Gen-Z almost never seems to get a break. We are called too sensitive for not turning a blind eye to the oppression of marginalized people, too lazy for not wanting to work a 9 to 5 that pays very little and too reliant on technology. It is not our fault that many of us were exposed to technology or the internet at a young age; most of Gen-Z was born into having these resources readily available so of course we get accustomed to it. And yet, according to a piece titled “Gen-Z Is Apparently Baffled From Basic Technology” from Futurism.com, a New York-based tech news website, Gen-Z collectively panics at the sight of a printer or computer. The piece even goes as far as to state that “the latest generation of students is struggling with wrapping their minds around the concept of file folders and directories.”

That is just false.

The piece does not bash Gen-Z throughout every sentence; at points it does seem to give Gen-Zers the benefit of the doubt by noting that living in a world full of technology does not automatically make one tech savvy. However, this is quickly lost with the inclusion of a statement by HP head of U.K and Ireland human resources Debbie Irish saying that “sadly, neither watching TikTok videos nor playing Minecraft fulfills the technology brief.” Whether anybody has tried to claim that doing either would somehow make someone good with technology is unknown to me. But this statement comes off like a generalization and nothing more. It may have not been the intention of the writer, but this piece just comes off as someone who believes that social media makes people unintelligent and wants to take it out on the generation raised by it. Whether one believes this or not is up to themselves. Going back on an inability to use basic technology, let us not forget that basic technology surrounds us on campus. Printers, computers, copy machines, all of these tools that this Futurism writer claims that Gen-Zers have no idea how to use. And yet, anytime I happen to be in a space where there is a printer, everyone in our age range seems to get it to work fine. It is the same case with computers as well and even if someone did not know how to, they are able to figure it out.

Here is what is more common: malfunctioning technology.

Whenever I see someone struggling with a printer, nearly every time it is because it ran out of paper or ink with the occasional cryptic error on the screen of the printer that can be fixed with a restart. Regarding computers in the computer labs, the main struggle I see and have experienced myself is random slowdowns and nothing more. While that may be an indicator that some people are not closing out of their applications like they should, it is not as severe as not knowing where to even find files. The likelihood of that happening would only appear high with a tiny, cherry-picked sample size that does not represent reality.

While I found this piece to be a massive reach, thankfully it was not just someone who hates Gen-Z and wanted to write this so they could feel superior to our generation. Ending off on a note that printers and scanners are obsolete anyway was better than once again collectively berating us.