DS uses his iPhone for EVERYTHING. He communicates exclusively by text, Snapchat, Instagram, IM, Facetime and Facebook (although I guess that is becoming less common). He can run rings around me with regards to these apps.
However, email apparently is “old technology” that kids don’t utilize. I reminded him that professionals and universities don’t utilize social media for important communications - they use email. I have impressed upon him the importance of checking his email accounts at least once daily during the entire college and orientation process. I can’t tell you how many emails he’s missed - important emails although not critical. We have had discussions about this. I have since found that he knows very little about troubleshooting PCs and simple tasks. His was the last the HS class not to be issued personal Chromebooks (they used them in class only). He is a whiz uploading documents to cloud storage and looking at teacher assignments online, etc. Ask him what an “executable file” or a “driver” is and he is lost. His college has recommended using Google or Outlook calendar to keep things straight. I heard, “What’s Outlook?” I have had to teach him some basic PC skills this summer but can’t think of all potential problems. Will he know what to do if his wireless connection drops? This generation is supposed to be so techno-savvy but if it’s not a phone or game console, I don’t know if it is true. School IT departments seems to cover any issues or problems so students never face them. As anyone else discovered this with their children? Where did I go wrong, LOL.? Anyone’s kids ignore email because “that’s not the way we communicate.”
If I want an immediate response I text message the kids. Lots to say, e-mail. Sometimes I message them to look at their e-mail!
As for not knowing about PCs you could get him a “PCs for Dummies” book or more likely he’ll just google whatever he needs to know.
crazy - I’ve done that too (text to have him check his email). Maybe I’m not alone!!! I still find it odd that he has no idea how to troubleshoot simple IT issues. I guess that’s my fault…
My daughter’s high school did all communications via email so she’s very used to having to check multiple times/day but her preferred method of communication is still texting. She’s not great at trouble shooting PC issues because she was too used to having instant support access.
Yes, there is a vast difference between kids who started college even ten years ago. I have to remind my last semester college kid constantly to read and cleanout his email. College these days often use their intranets for all communication which complicates the “email thing” even more because they can pick up college messages…just not outside the college messages (like potential employers, his landlord, amazon book deliveries and all those sorts of important things). That one, the youngest, also never answers the phone or uses the phone. I have to text him to call me if what I want to say is too exhausting to try and type on my phone in a text message. It’s pretty interesting.
Is your son using his phone to check his email? With an iPhone, it’s really easy to check email from multiple accounts if he’s trying to manage personal and school email accounts. Maybe he can set an alarm or reminder and check his email every day at that time. He wouldn’t even need to use the computer to do it.
@My3Kiddos yes - he uses his phone for email after I gently remind him to check it. You should see the size of some of the electronic info sheets he has filled out for his school on his phone. It’s not like he bought himself a brand new laptop for school or anything. LOL I live by my smartphone for my phone - but as a supplement to laptop while traveling. I also spend my life answering email which is why I can post to CC so easily.
I can’t get my niece to reply to an email for the life of me. You text her or you don’t communicate with her.
DD is an abnormality, and I’m grateful. She will check email, although she prefers texting or snapchat. She has no interest in most social media - no twitter or instagram, no facebook or facetime, etc. It’s surprising to me because CS is her thing, but I think the longer she can live without it, the better.
They figure things out pretty quickly in college. When your professors communicate by email, you learn to check it diligently. When you lose your wireless connection, you figure out how to reconnect either by troubleshooting or figuring out who to ask for help. Try not to worry too much. They do become more self-sufficient when they need to be.
What gets me is how many 17 year old’s here on CC who do not seem to know how to use the internet or that each college has its own website with all the information they are asking us about on here.
My husband and I (he’s a high school teacher and I’m a college instructor) agree that teens are less adept at computer use than in the pre-smartphone days. They pretty much expect everything to work seemlessly, and are not good at tech solving even at a simple level when it doesn’t. (this is a generalization of course–your kid may be a whiz!)
What I see, besides the email reluctance: trouble figuring out how to upload to and use our online class site, really bad research skills, sketchy word processing ability (“I can’t do hanging indents!”), etc. And an overall sense of helplessness when hitting a problem.
Also apparently internet security is spotty, because I’m constantly hearing “my laptop’s in the shop because I got a virus”.
This is in first year composition, not a computer class. I do a lot of problem-solving work with them to help get more adept at successfully negotiating different platforms and better at searching and evaluating websites.
@Groundwork2022 your DD is like mine! Phone is always turned to silent, recently opened a couple of social media accounts because it’s how her friends communicate. I don’t remember why, but her email personal was set up on my phone from 2 years ago, and we never turned it off, so I let her know when she gets anything important. Thankfully she checks school email regularly, since she needs it for google classrooms. She’s a rising junior, planning on CS major too,
