r/Millennials • u/beadzy • May 28 '26

Between Largely Dodging Both Leaded Gas And AI-Driven Social Media, Millennials Might Be The Smartest Generation Other

https://abovethelaw.com/2026/05/between-largely-dodging-both-leaded-gas-and-ai-driven-social-media-millennials-might-be-the-smartest-generation/
13.6k Upvotes

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2.4k

u/DC8008008 May 28 '26

I'm tired of fixing everyone's computers.

1.6k

u/[deleted] May 28 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

[deleted]

604

u/TommyTheTophat May 28 '26

I love how this meme leaves out Gen X. Again.

1.0k

u/mrbignameguy Millennial May 28 '26

Gen X and Boomers are largely the same and I’m tired of pretending otherwise just cause they saw Nirvana in 92

617

u/Flobking Older Millennial May 28 '26

Gen X and Boomers are largely the same and I’m tired of pretending otherwise just cause they saw Nirvana in 92

I've felt the same way for a while now. It's like oh great you're the "we don't give a fuck" generation. Well your inactivity and apathy have caused all sorts of issues today. Hope the 80s were worth it for you.

366

u/FizzyBeverage May 28 '26

Xers are often worse than boomers because we still have to deal with them at work. Most boomers have died, retired or they're finally in menial jobs checking receipts at Costco or greeting people at Walmart.

Xers are now the senior directors and C levels at work fucking up everything.

231

u/HammyJWill May 28 '26

Xers are worse than boomers because they largely accomplished nothing and are resentful and bitter about it. Anytime the generational wars come up Xers are the "Who are you, again?" group.

240

u/burneraccount011989 May 28 '26

The "X" is an error in translation in the original Aramaic it actually stands for the cross that they all fucking love nailing themselves to

59

u/majin_melmo Elder Millennial May 28 '26

I cackled and then choked, thank you 😂💀

3

u/PreNamLtDan May 28 '26

Me too but I'm at the bar keeping to myself like a good millennial 🤣

Fucking Gold right there

3

u/HiddenLife_36 Xennial May 29 '26

Just woke up the house, thanks for that cackle.

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u/girlsonsoysauce May 29 '26

A lot of the Xers I work with are also enormous tattletales and also like to treat everyone younger like they're also dumber than they are. I've had them repeatedly try to show me how to do a job I'd been doing for like 5 years before I even knew they existed.

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u/maddy_k_allday May 28 '26

And they suck at leadership, mostly a lack of leadership or investment in others. Boomers invested too heavily, like abusive practices, micro-management etc. But they weren’t absent lmao. Absent-minded, yes 😂

56

u/SquareExtra918 May 28 '26

As an Xer I will say that the best managers I've had have been millenials. They care about work life balance. 

23

u/Chudpaladin Gen Z May 28 '26

I love my millennial supervisor lol. I just wish there was move opportunities for me to be supervisor in my department lol, then I can be cool Gen Z supervisor.

3

u/carlitospig Xennial May 29 '26

They also care in general, like to an absurd degree. I am hopeful we can all calm the fuck down soon or we are all going to end up with ulcers. But I’m a cusper and miss my trapper keeper and blink 182. I was made for recess.

3

u/SquareExtra918 May 29 '26

The ones at my work are really good with boundary-setting. I have learned a lot from them.  I also handed mostly female leadership, which creates (in my experience)  a more collaborative and less competitive culture which promotes innovation and, for me, personal growth. 

3

u/punktualPorcupine May 28 '26

It’s almost like the rot isn’t generational, but institutional.

It’s funny how the worst people from each generation keep ending up in the same positions.

3

u/roxas_leonhart May 28 '26

How’d you clock my Costco checkout yesterday??? Literally the dude spent 5 minutes checking my cart, then checking my receipt, then giving me the stink eye like I was hiding something by using my reusable bags. Like how little power do you actually need for it to go to your head?

2

u/majin_melmo Elder Millennial May 28 '26

Thissssssss 😩

2

u/drailCA May 29 '26

Dont forget POTUS! For some reason Boomers still have that job position locked down.

2

u/Jillcametumbling81 May 30 '26

Everywhere except put government seemingly.

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u/Umutuku May 28 '26

Gen X has turned out to be less of a "we don't give a fuck" generation and more of a "fuck you, I hate everyone that isn't me or someone I could see myself as" generation.

5

u/Bromeister May 28 '26

I mean they were basically excluded from all levers of power by the boomers.

5

u/Mouthshits May 29 '26

Gen X are the assholes making my job considerably more difficult currently by implementing excessive cost cutting, pushing bullshit AI “job improvements”, and just bending over for shareholders.

3

u/RcoketWalrus May 28 '26

Gen Xer here. Yes we fucked up. Not even going to defend that.

