Unpopular opinion: Millennials dealing with slow internet built better skills than Gen Z admits

Honestly, everyone says Gen Z is naturally better with tech, but I don't buy it. Tbh, as a Millennial, I grew up with dial-up that took forever to connect, and websites that crashed all the time. Ngl, waiting for a single image to load taught me way more about patience and fixing issues than any app today. I see my Gen Z coworkers panic when the Wi-Fi drops, but we had to troubleshoot without Google or easy fixes. Back then, you learned by messing up and reading manuals, not watching a quick tutorial. So, the idea that younger people are automatically more tech-savvy just feels off to me. Our old struggles with bad internet actually made us better at solving real problems. It's not a dig at Gen Z, but their smooth tech life doesn't mean they have us beat.

3 comments

3 Comments

ben4472mo ago

Disagree completely. Fixing a dial-up connection taught you about one specific problem, not how modern tech works. Gen Z navigates entire ecosystems of apps, cloud services, and devices that are all connected. They solve issues within complex systems where a simple reboot rarely cuts it. Your patience waiting for a picture to load doesn't help when an API fails or a cloud sync breaks. It's like comparing a mechanic who only knows carburetors to one who fixes electric cars. Different worlds, different skills.

felixfisher2mo ago

Yeah when cloud stuff breaks it's a different game. I've had to walk people through checking API keys and service status pages because just resetting the router does nothing.

ben_nguyen2mo ago

Last month our office Slack integration died because of an expired OAuth token. I spent half an hour digging through admin settings before I found the fix. It's a whole new layer of problems that older tech never had.