>>19219
>I always helped teachers with the PCs in school.
He makes this point right in the opening paragraph you quoted
>Even those who are responsible for the school IT or teaching comp sci only know the bare minimum relevant to their jobs.
He also makes this point, bemoaning the typical IT curriculum from K-12 through college as a barebones feeder for the Microsoft Certification Industrial Complex.
>claim that younger people are worse with computers
That's not what he's claiming, nor the point I was making when I linked him. Rather, the point I'm seeking to convey is that unlike in the past when people (correctly) assumed that random normalfags who had never touched a computer didn't know how to use them, that people who did use computers knew how to use them, and that youth were more likely to belong in the latter category. The basis underlying the assumption that computer use means computer knowledge has broken down, partly because of phones, partly because of PC use turning into web terminals. In spite of this, people, especially older people, still believe in this assumption.
>computers have become more accessible over time, so there are more people who can work with them in absolute numbers
The author makes exactly this observation, but it's secondary to his basic point, which is that...
>No. Especially not my parents or grandparents.
I strongly disagree, I've seen shit exactly like in that article. I can't count the number of times I've been asked for help by flailing retards, and if instead of just fixing it for them, gently walk them through performing a search of the web or a quick skim of the manual, having them actually follow the instructions they find, and them fixing the seemingly insurmountable problem themselves in seconds. After a few sessions of this, a lifetime of learned helplessness melts away, and they're able to function at the level of a human with the normal number of chromosomes even without the deep level of knowledge I have.
It isn't just that computers have become easier to use, but that the majority of people using them, use a far narrower subset of their features (that they're even allowed to use, on mobileshit and overadministered PCs!) than their predecessors did. For this reason, they lack even fundamental tech skills like "actually reading and following onscreen instructions", "troubleshooting by process of elimination", and "awareness of basic concepts such as directories and files" that most gradeschool aged PC users gained in their first month in the '90s.
This bizarre learned helplessness combines with the false confidence that their maladaptive habits constitute anything like tech competence, to make them no more competent than some random boomer in the 1980s using a PC for the first time.
>>19221
Who knows? Maybe the only visible trace of normalfags online in a few years will be their AI agents stripmining shit for them, having been herded from mere algorithmic filterbubbles into solipsistic personal chatbot bubbles.