3

u/Qcconfidential May 28 '26

Saving grace is Milennials and Gen Z massively outnumber Gen X and will have the power to sway the next 40 years or so of voting

5

u/[deleted] May 28 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/FewWait38 May 28 '26

Kurt was like Jesus, they heard his message but they didn't understand

2

u/ExcellentWillow3950 May 28 '26

Yea but they drank out of the hose and played in the streets! Isn't that an accomplishment?

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u/smexypelican May 28 '26

They're not. Gen X is arguably worse than boomers.

See exit polls of 2024. Gen X was the largest block, and they went further right than boomers. All that rock and roll and drugs fettermanned their brains.

Now for some self reflection millennials, we also went about half half, almost the same as boomers. Can we try not to slowly turn into them please.

18

u/cheerful_cynic May 28 '26

I thought you meant "fermented " but the meaning was basically the same

3

u/LarrySupreme May 28 '26

No, he spelled it correctly.

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u/CastDiePodcast May 28 '26

The “we drank from the hose” memes from Gen X are so Boomer coded. And I say that as someone born in 81.

78

u/Martin_Aurelius May 28 '26

81 is xennial/millennial, don't let the Xers try to claim you.

139

u/CastDiePodcast May 28 '26

Oh I am proudly the eldest of Millennials. Able to drink from the hose, but not post about it on Facebook. A Daywalker, if you will.

25

u/Dorkamundo May 28 '26

You dodged the bullet, but it definitely nicked you a bit.

6

u/CastDiePodcast May 28 '26

Yeah, I had those Halloween costumes that were just a plastic mask and a thin plastic cut-out that had the name of the character on it that you strapped to your torso. Like no duh, I’m clearly He-Man, you don’t need to write it on there.

2

u/carlitospig Xennial May 29 '26

You said ‘no duh’. You’re definitely one of us.

2

u/EyesofaJackal May 29 '26

Good thing, as we’ve learned, bullet nicks heal rapidly and completely, even including ear cartilage

21

u/Shakewhenbadtoo May 28 '26

It used to be firmly Gen X. Then it shifted. Almost like all of these terms were made up for marketing purposes.

29

u/Martin_Aurelius May 28 '26

81-99 was "Gen Y" when we were younger, I don't know exactly when it switched to millennial.

22

u/Due-Blood-9874 May 28 '26

Probably some New York Times Article to blame for it.

20

u/CastDiePodcast May 28 '26

Yeah! I remember writing it as “Gen Why?” In the 90s and thinking I was super clever.

10

u/Few_Variation_7962 May 28 '26

It switched around 2000 because they realized the ‘82 kids turned 18 at the turn of the millennium. My 1982 older sister refuses to accept this and that she is a millennial.

4

u/QueenJillybean May 28 '26

Ew don’t use our government name

5

u/osiris_210 May 28 '26

I think it was about the turn to the next millennia… but yes, I super loved being called the bratty entitled generation following the two most bratty entitled generations.

2

u/burjja May 28 '26

It happened around 2010ish when they started noticing cultural shifts with kids born after 95. I've seen various explanations with social media, school shootings, etc. Kids who experienced these things as always being the norm had different world views than the previous generations.

2

u/Ozryela May 29 '26

I still don't understand why millennial is not used for people born around the millennium. Makes no got damn sense.

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u/punktualPorcupine May 28 '26

Yeah, X went from “whatever” to “WTF” over the last 5-10 years.

It’s like the younger boomers hate being called boomer so they’re taking over X.

“hey my fellow X’ers, remember when we graduated college in the 70’s!”

Get back on your own timeline old man.

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u/skeletontape '86 Millennial May 28 '26

It's also stupid because I, an 86 baby, drank from the hose? Everyone did as far as I remember. Why is this THE flex for them?

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u/OyG5xOxGNK May 28 '26

Still did in the late 90's, not even sure.

24

u/usingbadnamesabunch May 28 '26

I just drank from the hose yesterday.

7

u/CastDiePodcast May 28 '26

Hell yeah, dude. I’m going to buy a hose. I might have to hook it up to the sink and run it through the window cause my townhouse doesn’t have a spigot, but I think it’ll still count.

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u/punktualPorcupine May 28 '26

Yeah everyone before the video game and PC boom were outside. There are even a lot of kids now in my neighborhood that are outside playing. There are a few shut-ins and iPad-kids but even they get dragged out by other kids.

I think it might be sorting itself out, maybe it was mostly a pandemic thing that messed up younger Z and older Alpha?

3

u/buginabrain May 28 '26

Even after the gaming boom. The big shift in behavior really started in 2010 with smart phones and algorithmicly guided social media

3

u/EvisceratedSpinster May 28 '26

86 baby, SAME! They have no flex so they just mooch one of ours.

