Comment 1372 for bug 1

The concept of a computer being a "bicycle for the mind" might be
helpful here, and might be worth revisiting.

If we (society) are "training" our students purely to be "users"
(consumers) of software then we will see the exact effect that you
describe (in the domain of OS'es and computing, at least). (Bug #1 has
in effect created a whole generation of consumers who view computers as
a way to get to entertainment).

We should instead be aiming to teach people to be creators and
contributors, so their information access tools remain robust and enable
any one to get to any and all information they need to educate
themselves. Ubuntu is taking that challenge head-on. However, we're
still not able to channel all the energy that is lost to distractions
such as Facebook, YouTube, Farmville, WoW, and similar things that also
tend to "dumb down" (or at least divert). That will require a lot more
code...

On 10-10-20 02:48 PM, »John« wrote:
> One more thing:
> I'm incredibly sorry to say so, but I forgot to mention that "that
> reason" is probably more and more people being stupid and getting more
> and more stupid as the time passes - that's a sad fact that probably
> just about every teacher out there can confirm (I recently joined the
> club and pretty much the whole class - almost all of them senior teacher
> professionals - seems to be thinking the same); no offence to anyone
> here intended.
>