Members of Gen Z are entering the workforce with certain types of technological know-how, from navigating the depths of the internet and using apps to editing photos on their smartphones.
But when it comes to using a scanner or printer — or even a file system on a computer — things become a lot more challenging to a generation that has spent much of their lives online, The Guardian reports, a counterintuitive result of workplaces still relying on technologies that were around long before they were born.
"There is a myth that kids were born into an information age, and that this all comes intuitively to them," Sarah Dexter, an associate professor of education at the University of Virginia, told the newspaper. "But that is not realistic. How would they know how to scan something if they’ve never been taught how to do it?"
For instance, 25-year-old New Yorker Garrett Bemiller admitted to The Guardian that he was stumped by a photocopy machine at his office.
"It kept coming out as a blank page, and took me a couple times to realize that I had to place the paper upside-down in the machine for it to work," he said.
Educators have already found that the latest generation of students is struggling with wrapping their minds around the concept of file folders and directories. Even astrophysics students had a hard time with the concept, as The Verge reported back in 2021.
After all, why dig around for a while when you can just use your computer's search functions? A quick Google search can easily get you to the answer you are looking for in a fraction of a second.
It's become such a commonplace discussion these days that tech company HP went as far as to give the phenomenon a name: "tech shame."
HP found that young people are ten times more likely to feel "tech shame" as compared to older colleagues, according to a November survey, the result of a basic misjudgment.
"The assumption is that because Gen Z and even millennials spend a considerable amount of time on technology that they are technology savvy," Debbie Irish, HP's head of UK and Ireland human resources, told WorkLife last year. "This is a huge misconception. Sadly, neither watching TikTok videos nor playing Minecraft fulfills the technology brief."
futurism.com
But when it comes to using a scanner or printer — or even a file system on a computer — things become a lot more challenging to a generation that has spent much of their lives online, The Guardian reports, a counterintuitive result of workplaces still relying on technologies that were around long before they were born.
"There is a myth that kids were born into an information age, and that this all comes intuitively to them," Sarah Dexter, an associate professor of education at the University of Virginia, told the newspaper. "But that is not realistic. How would they know how to scan something if they’ve never been taught how to do it?"
For instance, 25-year-old New Yorker Garrett Bemiller admitted to The Guardian that he was stumped by a photocopy machine at his office.
"It kept coming out as a blank page, and took me a couple times to realize that I had to place the paper upside-down in the machine for it to work," he said.
Educators have already found that the latest generation of students is struggling with wrapping their minds around the concept of file folders and directories. Even astrophysics students had a hard time with the concept, as The Verge reported back in 2021.
After all, why dig around for a while when you can just use your computer's search functions? A quick Google search can easily get you to the answer you are looking for in a fraction of a second.
It's become such a commonplace discussion these days that tech company HP went as far as to give the phenomenon a name: "tech shame."
HP found that young people are ten times more likely to feel "tech shame" as compared to older colleagues, according to a November survey, the result of a basic misjudgment.
"The assumption is that because Gen Z and even millennials spend a considerable amount of time on technology that they are technology savvy," Debbie Irish, HP's head of UK and Ireland human resources, told WorkLife last year. "This is a huge misconception. Sadly, neither watching TikTok videos nor playing Minecraft fulfills the technology brief."
Gen Z Is Apparently Baffled by Basic Technology
Gen Z workers are entering the workforce with plenty of technological know-how, but plenty of glaring gaps as well, making navigating office life difficult.
futurism.com