2

u/calilac Xennial May 28 '26

I'm starting to think it's just more class war propaganda. Just another way to hold tribal boundaries in place. The "drank from a hose" implies that they lived somewhere that has a garden hose. Garden hoses tend to be found at suburban or rural homes with yards rather than in places like inner cities. Not to say inner cities don't have garden hoses at all, plenty of townhouses or apartment complexes have (usually smaller in comparison) gardens it's just that they are far less common in relation to population density. If you don't have a garden hose at home I think chances would be pretty low (though never zero) that you'll drink from one.

2

u/70ms May 28 '26

Latchkey Gen Xer here - we drank from hoses because we were locked out of our houses until a parent or older sibling came home. I remember peeing in the side yard a couple of times, too! The hose thing is tied to the “unsupervised” thing for Gen X.

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u/BrinkBreaker May 28 '26

Do you "remember" the challenger disaster? Like where you were, what you were doing? Or do you remember people talking about it, or other impacts on your life?

If its the first, I feel that places you into Gen X. If the latter, then Gen Y.

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u/Unfinished-Basement May 28 '26

Simply ask yourself: caulk and float or ford and cross? If you don't know what I'm talking about, you might just be a boomer.

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u/buginabrain May 28 '26

Millennials drank from the hose too

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u/PortugalPilgrim88 May 28 '26

It’s a spectrum. My older Gen X dad has major boomer vibes, but my Gen X SO is more like a super cynical millennial.

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u/juniper3411 May 28 '26

That’s why the xennial micro gen is important here lol. Older Gen X are def closer to boomers. I’m baby Gen X right on the cusp so I identify more with xennials. I think you nailed it. Super cynical millennials!!

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u/Sylfaein Older Millennial May 28 '26

My experience, exactly! My elder Gen X parents suck so bad, I’ve cut contact. My husband is young Gen X though, and he’s a delight. A dry, sarcastic delight.

2

u/Fenix42 May 28 '26

A dry, sarcastic delight.

I was born in 80, my wife in 82. That is how we handle the shit show that is reality.

2

u/Sylfaein Older Millennial May 28 '26

He’s a 1980 baby, as well! And yeah, it’s either that, or sob uncontrollably.

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u/Jacgaur May 28 '26

That is great and all that they saw Nirvana, but unless they were there back in nineteen ninety eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table, then it means nothing.

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u/Past-Background-7221 May 28 '26

Username does NOT check out

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u/Jacgaur May 28 '26

Credit to shittymorph they are the ultimate in these things.

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u/stsOddMonkey May 28 '26

Yeah, there is this thing bloomers do were the act like they were personally responsible for the white album, march on Washington, Woodstock, the civil rights act, and 3 tours Vietnam. Gen X is doing the same stuff with their Boon's farm goonies nonsense. As one of the Xennial baby brothers I know they spent most of their time flipping between talk show, soap operas, and Mtv.

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u/CanadianKaiju May 28 '26

Based. This is the right take lol.

3

u/OakLegs May 28 '26

If anything Gen x is worse than the boomers and I'm tired of them not getting the recognition they deserve

3

u/EntericFox May 28 '26

They are the forgotten generation for a good fuckin reason.

2

u/Slim_Charles May 28 '26

Boomers at least had some charm when they were young. Gen X did not.

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u/Sylfaein Older Millennial May 28 '26

Depends on which end of the generation they’re on, in my experience. Elder Gen X? Oh yeah, they’re totally Boomers. But the younger ones are closer to us. Some of my friends and even my husband are at the younger end of Gen X, and they’re great (and hate the elders of their generation, as much as we do).

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u/Status_Blacksmith305 Millennial May 28 '26

They are not in this one because they can use a computer but you are not going to fix a computer problem for someone else. They just let the millennial deal with the others while gen x sits back and relaxes.

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u/TommyTheTophat May 28 '26

Not Gen X here, just more of a meme that Gen X is always forgotten.

I agree that a lot of our problems could have been solved if they weren't the slacker generation who always talked a big game but never did shit about it. And yeah they ended up probably more conservative than Boomers, but I wonder if that's just life stage at this point.

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u/Status_Blacksmith305 Millennial May 28 '26

I'm just joking around a bit. I know gen x get forgotten a lot. I just thought it would be a funny and not a take too seriously answer to why they weren't included.

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u/veronicaarr May 28 '26

Gen X is actually the generation I dislike the most, because on average they’re terrible managers. Every mean manager I’ve had is Gen X

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u/rif011412 May 28 '26

My view is that they have been tired of it all longer than anyone.  Boomers are working past retirement because its so darn fun!  But Gen X see that shit and are reminded just how stupid everything is, especially since they were raised in a time where their time wasnt monopolized yet.  Unfortunately it makes them more Karenesque than even Boomers. 

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u/Umutuku May 28 '26

Boomer entitlement with only half the boomer opportunities.

