Lately, between trying to survive error-correcting class and feed myself without killing my digestion, I didn't have as much time to write blog. Another reason could be lack of things to say. However, a great thing is writing blog like this helped me write an interview paper, so there's the plus side of this. The paper wasn't like a research paper, so it used a more informal language, similar to the blog posts.
Anyhoo, a few months ago, I went to the Asia-Pacific Cultural Center. There was this beautiful Sony stereo. Giant, 5-disc sleek CD player. So I went to the reception, asking if I could use it to open some music. They said I could, and they couldn't help me with turning on the stereo. I said okay. That response probably stunned me a little. Like how could a bunch of 20-year-old something, and there are 3 of them, not know how to operate a stereo. I remembered being told about my past of how I could turn on a radio when I was four. I am still capable of quickly working with any media machine to this day. That stereo, 20 seconds. Like, it is not even that difficult. You use one machine, you use all machines. Well, except for my digital clock at home I got for a dollar at a thrift store. Seriously, who thought holding the TIME button, and press HOUR, MINUTE to adjust the clock was a good idea. What's wrong with the usual holding down TIME for setting mode?
Reading online and I encountered similar stories. Young people nowadays can't even operate computer at a basic level. And I'm not taking about actually fixing computers, or using Linux. I'm talking, not know how files work, how the Internet works, how to use Word on a basic level, etc. I always thought that by my next generation, everyone would be awesome with computers, better than I could. Not going so far back that they lose out to their parents, who probably even know how to open a browser to go on the Internet. I guess, with the proliferation of apps, i.e. everything being made into an app, it turns any low-level concept into an abstraction, like how Python displaced C as the first language taught to the kids, or new Computer Science undergraduate. Same as BASIC to Assembly, or C to Assembly. But that was abstraction by programming language. This is like not knowing Computer 101 because the younger ones are so used to smartphones that they expect everything to come out of an app.
I guess torrenting, finding software in the mysterious corner of the web remain a dark art. On the bright side, that means I'll never be out of a job teaching these fools. But with AI replacing everything, and everyone's job, what would be the point?