I've also found (I'm a teacher) this generation is far less proficient at search. They (generalisation) type a whole question into Google, and read the Google created text box to get their answer, taking it as gospel - regardless of if Google has completely gone off the mark.
Contrast this to a generation that grew up with needing to refine search terms with key words, who can find far more relevant info quicker.
It's hard to get them out of the rut and teach them to be more critical of sources. They're so used to having what they need served straight up for them. LLMs (AI) are feeding into this more - they struggle to believe that AI hallucinations exist until I show them.
Again all this is generalisation - when I say 'they' I don't mean 'all'.
Ask it esoteric questions on something you are intimately familiar with. Heck it doesnât even need to be esoteric. I asked Bing who won the 2023 World Series and it confidently told me that it was Astros vs the Phillies that the Astros won in 5 games.
I asked Llama 2 the same question and here is the answer. Idk if it is acually right, I don't watch sports.
Sure! Here's the answer to your question:
According to the search results, the Texas Rangers won the 2023 World Series. They defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks in the championship series, winning four games to one.
I generally get ask it to provide sources for its work, and then show the students that most of the time those sources don't actually exist.
Like it'll have a real author, and a real journal, but a fake article name that the author supposedly wrote.
Or a real website that 404's - once is fair enough, websites change, but when ten of the sourced websites are all 404s that's not right. You also try to search for the article that's meant to be on the website, but even the website doesn't think it exists.
I've even been in an argument with Bing where it was adamant that an article existed on a university website, and it shut down the conversation with me when I kept pointing out I couldn't find it.
Couple of years back I used to help this kid with computer related stuff, and it really baffled me how he was nearly computer illiterate. He had no idea what make his laptop was, no idea what OS he was on, or any of the specs.
He called it a gaming laptop because he played games on it, but it was a pretty decent school/work thing without a dedicated GPU.
Iâd always envisioned the younger generations getting better and better with tech, but it makes sense that wonât be the case as tech moves to be easier to use, more reliable, and less intrusive.
Modern iPads are nothing like the BS DOS/98 I grew up with.
Similar thing happened with cars. My grandpa would take them apart and reassemble them. my dad (somewhat generalizing to generations a bit) were really into cars and engines and would do some basic diy. I know nothing about them and donât care to learn much.
I think computers are doing a similar thing. Millennials sit in the middle of the adoption and saw it emerge from more of a technology wild Wild West to being central to modern society. We could take the time to delve into details (since they mattered), but now itâs more taken for granted and things are there.
I guess, Iâm just thinking itâs some sort of technology adoption thing that naturally plays out in a âvictim if itâs own successâ way.
I think the situation is also somewhat different with cars. Old cars used to be much simpler to take apart and tinker with than modern cars. Computers and operating systems are still just as easy to pry apart (since the fundamentals haven't changed since the 90s lol).
My theory is that as tech came to a wider appeal and became more user-friendly, more people are using it who don't run into issues that need technical knowledge. Early OSes needed highly technical knowledge to use. Modern OSes can be operated by a monkey. Therefore, their inclination to learn about the computer is less because it just fades into the background.
I would guess that's it's a combination of what you mentioned and also the generation rasing it not bothering to actually teach them properly about that sort of stuff. I never learned about car stuff, never had anyone to teach me. Now as an adult I know enough to do the basic oil change stuff but nothing more.
Oh, that's definitely happening when the five-years-away promise of fully self-driving vehicles as promised a decade ago make their appearance in 2050.
To play a devil's advocate: could this be them learning how to use a search engine? When I was a young teen learning to use a computer for the first time I would type full on sentences into Google and not get any results.
Another teacher here. Teaching English for the first time. I didn't realise their skills were this bad unless I saw with my eyes.
Glad I'm not alone in this battle!
Unfortunately this generation google is getting less proficient at search as well. Itâs like it treats the search term as a vague idea and any syntax as a non binding suggestion.
i can actually type slightly faster on a touchscreen keyboard, despite spending most of my time on my pc.
typing special characters is painfully slow on touch keyboards tho