I agree with you one hundred percent.

But I also know a decent amount about the failure of literacy education in the US in the past 20+ years, so I’m not surprised that many people in the younger generations prefer video. For too many of them, reading is a chore.

Hell, I know plenty of people in my own generation who will tell you they haven’t read a novel since high school like it’s a point of pride.

I have heard that. I’m backing up everything that’s important.

That sub is the thing I miss most about Reddit. The Discord server is way too chaotic for me.

We always knew there weren’t enough of us to matter. (At least, those of us on the younger end have always known. Maybe the older members of our generation didn’t realize it for a while.)

I didn’t expect that to play out with Boomers holding on to political power until GenXers were all old enough to retire, but it seems to be playing out that way.

I finally took the plunge and installed Mint about a week ago. It’s definitely better.

I partitioned my hard drive so I have both systems available. If everything goes well with Mint for the next few months, I’ll just wipe Windows entirely.

If there’s nothing specific holding you to Microsoft’s ecosystem, you should go for it.

They know how to use the light switch, but they have no idea what to do when the bulb burns out.

Have you tried video tutorials? I have noticed that a lot of younger people are more likely to look up tutorials on YouTube than written ones.

As a GenXer, I’m kind of horrified by how much of the “how-to” universe is shifting from written instructions to video.

(No, I don’t want a video tutorial for how to knit a scarf. I want a normal pattern. Am I so out of touch? No, it’s the children who are wrong.)

Seriously, though, the next time you go through something with this employee, use a screen recorder to capture the process and then share the recording with him. Maybe it will help.

I agree with you. And to extend your metaphor, we can and should help them build up their savings. One thing parents can do to help is to give their children hints without giving the answer.

In your example, instead of pointing directly to the object, I would say, “Where have you looked? Try three places where you think it could be.” After that, if he still couldn’t find it, I would say, “It’s right here in this room. I can see it. Can you find it?” Then I’d let him spend some time looking for it.

I’m an elementary school teacher, and it blows my mind how often children expect the adults around them to drop everything to help them find a pencil (which is in their pencil case, right where it should be) or a paper (almost always in their desk, folder, or cubby) without expending any effort to find it themselves. This obviously works for them at home, but it removes their personal responsibility for keeping up with their own supplies.

If we want to raise a generation of independent, critical thinkers, then we have to give them opportunities to be those things. We have to give them space to try for themselves. We celebrate with them when they’re successful, and we provide them with the support they need to try again when they fail. Both experiences are necessary for their growth and development.

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.