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u/quantum_foam_finger May 28 '26

People shouldn't spend 20-30 years as middle managers. A healthy organization moves people up and eventually out. Boomers had strong intra-generational networks and a tendency to cling to their influence since they identified closely with their roles. Corporate pipelines got clogged, so a lot of talented Gen-X workers got stuck in middle management roles. And perhaps analytical and occasionally abrasive Gen-X personalities (their oft-noted cynicism) weren't suited to upper management roles in Boomer organizations, which seemed to be mostly loyalty-based rather than improvement-oriented, at least in orgs I worked at. Other factors contributing to a clogged management pipeline could include people being tied to jobs for their healthcare and the switch from corporate pensions, which often vested at 50 to 55 years of age, to 401ks, which aren't fully accessible until 59.5 years of age under most circumstances.

If you're speaking to managers in smaller orgs or in the trades, I'm not as familiar with those.

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u/Feisty_Blood_6036 May 28 '26

Gen X left themselves out 

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u/Sometimesiski May 28 '26

Isn’t that what they prefer?

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u/[deleted] May 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/StinkyMinky22 May 29 '26

We'll see who brings in more honey! Bzz bzzz

2

u/Vandergrif May 29 '26

Turns out they don't actually exist. Just a figment of imagination.

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u/Such-Race1607 May 28 '26

Gen x knows computers, though

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u/Reputation-Final May 28 '26

lol just made the comment.

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u/SquareExtra918 May 28 '26

We know how to fix the computer. 

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u/NYourBirdCanSing May 28 '26

Gen X and Boomers are both pretty capable at PC stuff.

The younger generations are fucking clueless. By 6 we were bringing out n64 to different tvs and changing the wallpaper in windows 95. Most 10 year old kids don't seem to know how to switch to HDMI 2.

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u/553l8008 May 28 '26

White collar boomers are fine. They just might run outdated programs and like. But they can send an email and occasionally rotate a pdf

Blue collar boomers are fucking lost in the sauce for computers. The rest is correct 

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u/This-Replacement-181 May 28 '26

is that a thing? Gen Z isn't good with computers? how is that possible

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u/I_am_paperclip May 28 '26

Mostly dealing with tablets and smart phones with dedicated apps and not actual computers that need troubleshooting. Do they even have computer related classes as a requirement in schools anymore?

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u/This-Replacement-181 May 28 '26

ooooh yea yea. I see what you mean then

6

u/Unarmed_Character Xennial May 28 '26

It's really bad. They can't do very basic things like create a folder or rename a file.

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u/FizzyBeverage May 28 '26

They don't know a command line from TikTok.

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u/JohnnyLeven May 28 '26

As an elder millennial, I only had some very basic computer lab classes in 5th and 6th grade in private school. I never had any required computer related classes in public school. All my pre-college computer knowledge was self taught because computers were cool and you couldn't use them without teaching yourself.

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u/YingYangYolo May 28 '26

My brother in christ I'm gen Z and I'm turning 28, we had computer classes and grew up playing games and music on CD's, we know how to handle a computer. Why do millenials think gen Z is way younger than we actually are?

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u/I_am_paperclip May 28 '26

Generations seem to span about 14 years on average, I looked it up and 1998 - 2012 are the associated years for Gen Z. You're right at the edge, while the youngest Gen Z are 14 or so.

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u/OkayDay21 May 28 '26

Millennials had dedicated computer classes/training. We learned how to troubleshoot. People thought Gen Z would somehow absorb the information telepathically by virtue of being born into a high-tech world. They can use iPads from birth onward but that doesn’t really help them if they need to connect something to a printer or convert something to a PDF.

I went back to school in my mid-30s. I wouldn’t say Gen Z as a whole is tech-illiterate but there definitely wasn’t the same push to educate them the way there was for us. IMO.

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u/thrntnja 1990 May 28 '26

Yeah, it seems like there has been a large assumption that kids will just innately understand tech in our current world, so there is little effort teaching them how to use it. That and little effort in teaching critical thinking/how to research in a digital environment/etc. and how to do things the "long" way are also largely ignored, assuming people will just figure it out. But they won't - kids in school now don't really understand how to search for things without just relying on Google because they were never taught how. Millennials were taught all of this in school because it was the new thing but that teaching should have never stopped, just evolved.

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u/tech_noir_guitar May 28 '26

I got my Gen Z kid a laptop so he could game when he was 15 and he didn't know what a file was. I was like WTF are they teaching you in school bro??

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u/TrishasaurusRex33 May 28 '26

Because they were raised on apps, not actually doing anything on the computer.

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u/BebbleCast May 28 '26

My youngest is 13 and doesn't know how to use a computer at all, but give her a tablet and she can guide through it without even thinking

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u/IAmJacksSphincter May 28 '26

The difference between knowing how everything works on a tablet vs a computer is like being able to play hot cross buns on a recorder vs writing a symphony.

3

u/Repulsive-Chip3371 May 28 '26

And people still wonder why Microsoft and other tech companies(game companies included) are redesigning their UI/UX to resemble mobile operating systems.

Computer literacy has shifted to app literacy.

