NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ

proceeds to talk down to me

I wasn’t talking down to you, I was explaining my perspective backed up with facts you clearly did not look at. I’d ask if you could point out where you feel I’d done so, but as you can see later in my comment, I no longer care.

EVERYONE had some form of computer

This is statistically impossible as you can see from the source that I provided from the US Census Bureau.

What a prick. … cunty chops … you dweeby little millennials pricks

Name calling. Nice, dude. For your age, I’d expect you to be more mature. I’ll just be reporting, blocking you, and moving on. I tried to have a cordial conversation with you, but you are clearly not capable of doing so. Have a nice day, and a nice life.

I’m not at all giving a shocked Pikachu face in reaction to your comment, if you believe otherwise, you’re misreading my intent. I’m also not talking down towards you as a person, doubting your skills, or bullying you. Based on your responses here, I believe you to be a very tech inclined person and are probably highly skilled. A lot of us here on Lemmy fall into that category regardless of age.

What I am saying is that you came into this conversation unnecessarily hot and that your view is likely skewed because you yourself are a tech enthusiast. You come from and are a product of tech, and as such may not realize the lack of tech abilities of those outside of your bubble.

I’m also not saying that Boomers/Gen X have to be bad with tech, or even that all Millennials are. My main point is to highlight median household exposure over different generations leading to memes such as this. For example, in the U.S., only ~8% of households had a computer in 1984 and ~15% in 1989; the UK was ~9% in 1984 and ~17% by 1988 (Source on Census.gov, page 6). PCs didn’t become mainstream at home until the mid to late '90s. By then, late Gen X/Millennials were the teens/20-somethings doing the hands-on fixes, which is why the “Millennial IT support” meme resonates. Skip to kids nowadays growing up on iPhones and tablets and other out of the box easy to use devices that Just Work^TM, they didn’t get the same experience learning to fix shit themselves like the older or middle generations had.

To reiterate, none of this says older folks, nor younger, can’t be great at tech, just that cohort exposure and the kind of tech we grew up with differ and has had it’s influences on the whole of generational groups, while not defining every individual within those groups.

If you still feel attacked at this point, that’s 100% on you and I don’t know what else to say.

Awe shucks! 🤭

I dunno, I’ve spent enough time in online communities that I’d rather not start fights over things that can simply be talked through. I’m happy to hear Bennyboy’s response too if they still disagree with me and believe me to be mistaken, but there’s certainly no reason for hostility!

You’re clearly an enthusiast and are one of the exceptions I spoke of. Calm down and think critically, please… Most people did not have Spectrums, Commodores, ham radios, etc. Enthusiasts like you absolutely did, and yes, you knew your shit if you did.

These days everyone has advanced electronic devices. Eveeeeryone.

You really came out swinging for no reason there, eh?

For gen X and older, computers were more niche. They were more difficult to use and mostly reserved to enthusiasts. For gen Z and younger, computers were always just there, and they’d become a lot simpler, a lot more plug n play, and resources to fix them became cheaper and more accessible. Millennials were in just the right environment where computer use became mainstream, but computer software was less developed and user friendly and they frequently had to learn to fix problems themselves.

Every individual will clearly have their own unique experience and not everyone will fall into these buckets, but it’s these factors that lead to millennials likely having higher tech skills than average compared to those older and younger than them.

That’s it. It’s not ageism. It is absolutely generalizing, but mostly, it’s social commentary in the form of a joke.