Technology

There is another article I read where colleges had to teach Computer Science majors basic computer concepts like folders because the students relied on search for everything.

It would be like how almost everyone knew how to work on their own car in the 40's and 50's because you needed to in order to get the car to run. Nowadays, you don't need that information to drive a car.

I doubt that they are actually that skilled with mobile apps, since most things on a phone are "use them as they are or just don't". You can't really customize things, or do things in your own ways. E.g. ask someone to send you an original, uncompressed photo on Whatsapp.

there’s an assumption by older generations that because zoomers have grown up with smartphones that they’ll automatically be proficient with tech as a whole

That's like thinking someone knows how to cook because they can order at McDonalds.

I am convinced that printer companies make their products as esoteric and intimidating to the average person as possible on purpose so that they can sell expensive servicing packages to businesses.

This. The core principle of intuitive UI is reusing ui elements that are familiar. That's the reason every elevator has buttons, and that's why you can intuitively operate every elevator you encounter.

The problem is that not everyone is familiar with the same things. Many people of older generations (those that have stopped keeping up with technology) are used to buttons, that's why a blue text doesn't immediately mean clickable to them.

On the other hand there's no right click on phones so younger generations that are familiar with phone UIs may not immediately come to the conclusion that there's more options when pressing the other mouse button.

as a old timer I feel that it's not that "complex" if you are allowed to experiment without someone looking at you with disappointment. Like there was one time I was trying to figure out how to do double side copying on a machine I never used before, the HR come by and just say you do this print one side and then shuffle the paper into the feeder to print the other side. I tell her that the machine can do double side copying/scanning cause it's similar tray layout I saw in prior company. She let me do my experiment and I figure out how to set the modes and it works as intended. This saved her lots of time having to stick with the machine where she could've just spend sometime to figure out as well. People's pride usually gets in their way of learning.

side note: stick fresh printed paper back into printing machine can easily cause paper jam. That's on top of the risk where you printed with wrong orientation/side if you didn't follow the marking direction properly.

lastly, it's paperless era, please encourage the folks that needs to do the papers to use docusign or something to accomplish the same task. we really don't need to waste all those paper printing information that's only needed for a 30mins meeting. when we can all see it on say, google doc.(or whatever sharing platform. )

Yeah, I'm not Gen Z and I've always found office printers unnecessarily complicated. Like, I've barely learned how to use a fax machine, do you have to make it even more confusing?

It's like they figured out printer firmware/GUI in 1981 and then have never touched it again. They're competing with the TI-83 in terms of longevity at this point.

The scanner part is the only reason why I haven't smashed that damn printer yet... I hate printers so much, I'd rather almost pay for a print service that just ships the printed documents to me on the next day.

It's insane how true this is. I've actually worked with some kids that have no idea how to use windows, let alone know how to type. It's so odd, and almost disorienting at times, to experience this from both those older than me (parents, etc) and those younger than me.

Perhaps PCs will become obsolete. Even programming languages.

The most useful skill set for Gen-whatevers of the future will be winning an hours long debate with their personal AI on why it should get out of its digital bed and be productive today.

To be fair, printers are full of ghosts and demons. Even if you get to know how a printer works for years it'll still randomly just do some crazy shit you weren't expecting.

People always wonder at my skill in picking up unfamiliar UIs, and its always just that I explore the interface thoroughly and press every likely-looking button

Even something as fundamental as typing is not being actively taught.

To be fair, you can't really teach that. We had classes at school which helped a little, but most of my skill came from Chatting on MSN with my school friends...

It's happening a lot, and I see a lot of boomers using the "haw haw kids stupid" behind it, but it's not them, it's the parents fault, and it's really sad honestly.

I learned typing in 6th grade, we had computer classes where we learned Microsoft and Mac, we learned how to do word and excel. A lot of that got me ready for office life.

Now parents and schools just expect that it's easy, but as we're seeing they may pick it up faster, but unless they have a need to learn it they won't. I feel empathy for these kids who are going to be entering the workforce who were failed.

Generally those systems shouldn't be too different. If you know one you should get the grasp of the other after using it for a bit. Maybe special settings and stuff can be a bit confusing...

I've got a Brother AIO printer/scanner, and it has a Linux driver. Even for the scan function.

I can start the brscan service on my Linux machine and then just press the scan to PC button on the scanner and the scans land in ~/brscan/ over the network.

A few years back I bought a networked xerox scanner for that reason - its not ideal and rather outdated, but at that time was pretty much the only thing with a document feeder capable of generating multi page PDFs without having to control it from app or computer.