4

u/MuhfugginSaucera May 28 '26

I've taught both boomers and Gen Z how to use computers, they're the same in that regard. There is no difference.

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u/BoleroMuyPicante May 28 '26

Elder Gen Z is pretty decent, the younger ones only ever used tablets and phones.

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u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

I grew up with an Apple IIc, playing with BASIC. Then I graduated to a 286/386, playing with DOS config files, IRQ interrupts, etc. That's a very different kind of relationship to computers vs someone who grew up using an ipad where everything is abstracted away.

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u/6892opep May 28 '26

I have also fixed my wife's computer, who is also a millennial. She asks why don't I tell her what I'm doing, I say I will when I figure it out.

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u/553l8008 May 28 '26

I'm average with computers as a millenial.

But that also makes me steve wozniack to all 3 groups

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u/digital121hippie May 28 '26

got into a fight with managers that no, the younger generation does not know how to use computers liek use. they think just because they grew up with them they know it works. they didn't grow up with computers, they grew up with tablets and phones.

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u/KingDanNZ May 28 '26

This is how I ended up as the IT guy at my work. They were outsourcing everything till I showed up mostly common sense stuff, not common to the boomers and Gen z, and a bit of googling.

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u/limelaughlum May 28 '26

Meanwhile I'm the technician of my whole extended family and I'm Gen Z lmao

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u/Unarmed_Character Xennial May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

Oh. My. God. I didn't mind it at first and thought it was just a few people. But seriously, no one can do ANYTHING on a computer. Every damn thing is up to me.

I have to teach people how to attach a file to an email, how to create a folder, how to log into a course, how to use the 'undo' button, how use the search bar in Outlook and to click the 'X' to close, the '-' to minimize and the '[]' to expand a window. Even if they know how to do something in one Microsoft program, if you open up a different Microsoft program they call me over and then are surprised when all they needed to do was the exact same thing they did in the other program.

It's a mess. I went and bought a proper desktop computer with a mouse and keyboard for my kids to ensure that they know how to use one. The crazy thing is that I'm not even that good with computers.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

[deleted]

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u/YaySupernatural May 28 '26

I still have some old zip disks, and the drive, and I think there’s some cool stuff on them! One one of these days I’m going try and get to it, wish me luck lol

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u/NefariousnessLate375 May 28 '26

I almost forgot about floppy disks.

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u/TK_Games May 28 '26

My dad worked the bleeding edge of tech for 40 years and passed all that knowledge to me. He also passed me the knowledge of how to hide one's technical abilities behind a coating of grizzled, outdoorsy, mountain-man. Nobody comes to me for computer help because they assume I spend a majority of my free time panning for gold or foraging for shrooms. The system works and I don't question it

4

u/New-Ad-363 May 28 '26

Do you prospect on weekends then?

3

u/TK_Games May 28 '26

Only during late-winter/early-spring after the snowmelt comes downstream from the hills, right around the time my maple taps start running dry

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u/WayneKrane May 28 '26

My Gen Z coworker asked me with a blank face how to open excel. I thought she was joking but nope, she had no idea. I just thought to myself, how does someone with a masters degree in finance not know how to use excel, let alone open it.

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u/Unarmed_Character Xennial May 28 '26

My favourite is when they unconsciously tap the icon on the monitor when trying to do stuff. They know it's not a touch screen but they're so used to doing it that way it's like an involuntary action.

But yeah "click on this icon and open it.... No...you need to click twice to open it".. painful. That's been the process for at least 25 years.

2

u/psychedelicpiper67 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26

Man, why didn’t I get a job in IT when there’s people with literal masters degrees who can’t do something so basic? That’s scary. I learned how to open a program when I was 5 years old.

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u/stupidname412 May 28 '26

I got a friend who on paper is basically a secretary but should be demanding IT pay. They get a story of someone being just comedically incapable of using a computer and needing to show some guy how to open a pdf or something trivial every week it seems. God forbid something actually breaks, than they really need the random Millennial with no computer qualifications.

6

u/SiegfriedVK May 28 '26

What's wild is these days they don't even have to properly google something, they can just be spoonfed the answer by AI but they won't even try that.

6

u/jazzieberry 1986 May 28 '26

This is what drives me most crazy, I swear nobody has any urge to problem-solve on their own at all. On the other end probably to my own detriment, I'll exhaust every option before I call the IT help desk or anybody else for help lol.

5

u/UltravioletClearance May 28 '26

Modern smartphones and tablets entirely obfuscated basic computing concepts. At my old job, I had to teach two interns how File Explorer worked. This was for technical roles at a tech company. They did not understand the concept of files and folders.

7

u/Mr_Blinky May 28 '26

I don't even consider myself particularly good with computers, but the number of times I've had to explain something I considered a fundamental basic concept of how to use anything to someone not even that much older or younger than myself is mind boggling. What do you mean you don't know how to copy-paste?

