In the bad old days computers weren't wide spread but just by virtue of having one you would learn programming / tech skills. Today computers are everywhere but owning one doesn't teach you anything as fundamental functionality is hidden/locked away from the user in the name of being "consumer friendly".
I wonder if those born between 1988 and 2002 will be the last of the so-called naturally computer literate.
Makes you wonder what does computing mean to people nowadays.
The perception of what makes a viable CS major needs to evolve past what those born during the “Personal Computer” era think it should be.
looks like there is some truth in that ad
It sounds bizarre - because they were using an iPad/iPhone instead of a computer.
I do, but that's mainly because of working with older and/or more professional devices which don't (want to?) consume power even when technically off. But for the rest, yup, doesn't really happen that often.
there are no intuitive interfaces, only familiar ones
Most screens in the office, when 'off', look like a matte black box with a single clearly visible button with a dim light. You can claim it's familiar because nearly every techincal appliance has a power button, but on the other hand: I am quite sure if you'd give this thing to a homo sapiens or similar, arguably not familiar with a button, it would not take too long befoer that button would get pressed.
Or to put it the other way: users (future would-be programmers) are being distanced[sic] from how the machines work. Even at the most rudimentary level.
Frankly, I'm not surprised. Interfaces are systematically being dumbed down in the name of usability. Users may be buying powerful computers, but they are using appliances. Pieces of shiny machinery that, to all intents and purposes, work with magic. [Queue A.C. Clarke quote here.]
The immediate downside is that when the interface is dumbed down to the level of non-confusion for the large masses, the features that power users would find appealing are being stripped off.
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but what happens when curiosity itself is being killed?
But nowhere in that process did I know anything about IBM 360s, or how to program or run them. I more-or-less understood the mathematics involved in the data processing. And I could somewhat parse the Fortran. But I had no concept of anything like a directory hierarchy.
With an IBM XT 286, on the other hand, it was all in my face.
Now there's an interesting observation. I'm not quite sure whether you're right, but quite possibly.
Looking around my local libraries and bookstores, most of the books that deal with using personal computers do seem to be from the 90s/early 2000s era. The question is whether the decline in these books indicate that they are not needed any more, or that they are not wanted anymore (due to "hidden complexity")?
Earlier in the pre-PC age, for the hobbyists you had similar experiences with home computers like Tandy RadioShack, ZX spectrum, Commodore Vic-20 or 64, not to mention the Amigas and Ataris (and all the others I’m old enough to have forgotten).
Early Macs also let you mess around (and mess up) your system too.
It was an exciting time in computing indeed, but it did in no way start with the PC.
It was quite eye-opening to see that.
Having taught some introductory CS courses a few years ago, the amount of struggling with basic things like file naming, directory hierarchies, and even simple hardware use was a constant distraction.
On one memorable occasion, I had to help a student by turning on the monitor: he would sit down at a workstation, move the mouse and tap the keyboard, and seeing nothing show up on the monitor after a moment, go to another unoccupied one. I watched, without intervention, him try this with all the unoccupied workstations in the lab until he finally came to me and said, in an exasperated tone, "all the computers left are broken!" I lead him over to one, and upon pressing the power button on the monitor, the expression he made was quite unforgettable...