Children and computers

My grandson, who lives far away, came recently and was able, most cleverly, to get my scanner to work even though I hadn't used it in the 10 years I've had it and it had become obsolete.  He did the equivalent of looking for a part for an old car on the internet, and finally found the old-fashioned software needed and got the thing to work.  What he did was unimaginable to me.  If I had had to pay somebody to do that it would, of course, have been much cheaper to buy a new one.  As usual, he was in a rush, and, in the process disconnected my printer and neither of us noticed until he had gone home.  He said, "Grandma, get any kid down the road to fix it" and I did just that and a 15-year-old came along and did it without too much trouble, and it wasn't a question of plugging something in somewhere, it involved a lot of mysterious key-work.  Some of this skill is taught at school, some is just a willingness to use trial and error.  I am dead scared of pressing any key on that basis - never knowing what horrors might unfold.

Younger and younger children are acquiring this skill and it's wonderful to behold and they learn a lot of facts without having to go to libraries.  But I think it gives them a rather unfounded sense of superiority, so they think there is nothing at all to be learned from their elders.  Their ignorance of every-day things is sometimes staggering, cooking the simplest of food that can't go in the microwave, knowing where the fuse-box is, how to find the candles if the lights fail, that you can smell food to judge whether, even though it's pas its sell-by date, is still perfectly safe to eat, that biscuits, for example, can be a bit soft but won't kill you.  One was idly picking my blackberries and throwing them on the ground as he chatted on his phone.  I asked him to please not do that - he was welcome to eat them, but not just to throw them down.  He didn't know they were edible!  Sewing on a button is a forgotten skill.  Because I love it, I still, or rather, again have an open fire.  The coalman told me that the staff at a pub which had newly re-opened its fireplace asked him to stay and light the fire for them because they had no idea how to do it.  Computer sense has replaced common sense.  But we do need a bit of the common kind.