years ago, that they have to double click literally everything.
Me trying to show a zoomed where a file is on the network. Me: “Open file explorer” Zoomer: “What?” Me: “Files…” Zoomer: “Huh?” Me: “Just click the folder.” Zoomer: “Ohhhhhh”
Almost as bad as watching my boomer coworker open notepad and drag a file into it. Just double click or right click open with. Ahhhhh.
A few years ago I saw an article that Gen Z struggled with file organization. In basic terms, search functions have gotten so good that the majority of Gen Z doesn’t use file organization on computers or phones. When in a work setting they are confused when digital items need to be organized into a file structure. Part of the problem is that most of them have never had to use a real world filing system. Part of the problem is that they are only used to handling their own disorganized files. In a business setting it generally isn’t acceptable to dump all your files into a local “Downloads” file and rely on the search function to locate mission critical files.
When the article I am referencing came out other people stated that they had experienced similar phenomena in the PC world. They remembered when soldering was an expected norm of PC building, but with the passage of time it was no longer necessary or expected.
There has never been an IBM PC-compatible that expected soldering of its user in order to function. Maybe if you wanted to upgrade the RAM on your motherboard prior to inline memory modules, but that’s hardly an end-user task, you’d take it to a technician to do that.
I don’t really know if search got good. I am gen z admittedly on the earlier side of the generation but I try keeping my files organised in a sensible way. Never use search because I uave not had good experiences with it. I hate organising files on my phone because apps just save stufd into 5 million diffeent folders for no reason.
I teach CS at the freshman level. I don’t use a Mac, but I had to spend ten minutes over zoom teaching the basic functions to a student who didn’t know where the notepad equivalent was.
Having to explain what a text editor is and what a text file is to grown-ass adults has become a recurring waking nightmare. Trying to explain the difference between a Word document and a text file? Fucking FORGET it.
My family had a Gateway computer, so my parents weren’t complete babes in the woods… but it still drives me nuts to this day to see my mom double click on URLs. They think because they had to double click icons on their Windows 95 desktop 30 years ago, that they have to double click literally everything.