This is what's kinda crazy to me. I'll be 26 in a few months, and I was by no means raised doing the technical PC tasks that many of my older peers did. The first computer I remember using was an old Windows 95 desktop my mom got for doing her homework in college (teen mom).
I have a brother who is 15 and he doesn't know how to use a computer more than using youtube and facebook. And I constantly hear things from my parents about viruses and sketchy stuff ending up on the family laptop. Granted, not all of that is him or my other siblings, but it seems a lot of kids are missing a sort of digital literacy that many in my age group grew up with. I somehow know what a sketchy download button looks like. He has no idea.
"It said download so I clicked it" is often a response I hear.
What's more frustrating though is that my brother is not a great student. He was adopted and is getting to the age where he's starting to act out and I totally understand why. He's disillusioned with his own education and can't be bothered to care. For someone in his situation, digital literacy could give him access to a good job and a healthy adult life by learning to program, and I could help and mentor him along the way, but I know already it's going to be hard to convince him to take it seriously. I've hinted at it but I've only gotten sideways glances that scream "yeah right, I can't do that."
I'm not saying every kid needs to learn to be programmers, but we've abstracted so much technical learning away from them that it seems they're less prepared for a digital world, despite growing up surrounded by technology. Even the kids who are into tech stuff are being pushed into commoditized silos. Eg. Minecraft, etc.
Minecraft isn't a good example of your point, it's a better gateway to software literacy than most games kids of your generation were playing: from the logical circuits you can build inside the game, to at least learning how filesystems work by installing mods, and basic web server knowledge when you want a private environment to play with friends. Add to that some permanent or severely bothering consequences to the player mistakes and I think it might be the best video game for kids to play now (and Factorio/Shenzen IO when they grow up :).
Seconding this; Minecraft was absolutely my door in to server management, Java for building my own mods, and creative collaboration in an online world. Many fond memories, and it's hard to imagine I would have the career I do today without that game.
I have a brother who is 15 and he doesn't know how to use a computer more than using youtube and facebook. And I constantly hear things from my parents about viruses and sketchy stuff ending up on the family laptop. Granted, not all of that is him or my other siblings, but it seems a lot of kids are missing a sort of digital literacy that many in my age group grew up with. I somehow know what a sketchy download button looks like. He has no idea.
"It said download so I clicked it" is often a response I hear.
What's more frustrating though is that my brother is not a great student. He was adopted and is getting to the age where he's starting to act out and I totally understand why. He's disillusioned with his own education and can't be bothered to care. For someone in his situation, digital literacy could give him access to a good job and a healthy adult life by learning to program, and I could help and mentor him along the way, but I know already it's going to be hard to convince him to take it seriously. I've hinted at it but I've only gotten sideways glances that scream "yeah right, I can't do that."
I'm not saying every kid needs to learn to be programmers, but we've abstracted so much technical learning away from them that it seems they're less prepared for a digital world, despite growing up surrounded by technology. Even the kids who are into tech stuff are being pushed into commoditized silos. Eg. Minecraft, etc.