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THIS. PREACH. I couldn't say it better myself. Abso-friggin-lutely.

"Technology" is SUCH an abused word by these absolute simpletons. "Technology" didn't cause this. They did what they always do: They thoughtlessly expect their false god, The Market, to somehow organically solve the problem of education and human betterment, if only we sacrifice enough money to it.

Giving kids laptops? MAYBE, right? Huge MAYBE. Ask any generation if elementary schoolers on unsupervised internet connections was a good friggin idea.

But tablets and Chromebooks?! GTFO. Right out. Those things are barely "technology." They're consumption devices optimized primarily to make ongoing profit from their users.

In 95% of cases, I'll wager, nobody's getting hands-on learning from a friggin iPad or Chromebook. Trying to "replace" standard desktops with those things collectively killed a huge chunk of our cognitive abilities as a society.

we let tech-bro-oligarchs decide EVERYTHING related to tech for two entire fucking decades and are just SHOCKED they did the thing that was best for profits, not the children (whose lives it was actively ruining for profit).

ONE. HUNDRED. PERCENT.

So many usability decisions and standards were coming from public univerisities and publicly transparent nonprofits. (Why we have an Internet that's open source at its core, for instance. But I have a lot to research...) Even privately, standards were about the benefit of the users, rather than

"Let's copy every decision Apple makes because look at their stonk price and slavishly drooling fanbase."

My mom used to be awesome with our Windows 95 Packard Bell. She used internet forums, she figured out eBay when it was brand new, she ran DXDiag when games weren't working. She knew how to freaking DEFRAG the thing.

Now she struggles and panics to do the most basic thing if it's not 1-step on her iPhone. It's tragic. Heartbreaking. And I hate them for it.

We let the filthy marketers from packaged goods and casino industries run amok in tech, and that's how we got here : Tech is largely not the incredible new tools we dreamed of to live better lives, instead its often closer smoking and gambling .

If you let marketers take over anything , unregulated, it inevitably takes the form of toxic vice, because our poorest choices make them the richest.

Mainstream technology doesn't connect us, it isolates us. It doesn't educate us, it actively endeavors to make us stupid . Every freaking bit of bandwidth reaching our eyeballs on the mainstream net is dedicated to reducing "friction" to rob our wallets and personal data.

I'm INFURIATED that most people can't even handle organizing a file system anymore. Only private schools seem to teach actual computer education, and they all bought into this stupid lie that the "future" is cloud subscriptions served on brainrot e-waste.

I feel like we need to start "desktop computer clubs" or something. Seeing this crap like they're trying to extinguish the personal computer is basically a declaration of war in my book...

Exactly.

As if, what, are kids gonna be making their own websites with HTML by just handing them some content-consumption appliance? Yeah, right!

I know some kids who are actually using technology well, and learning valuable skills, building their own gaming machines and stuff.

They're usually in private school or educated households though. As usual, everybody else "fell through."

We need to bring proper computing education back, but Techbro Valley hijacked our schools to train future dependent idiot consumers. Kids have been getting robbed.

It breaks my heart. I had to work in a public library for a long time as a computer lab assistant, and it was soul-sucking how many people of ANY generation were just absolutely clueless. Functionally illiterate. Zero problem solving neural pathways.

It didn't have to be like this. I'm very passionate about this subject, apparently lol, but I have no idea what to actually do about it...

YES. The only piece of technology ever thaught by schools are a fixed set of google & microsoft products.

It would've been so great if for at least once say "We don't have microsoft word tasks today, we don't have google docs tasks today, follow the pdf guide in kstars to chart these heavenly bodies and learn some astronomy instead."

There's no scientific proof of "shortened attention spans".

That's just not true. People don't learn with pencil or computer better - a single tool does not shape the learning experience. Sure pencil has positive effects stimulating muscles while learning but it has a billion of negative effects too.

I'm 23 and got a CS degree last year. When I was in highschool my CS teacher had us writing Java on paper with pencil. At the time I thought it was the stupidest thing but in hindsight there definitely are certain benefits to it. The best CS professor I had in college was also having us do certain things with pencil and paper and he strictly forbid it being done any other way.

Educational studies have backed this up. You learn more when writing than typing and by reading print media than digital. The digital tools should still exist but you also need to use the analog ones.

Fortune:

Making old people with money feel vindicated, justified in their ageism, and superior...after they sabotaged the next several generations for their own short-term gain.

Up next: "These top megacorps will bring back slave child labor. Could that bump up your portfolio a few points?"

▶️ Fortunate_Son.wav

THANK YOU. As a teacher, this guy made me rage hard. And even harder when older teachers who already hate technology latched on to it as an excuse. Show me evidence for fucks sake when middle school teachers are ALSO now teaching multiple subject areas, have way less prep time, the school has less money, are also responsible for live online grading and access to assignments.

Also, I love fediverse. Rational mind heaven

Giving kids laptops was a great idea. Letting corporations use those laptops to brainwash our children was probably not.

Fully back up your theory for the main cause. Screen time has vastly taken over the times of students as their brains are developing and by and large it feeds the least enriching, least challenging content as it has the highest propensity for addiction (under the guise of user retention)

I predict we'll view this experiment with the same confused disgust as we do when we hear that doctors used to prescribe cocaine for pretty much anything. The software engineers who aided any of this are going to be ashamed of their work.

I absolutely agree with you.

Computers used to be multi-purpose tools. They existed to benefit their users and make tasks easier.

Now their mainstream "considered ideal" form is just a constant dope-feed that drains your wallet and sells your every waking moment to anonymous bidders. The less you can rely on your own brain, the more you'll pay to rely on theirs.

Computers and those who understand them run society now, and there's definitely an obvious push toward techno-feudalism. A class of "Those Who Understand", served by a forever disadvantaged class of "Those Who Do Not."

A stark contrast can be seen by using any Linux machine, for instance. It's there for you. It is a tool that expects you to gain understanding and familiarity as you use it, rather than handing you all the answers without challenging you to think about anything.

As you gain familiarity, simply using the computer itself feels educating, it gets fun. You are rewarded for trying things by getting smarter.

Compare to any "normie OS."

"No." It says. "You're too stupid for any of this. Pay your subscription and ask Ai maybe."