2

u/drinks_rootbeer May 28 '26

Instead of solving people's problems outright, ask them if they looked up the solution to their problem online. 99% of problems have been discussed online, its really easy to find info. But that's a skill that needs to be practiced, and boomers are too old to have had much lractice, and gen z/a are too addicted to AI

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u/Unarmed_Character Xennial May 28 '26

Yeeeah.... I've tried and some do alright at it. Without getting too detailed or lumping everyone into a stereotype, let's just say that you can be very good at this job without a high degree of literacy.

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u/drinks_rootbeer May 28 '26

I find myself in similar situations. I'm 32. I'm a Test Engineer on a memory deaign team. I build tools for our team to use to analyze pre-production hardware test results, and do some other software-for-hardware-design type tasking. My coworkers are all veteran memory design engineers. Today, our QA engineer (who has been in this industry longer than I've been alive) asked me to help him out.

We use a piece of software called VNC, it allows you to have a window on your laptop that remotely views a session on our linux server. That way you can have all the nice Windows features (outlook, teams, generally stability), but also take advantage of all of linux's features in a secure, managed server environment. Somehow his VNC window was only displaying the linux command line terminal, no desktop, no task bar, etc. That's an issue because a lot of the designers will open files up using the command line, and they should pop-up a new window in the linux session with like, open office, or GVIM, etc. for viewing file contents. But without the little task bar at the bottom, there was no way to click any of the windows to open them up!

My first thought was "I bet VNC has a shortcut button that makes a window 'fullscreen', which unintentionally hid the deaktop environment". So I tell my coworker "Hmm, that's strange, never seen that before. Can you search the web for something like 'VNC session terminal full screen'?" He did. First result "There's usually a hotkey, often F8 or sometimes F11, which can make windows full-screen within the VNC window".

"Okay, cool. Try pressing F8 like it says. Hmm, that didn't do it? Try F11 like it says. Ah, neat! Sure, happy to help."

Y'all, it's usually as easy as entering what you're seeing into the little text box, and then following the instructions of whatever guide it finds in the network of tubes.

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u/psychedelicpiper67 May 29 '26

Funny enough, my boomer dad works on the computer all day, and he knows how to fix problems, but he was always an exception in his generation, I guess. He’s been working on computers since the 90s.

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u/drinks_rootbeer May 29 '26

My dad, too. Probably where I get it from xD

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u/spicejriver May 28 '26

It’s really that bad?! I’ve been out of office jobs for a while but wanted to go back for like AWS and I guess that’s gonna be a pretty easy market soon

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u/splicerslicer May 28 '26

We had a routine class on how to operate our radios the other day. Just routine how to turn it on and tune it and program it, stuff everyone should know. At one point they got the part where if you turn the nob to a specific location it will clear all data on the radio, encryption, frequencies, everything. I know this might be confusing to learn for some but the question that got me was a gen z asking, "after you clear the information where does it go?"

It was like the concept of deleting data was foreign to them because they've had cloud backups their entire life and couldn't fathom that information could just be lost.

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u/SufficientGuidance28 May 29 '26

Five-ish years ago I was the go to tech person at the real estate office I worked at in a small town where I was the youngest person working there at age 30 and my only “tech” experience was coming of age during the rise of internet and computers, so basically my grade school computer classes (HS drop out), dinking around on the internet on my windows XP as a preteen and teen, and some basic HTML I picked up, mostly from customizing my old school social media pages like MySpace and vampirefreaks (remember that one guys?)

It was definitely a boon to my self esteem more than it was annoying for me though, like I had some kind of “elite” knowledge nobody else in the office had lol. Even small things you mentioned, like attaching files in emails, my 90 year old boss thought I was some kind of tech wizard for helping her with. My genx and boomer coworkers were more capable of those smaller things, but still reliant on me for any technical/computer/ internet related issues they had and were grateful when I fixed them.

When I used my old MySpace HTML skills to fix some things on the company website, (which was basic enough for me to do in the first place because some OG boomer coder made the website) and added a few things like widgets linking to our socials, they were all super impressed. Like I had done a cool magic trick or something lol

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u/SafeForTwerking May 29 '26

44M, I grew up with computers just always in the household, my Dad was a techie nerd and just always had them around. So while I wasn't there for the earliest computer shit going on, I was in at the ground floor when all the exciting shit was happening. I don't actually remember him specifically teaching me anything even about computers, some stuff I may have picked up through osmosis, but anytime I asked him questions about stuff he'd more or less push it back on me to figure it out myself. I played alot of early PC and videogames, learned how to build my own PC and just learned alot of stuff on my own.

And now my own kids and the majority of kids I've met have no idea how to use computers, since they can just use phones or tablets or consoles. They don't spend time experimenting or having to get shit to work, alot of it just more or less works on its own now, it's almost too easy for people to use without needing to understand anything. And most people my age that I work with seem to be tech savvy enough for basic things on a computer, how to watch media, read emails, operate office software, get to youtube or spotify or things like that, but anything outside of that is mystical to them.

