My mother, in the mid 90s, could just barely use a computer to type something up in Word and print it out. She was just sorta starting to grasp email by 2000. Even some kids I knew in middle and high school had trouble with the basics of navigating around a Mac and using a web browser. Go back to the late 80s when my dad brought home the first computer I got to use, and most of my schoolmates had never even seen one, let alone knew how to use one.
I absolutely agree that the locked down environments we have today are awful and counter-productive. But my nephew could scroll through YouTube Kids on a tablet when he was three years old and start the videos he wanted to watch, and go back to find something else when he was tired of it. Three years old! Now, at seven, even though he can't always read everything, he can operate fairly complex apps.
I guess it depends on how you define "technical literacy". I look at it more as "being able to successfully navigate the technology of the time", not so much "be a hacker", which seems to be what some people try to push it to be.
I think ui is like a language that you need to read to be able to navigate software. My experience is that many older people learn to use software by rote and can't read the UI well. Even quite technically skilled people. But my niece could read a UI from a young age and is more able to figure stuff out. And young people are more willing to use the UI hints that older people avoid (like a ribbon on word).
My mother, in the mid 90s, could just barely use a computer to type something up in Word and print it out. She was just sorta starting to grasp email by 2000. Even some kids I knew in middle and high school had trouble with the basics of navigating around a Mac and using a web browser. Go back to the late 80s when my dad brought home the first computer I got to use, and most of my schoolmates had never even seen one, let alone knew how to use one.
I absolutely agree that the locked down environments we have today are awful and counter-productive. But my nephew could scroll through YouTube Kids on a tablet when he was three years old and start the videos he wanted to watch, and go back to find something else when he was tired of it. Three years old! Now, at seven, even though he can't always read everything, he can operate fairly complex apps.
I guess it depends on how you define "technical literacy". I look at it more as "being able to successfully navigate the technology of the time", not so much "be a hacker", which seems to be what some people try to push it to be.