This article just blows me away. Students apparently don’t understand directory structure on computers •••at all•••!
#directories #folders #data #organization #students #search
https://www.theverge.com/22684730/students-file-folder-directory-structure-education-gen-z

I’m curious what the prevailing mental model is “with the kids these days”. I can’t think about files without directory structure.

Then again, I’m old 😎

#directories #folders #data #organization #students #search

@scottwilson So you're saying we should start seeing the ../ attacks diminish as the olds age out? 😉

@cR0w Ha! Maybe…

@scottwilson With modern mobile UI's people no longer know what files are in the first place.

@scottwilson its funny they are making this a generational thing. ive encountered people baffled by the concept of folders my entire career.

worse, when i gave in and took a different approach focused on metadata instead of folder structure the result was the same.

i suspect the real problem is that people whos introduction to computers started with a browser learned a completely different model of what a computer is.

@cR0w @scottwilson No ../ needed if everything in already in root!

@catsalad @scottwilson Everything goes into the data swamp.

@catsalad @cR0w 👀

@scottwilson I saw this firsthand about 6-7 years ago in my AP computer science course in high school. There were people in that class who didn’t know how folders worked! We’re starting to see the effects of simplified UX from things like Google Docs and Drive. Need a file? Search for it.

It may not necessarily be a bad thing, but it absolutely changes how we techies must think when we educate our friends and family. It’s also an important thing to consider for UI/UX design when targeting the average person for your product.

@scottwilson I wonder if they have had the opportunity to work much with the real-world equivalents. Physical files, folders, directories, etc. seem less common in general and without having made the associations between a printed/written set of papers in a filing cabinet and their digital counterparts I can see how it would be pretty abstract.

@chillicampari Yep, I think you are probably right. Hard to understand the analogy!

@scottwilson Yep. Most people don't know what domain names are, either. Knowing where your data is stored and who you communicate with should be a basic focus of tech literacy.

FWIW, Windows home directory locations confuse even me. Much sleight-of-hand there, and it seems more like an attempt to get people to give up on knowing paths to their data and use whatever icons and apps lead them to.