Last week, I ran across an article on Hacker News. It was written by a school teacher who bemoaned the lack of computer literacy amongst today’s youth. The basic idea is that despite the stereotype that kids these days are a bunch of tech-savvy computer wizards, it is actually the case that the opposite is true – kids can’t really use computers. The author contends that the increasing ease of use of computers, along with the increase in the consumption of entertainment media amongst today’s youths has brought about a corresponding decline in their ability to understand how computers work, and how to use them to solve problems.
I personally thought the blog post was one of the best pieces of news I had read all week, but based on the comments I’ve seen it looks like many people thought otherwise. Most of the posters on Reddit thought the author was a stereotypical, arrogant IT nerd, whereas most of the users on Hacker News were more supportive. In the midst of the author’s bitter ranting, I think many of the readers overlooked what I thought was the most important piece of his article:
Tomorrow’s politicians, civil servants, police officers, teachers, journalists and CEOs are being created today. These people don’t know how to use computers, yet they are going to be creating laws regarding computers, enforcing laws regarding computers, educating the youth about computers, reporting in the media about computers and lobbying politicians about computers.
I think the main flaw of the article is that the author spent too much time ranting about people’s struggles with basic troubleshooting and not enough time expanding on technological illiteracy’s greater impact on society regarding the freedom of speech, censorship, and governmental control. Nevertheless, I encourage anyone who is interested to read the whole thing.
My Thoughts
1. Breaking Stuff
When I was growing up, I was lucky enough to have access to computers at a time when they cost $10k per unit. However, as a child, I never put much thought into what computers could do other than to serve as a station on which I could play video games. I had a vague idea that they could be used for more important things, but I didn’t have any understanding as to what those things were. All I knew was that Dad would leave for work at 5:00 AM in the morning, do things on a computer he used at work and then return home, and as a result of that activity we were able to afford things like food and shelter. What I do remember is that like most kids, I would mess around with stuff at home and computers were no different – I would fiddle around with the settings and configurations, install random software and so on and so forth, which often led to things like system failures, viruses, and so on and so forth. As a result, my Dad would get angry (understandably), spend many hours restoring the machine to its pristine state, and give me a stern warning not to screw it up again.
That tone continued throughout high school and college – my parents provided me with most of what I needed, using their hard-earned money to pay for it. As a result, I was discouraged from experimenting with our possessions (as experimentation usually led to breakage). After college, I started having an interest in computers, and when I became financially independent, one of the first things I did was buy a whole bunch of computer parts and put together a machine by myself. Overall, the process was pretty easy, but I did make some mistakes on my first try – I accidentally destroyed my CPU and broke off some parts of my original motherboard, resulting in me spending hundreds of dollars replacing the parts. However, through these mistakes I became better at assembling computers, and became more careful while handling the parts. Furthermore, since I had my own financial stake in the equipment, I paid more attention to maintenance and I put more effort into repairing things when they stopped working.
I think kids should be encouraged to mess around with their possessions, on the condition that they learn how to repair them if they accidentally break them. This approach requires a bit more financial investment as parts need to be replaced if all options of repair have been exhausted. Because of this, replacement should only be done if it’s an absolute necessity – otherwise if kids knew they’d get everything they break replaced, they wouldn’t try as hard to fix the things they already have. I believe that breaking things – and subsequently repairing things – teaches people the limits of what their possessions can and can’t do, and under appropriate constraints, gives them more control, knowledge, and appreciation of their belongings.
2. The Spread of Ideas
The internet is a wonderful thing. The internet has give us access to information that we would have otherwise had to either spend lots of money, travel great distances, or wait for extraordinarily long periods of time to obtain. The internet has not only greatly reduced the cost of knowledge but also the cost of communication – it is no longer necessary for people of similar interests to meet in a single physical location to share their ideas. For instance, suppose you were an expert in a particular area of mathematics working on a problem that perhaps only you and five other people could understand. Without the internet, you might have never known about these other people’s existence, but now the internet has allowed experts to collaborate with each other and solve problems.
When I was growing up, I was interested in a number of subjects that I simply did not have access to. The local library’s selection was sparse and didn’t contain the appropriate volumes for my reading level. Now that internet use has become ubiquitous, I can find much of the information I want for free, and if I wanted to obtain a copy of a book on an academic subject such as Topology, Analysis, or Computer Science, I can choose from pretty much any book that’s currently in print. Rare books – such as George Carr’s Formulas and Theorems in Pure Mathematics and even the Voynich Manuscript (of which there is only one original copy), are available for free.
What this means is that the internet, driven by computers, not only allows people to acquire knowledge, share ideas, and solve problems incredibly quickly, but also increases opportunity for the common person. For instance, If I wanted to find someone who could build me specialized equipment for an experiment, I could do it pretty easily via the internet – this allows the builder to find a customer who’s willing to pay for his services, and for me to obtain the equipment I need. Easy access to communication makes both parties better off.
3. On Censorship, Freedom of Speech, and Control
Our ability to communicate not only dictates how we are able to share ideas, but also our ability to think. In our society, we are electing officials who will enact laws governing our nation’s telecommunications infrastructure. The level of technological literacy amongst the population not only directly affects the pool of competent candidates from which to choose from, but also our ability to determine which candidates are technologically competent enough to make decisions regarding what we can and cannot do with our computers.
There are many dimensions to this problem. First, a low level of technological literacy means that knowledge – and hence power – resides within the hands of a few people. Concentrated knowledge allows the people who hold this knowledge to take advantage of those who are ignorant. People who are not aware of how far technology permeates society aren’t thinking about how technology can be used to control our thoughts and our actions, or how it could be used to imprison people and deny them a right to a fair trial. Second, a low level of technological literacy means that society cannot accurately judge a leader’s competence regarding technical matters. We could very well, through complete ignorance, elect a leader who cannot make the right decisions when it comes to enacting laws. Third, technological illiteracy hinders our ability to prioritize how we invest our resources into our economy and society. For the reasons stated in (2), a fast and reliable communications network improves the knowledge base of the populace and allows them to take action to better their own lives through the sharing of ideas, along with the exchange of physical goods and services.
And finally, on censorship. Humans communicate with each other via mutually intelligible signals, such as language. Language allows people to transmit ideas across physical distances, and with the aid of encryption, they are able to do so very securely without the fear of interception. The freedom of thought and speech is critical to our survival – it allows us to comprehend how an authority figure might be abusing its power – and when such abuses are discovered, it allows the discoverer to transmit information about such abuses across a communications network and from there on the information will be acquired and digested by the populace. Access to such information, granted through the freedom of communication allows people to collaborate, take action against such abuses and hence improve their own circumstances.
So why does technological literacy play such a crucial role with respect to the freedom of speech? Most people would regard the freedom of speech as being important but they aren’t thinking hard about why they ought to learn about technology in order to defend it. Technological literacy allows us not only understand what technology can and cannot do, but also gives us a realistic picture of the current challenges we face when it comes to things like cybersecurity and regulation. There is a lot of fear being propagated by the media on cyber attacks, malware, hackers, and so on and so forth – and such fear is often used as an excuse to enact laws that curtail our freedom. Censorship forbids us to transmit certain types of information – and hence certain types of thought across cyberspace. It restricts access to information and the sharing of ideas, and from there the sharing of goods and services, along with the ability for people to collaborate with one another for their own good. With censorship, social progress comes to a halt. It is therefore to our benefit that we promote literacy amongst the population to enable ourselves to take action against what we see as unjust, and to protect our freedom to better our own lives.