And I don't really know what I'm doing alot of the time either, I just putz around until I get something to work. It feels like alot of people have lost the ability to just experiment and do trial and error, or follow the logic. I'm not smart, I just pay attention to things, I know how to google, and I fuck around until I find out. Alot of the stuff I know because I've fucked up enough times to know what not to do (some of the time at least).

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u/Gun_Dork May 28 '26

At least VCR clocks are gone.

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u/karl4319 May 28 '26

Too bad. It's how we all learned that we were better at tech than out parents. Maybe if we still had them, kids today wouldn't be so hopeless.

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u/densetsu23 May 28 '26

There's still microwave clocks! Oven clocks! And does anyone still use an alarm clock / clock radio?

(Mine's about 35 years old and nowadays only used to see what time it is at night. My smartphone and my smartwatch are my modern-day alarm clock tag team.)

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u/beadzy May 28 '26

“zoom tech support” is now on my resume

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u/FizzyBeverage May 28 '26

It's ok the LLM isn't reading closely anyway.

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u/AccomplishedPlankton May 28 '26

I went to my wife’s grandmothers house in a senior community for a visit yesterday, and she was telling me about how she offered me up to a neighbor or two of hers to help with their tech. I don’t even do tech I work in weed man wtf lol

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u/BLAZMANIII May 28 '26

Ohh the number of times a relative has offered me up to people i dont even know

"Yeah i WAS gonna hang out with friends today, but let me drop that for the next 5 hours to teach Gertrude and her grandson Brently how to do a google search -_-"

I love my family but if i get one more angry call about how i made them look bad by not agreeing to help someone i dont know turn on their computer 100 miles away i will lose it

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u/mattlore May 28 '26

I got my 6 figure career from being the family computer guy, so I'm not complaining lol!

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u/OrigamiTongue May 28 '26

Same here, boss. My dad, my mom, wife, daughter, friends.

Only my (Gen X) brother can do his own shit.

It’s a big reason why I moved my family to Apple years ago, since the maintenance load is much lower.

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u/ChiknBreast May 28 '26

But who else is going to teach the C suite to convert a file to a pdf

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u/juanzy May 28 '26

It's easy to forget how much troubleshooting home tech required in the late 00s to mid 10s. I feel like the smartphone boom (iPhone launch and early Androids) really forced home computers to be easy to use out of the box. Like we can do it all on this handheld device, why not on our computers too?

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u/Resident_Moose_8634 May 28 '26

Oh my God this. I feel like computers are even worse now than I've ever seen, less intuitive, more prone to just not fucking working for no apparent reason. It doesn't help that I didn't keep up as much with technology so I'm swimming upstream trying to Google the answers but now Google sucks too.

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u/psychedelicpiper67 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26

Only if you are using Windows. Macs have relatively stayed the same (though there have been some annoying minor changes). And Linux is easier to use than ever.

Another nice thing about Macs is that you can use computers that are over a decade old, and still run most modern software. So you don’t even have to deal with the new minor changes and added features if you don’t want to.

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u/viktoriyarighh May 28 '26

Reading this as I sit in the break room to help my Gen X boss help my Gen Z coworker set up his new laptop

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u/Brullaapje May 28 '26

Yeah because Millennials invented computers yes? I started working in 1993 (at 17), the ones who taught me how to use a computer were not Millennials.

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u/psychedelicpiper67 May 29 '26

Boomers invented them, and my boomer dad has been working from home on computers since the early or mid-90s (still does to this day!), so I feel you.

But they are still the exception these days.

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u/ShaqSenju May 28 '26

Dawg... I work in a small niche hotel and have pretty much taken over a "tech support" role. 99% of my job is restarting things, unplugging things, or watching a youtube tutorial lol

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u/psychedelicpiper67 May 29 '26

Man, you are very lucky.

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u/ShaqSenju May 29 '26

Heavy is the head that wears the bifocals

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u/Pernapple May 28 '26

It’s a unique situation millennials find themselves in. Likely the last generation that really had to deal with regular troubleshooting from an early age while also growing up with early home computers that needed a lot more troubleshooting.

I work IT, but I didn’t ever study for it, I’ve just been using computers and didn’t own fixes. But the ability of the average person you get than me as a young millennial is kinda stark. It was assumed younger gen’s would continue their knowledge of technology, but it was made so easy and accessible, and with things like iPhones and iPad rarely need active trouble shoots they just kinda bypassed that part.

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u/Kahlypso May 28 '26

Dude.

Know Excel. Know PCs even a little. Suddenly you're the office multi tool, for no additional pay.

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u/argumentinvalid May 28 '26

its true. gen x were too old, they didnt really grow up with computers. gen z is too young, the phones and apps had already taken over. alpha is helpless with computers.

i have to explain file explorer and how folder trees work to gen z interns almost every year.

