Full circle

[izard]

I was in middle school in the late 80s and early 90s, in a small town in the Soviet Union. Our school had a computer lab - a real rarity back then. In a class of about thirty, three kids had a PC at home. By sixth grade, those few could type, and the rest learned slowly at school.

Twenty years later, in the mid-2000s, things were completely different. In most countries, almost every family had a computer. Even poor families could afford an old PCs and were buying them "for kid's education". Children grew up clicking, typing, chatting, coding. It felt like the world became more digital and advanced.

Now it’s 2025. My son is in sixth grade at a Bavarian Gymnasium - a demanding, high-performing school. You’d expect every child there to be digitally fluent. But when I asked, he said only three kids in his class of thirty have a real computer, same experience as mine. But there is a difference: the rest have phones and tablets. And Jacob is the only one who can actually type pretty fast.

It feels like we’ve looped back to where it all started - a few kids at the keyboard, most just watching. Except this time, it’s not because computers are rare or expensive. It’s because no one thinks they’re needed anymore :(

Comments

[thedeemon]

Same picture in London. Most kids use tablets and/or phones, if any. Many parents are too wary of screen time and prefer kids not using devices. My daughter has spent a lot of time playing Roblox on a laptop, where she chatted a lot or typed some words in games that required typing. And then her classmates were very impressed with how fast she can type.

[izard]

Thank you for the data point, I was afraid here it might be an exception because of rural Bavarian lifestyle.

[juan_gandhi]

How weird. I observed, in California, kids typing on their phones extremely fast, with their two thumbs.

[izard]

I thought that should translate to faster typing on a keyboard, but no.

[brumka]

Both of my kids grew up with physical computers let alone the tablets.

And in my Soviet childhood, back in 1989, we too had a school class of "Korvets" and, later, Yamahas

[izard]

Right, Korvets, Yamaha, BK, Vector, all kinds of 8-bit zoo.

All IT-parents have PCs at home, but 15 years ago non-IT folks had them too.

[brumka]

the mobile devices just got better, more convenient... people use desktops less and less - a natural evolution of things. Desktops are required for gaming or some more advanced things. Otherwise, there is simply no need for them in a household.