• Gnergy@piefed.europe.pub
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    17 hours ago

    When I was younger, the Internet was primarily a text based medium. Images and videos existed, but mainly to illustrate text.

    I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t able to read, so I wonder: do illiterate people now just watch videos on the Internet? Unthinkable 20 years ago that the Internet would be usable without being able to read.

    • mycodesucks@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      It sure seems that way.

      Remember… for most young people now, the internet isn’t even something you access through a browser - it’s a series of apps, some of which have replaced the majority of text with icons to avoid multi-language headaches.

      • Gnergy@piefed.europe.pub
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        17 hours ago

        I see.

        I occasionally read debates at what age children should get smartphones or other devices. While I don’t have children yet nor plans to have any, I think my attitude would be: when they’re able to read and write and occasionally unsupervised, they get a GNU/Linux smartphone, with Plasma Mobile or similar, so they can use the Internet through a web browser and get used to that being normal.

        They get an Android phone in their teen years when they need it for banking apps or similar.