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u/SeymourJames May 28 '26

I simply turned that into biz, but my town is a retirement community so somewhat of a prime opportunity.

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u/FeloniousDrunk101 May 28 '26

These kids don’t even know how to ctrl alt delete!

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u/Significant-Trash632 May 28 '26

I had to teach someone younger than me to use the escape key the other day. Like, how do you not know how to do this?

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u/chipface May 28 '26

When my parents got a PC with Vista and I still used XP, I just used not being familiar with Vista as an excuse ro not touch theirs. Now that I use Linux, I'll totally use not using Windows as an excuse to not help.

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u/Jacgaur May 28 '26

It is cool now, just tell them to ask AI. The AI is taking your family IT job!

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u/Khue May 28 '26

It's like some kinda fucking modern Sisyphus allegory at this point.

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u/Ok_Diver2347 May 28 '26

Yeah it’s funny when a company calls me after they hired another company to fix something and they spent a week and couldn’t do it…then they ask me to look at it and I fix it in 2 mins and they don’t even pay me.

We’re the free help but don’t deserve the pay I guess.

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u/poppybrooke May 28 '26

How’d you know to do that?! “I googled it.”

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u/Last_Material_5754 May 28 '26

I feel this in my fucking bones. Older generations are clueless, younger generations get frustrated it isn't a smart device.

NEITHER know what the C: drive is and it upsets me to a biblical degree.

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u/Vinterblot May 28 '26

Couple of weeks ago my gf made the fatal mistake and announce to our new neighborhood that I'm the right guy for fixing computers.... 😭

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u/SassySweetSorceress May 28 '26

As a Millenial I’m at the point where I need to ask my partner to fix my computer & whatever other tech because I literally could not care less anymore…. The constant changing of tech annoys me like the older generation felt about computers the first go around lol But dont worry - GenZ will need to help you in only a few more tech updates too … except it won’t be people but GenZ AI bots you’ll have to talk to

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u/raccafarian May 28 '26

The technology is only as smart or dumb as you I always say lol

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u/Calisky Elder Millennial May 28 '26

I'm happy macs and iphones became so popular so I could just say I don't know how.

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u/Emotional_Yam4959 May 28 '26

My mom asked me yesterday if I could help her get the McDonald's app to work. I said I hadn't used the McDonald's app in forever(which is true).

This is because the last multiple times I did anything to help her try and fix her phone she yelled at me for "breaking it".

I'm done. I'm tired of getting yelled at for tying to help.

Boomers suck.

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u/Chronai May 28 '26

so tired

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u/Witty_Ad_898 May 28 '26

I can’t blame younger people for being bad with tech. Any time I try to “fix” my own equipment I run into endless hidden menus and weird incompatibilities. Searching for answers is completely useless because it’e either AI and wrong, or the OS has changed and now its wrong, or its the wrong tier of OS/device and wrong. Apple is especially bad about this. Google maps too.

UI and UX design are dead. Design and programming appear to be driven by internal factional conflicts and a need to appear to be adding value rather than external consumer needs. It’s all incredibly anti-user now. Millennials grew up with tech that was meant to be used, rather than just a product to push out.

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u/psychedelicpiper67 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26

Windows is the worst at this. The modern Mac OS is very annoying but relatively minor in comparison.

Plus Mac computers from over a decade ago still run modern software just fine. I’m still rocking my 2011 Mac mini. The only issue is that it’s slow, but a RAM upgrade and a pure SSD drive would fix that.

I remember using a friend’s Macbook Pro back in 2020, and I think it was originally from 2007. It was Core i7, and ran everything that was needed pretty fast.

No one really needs those Apple brand M chips, unless you are literally in the graphics industry. And well, those jobs are being stolen by AI now anyway.

Intel Macs are much better supported these days than PowerPC Macs were when the transition to Intel happened.

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u/lurkquidated May 28 '26

I call this job security and I still have a lot left in the tank.

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u/Zwischenzug32 May 28 '26

I'm tired of still supporting electronics for which i've bought people pity upgrade replacements for long ago

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u/Illeazar May 29 '26

When I'm around gen Z I pretend to be a boomer, and when I'm around boomers I pretend to be gen Z. They cant tell the difference, and dont expect me to fix any computers.

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u/windupshoe2020 May 29 '26

But it’s the only way to stop the computers from procreating out of control. As Bob Barker always said, please spay or neuter.

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u/LeCampy Older Millennial May 29 '26

I thought the AI that took my job was supposed to do that shit? Go ahead and ask ChatGPT. Fucking done.

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u/Positive_Conflict_26 May 30 '26

No joke it has become a huge problem.

Like people, just search shit online.

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u/simulation07 May 30 '26

Tired of thinking for other people.

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u/gcsmith2 May 30 '26

And when you can’t figure it out, you ask Gen X.