You'd be surprised.
Except by "know about computers" you mean they known about interrupts, and cache lines, and filesystem design, and other stuff that are completely inconsequential to using their computers.
>Well, they clearly forget by the time they're twenty.
Actually the linked article states the opposite:
>"This current generation of young people has never lived without tech," said Linda Rosen, CEO of Change the Equation. "It's second nature to them." Yet, using technology for social reasons doesn't make a person adept at using it in other settings, she said.
So it's not that they "forgot" something, it's that they never bothered to learn it in the first place, e.g. Excel or whatever. But computers, for what they do like to use them for, are "second nature" to them according to TFA.
I disagree. The catalogue of complaints listed in this article are the norm.
http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-comput...
It seems that this happened somewhat recently.
Suffice it to say - just like you felt when you were younger - most thoughts that boil down to "damn kids these days!" are almost certainly not true.
Of course it's silly because of the global productivity gains. And it may just be my innate misanthropy which made me a nerd when I was younger now manifesting in this new form.
I'm already an old man annoyed by people my age and annoyed by older people. But truth is, I'm annoyed by most non technical people.
PS: I like discussing technics with people from non tech fields though, luthiers, masons, cooks etc...
Most of them don't know a thing about computers. It's a magic box with a small selection of shiny buttons on. They use it for passive media consumption.
Even a 7 year old that plays games can almost run circles around a 1980s propellerhead computer programmer in using a GUI.
Well, they clearly forget by the time they're twenty.
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/10/millennials-arent-as-tech-sav...
http://www.millennialmarketing.com/2010/04/millennials-tech-...