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there are other bits of knowledge, the ins-and -outs of how digital systems work, of which they are often surprisingly ignorant

I agree, but I don't think it's really that surprising. With the increase in prevalence of smartphones over personal computers and Software-as-a-Service-Substitute, that surely won't improve. As always, those who are interested in the in and outs of a system will learn them, resources for that abound (although systems are getting more complex and harder to understand, for a good example compare sysvinit and systemd). But sadly I don't think the general population of the coming generations will have on average more computer literacy than their predecessors, and it's likely that they will actually have less.

I'm not hopeful at all, but people like you who work to improve that are doing a very important work, IMHO. So thank you for it!

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~fungmungus wrote:

I tend to agree with you. As more things move towards automation and applied system defaults a lot of folks, regardless of age, are less likely to know how the insides work. I feel like it is following a very similar trend that we see with a lot of non-digital technology. Take something like automotive repair, which in and of itself requires IT skills for modern vehicles. The major risk I see in any of this comes predominantly from built in obsolesce and business that create terribly end-user-agreements that take-away right to repair. I think education and awareness are the key, which is why I've been in my particular occupation for the past decade.