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Have some empathy.
The bar is knowing what a directory or file is. Yes, the bar is that low. https://www.forbes.com/consent/ketch/?toURL=https://www.forb...
If people arent functioning because they choose to refuse to learn to read or write, you wouldn't defend them. Why is it different for computers? Computers are just as important for functioning in society today as being able to read or write.
How do you learn than on an iPhone?
- 21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024.
- 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level).
I would argue than everyone who is stuck a below 6th grade understanding of a language they use everyday can hardly be tech literate ( which in itself requires good reading and abstraction capabilities)
Is it their fault because they choose to be like this? Their parents? Their goverment? Nature gave them the wrong genes? Society shun them for their skin color? A bearded white guy in a cloud chose to ruin their lives?
Don’t know, don’t care, but demanding agency to all adults feels a bit narrow minded, selfish, and not too thankful for avoiding a few external barriers that other humans have to endure…
most of us here skipped those challenges, and ignoring how much headstart we got by sheer luck and no own merit is a bit inmature, IMHO.
Opinions are like noses: everyone has one, and almost all of them are unremarkable and irrelevant to other people. This is my nose.
The american education system being abhorrent is a separate issue but adapting society to fit the lowest common denominator isn't a solution.
Good old EEE.
As for the car analogy:
You're right, but you also accept the consequences of that choice which is mostly limited to having to pay for a mechanic every once in a while.
The consequences of tech illiteracy is much worse (more comparible to actual illiteracy):
- Lower employability.
- Easier to get scammed / have data leaked or hacked.
- Easier to get manipulated by platforms (social media are comparable to priests interpreting the bible to people before literacy was common).
- On a societal scale, when enough people are affected, the above leads to instability, proliferation of dis- and misinformation on a societal scale.
- Per av above, destabilising of democracy.
I'm sure people argued the same about people not having to learn to read / write during the enlightenment. Im happy they did not win out.
Tragically, it appears we are going the opposite direction this time.