Reply to post: Rinse and repeat...

Kids' tech skills go backwards thanks to tablets and smartmobes

Charles Manning

Rinse and repeat...

This is exactly the same thing that happens with all technologies. As they improve and get easier to use, people lose touch with how the stuff works.

In the old days of lighting, you used lamps. Lamp lighting was a skill that involved understanding how to trim wicks and set them properly so that they burned evenly without charring the wick. Now, just flick a switch and you have leccy light. With LED lighting you don't even need to know how to change a lightbulb.

Until the 1970s you needed a rudimentary understanding of how a car worked to be able to use one. Sparkplugs fouled after a few thousand miles (in the beginning even less than 100 miles). You had to dick around with chokes, check the oil and water at every refuel, check for sparks and flat batteries were common. Now... you just drive for ten thousand miles and most people don't even know their cars have spark plugs or how an ignition system works.

Owning a valve (tube for USAians) radio was a deligh, but valves blew all the time. Owning a valve radio required knowing how to open it up and replace the valves. Transistor radios: just turn them on and magic happens.

So is anyone really surprised that the sprogs don't know how electronics and computers actually work?

Engineering used to be just everyday practical common sense, now it's a black art.

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