this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2025
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And I can’t even tell if it’s because printers have gotten worse or millennials are just the IT department forever.
It is the printer.
I first started dabbling in computing 40 years ago. I took a Basic Class in the back of a Radio Shack.
Printing and printers have always been a fucking nightmare.
It’s 100 % because you no longer need to understand how information technology works in order to use it.
So our parents didn’t know because the tech didn’t exist (or came late in their life), and our kids because they never needed to learn.
I work in an industry where we use computers all day and this is painfully clear. I grew up with a mouse in my hand, shortcuts are hardwired into my brain. Watching someone right click them slowly move the cursor to copy, then right click and slowly move to paste, then slowly navigate to formulas then click refresh is brutal. It literally takes them 3-4x as long as it takes me to do the same task.
On the bright side, I only work about 20 hours a week and still outperform them, so thanks I guess?
I was hella unemployed for a while, and the job centre asked me if I was good with computers. I replied "not really. I cab do a little HTML, and can sort of read JS and C++/C# but can't really write anything with them" so they sent me on a course so I could brush up on my computer skills to improve my prospects of getting a job.
I spent my first lesson teaching everyone else what the difference between left click and right click was, and how the little arrow moves when you wiggle the mouse.
Gen X here and I memorized only 3 shortcuts: cut, copy, and paste
I've gotta have my Ctrl+T and Ctrl+N and of course my Ctrl+W. And you KNOW I've got my Ctrl+Shift versions of everything, naturally. Oh man, and my Windows+Tab, how could I forget you?
I can't count the times Ctrl+Shift+T has saved my browsers sessions. Or when I close a tab and 5 seconds later think, wait I needed that one.
Also je youtube player controls. J, K, L, etc. Got so annoyed by the video player not responding to spacebar because the video wasn't focused that I just stopped using the spacebar.
Youtube's controls are stupid. Left and right skip 5 seconds forward and backward respectively, and up and down adjust the volume.
However, if you've recently adjusted the volume slider with the mouse, then left and right ALSO adjust volume, and can't be used to skip forward/backward anymore until you unfocus the volume bar.
Yeah, those annoying people who need accessibility and navigate web pages via keyboard focus, they ruined YouTube controls for the rest of us.
The issue is that the keyboard focus changes with normal usage, and impairs normal usage. If you go to jump back with left arrow, and accidentally touch down arrow, the focus is unrecoverably moved and you can't even pause anymore.
This wouldn't be a problem if using the mouse or the up/down arrows didn't focus the volume slider. Tab should be perfectly capable of moving the focus if you want to focus volume specifically, especially as volume has dedicated shortcuts already.
There's a button on the side of my mouse dedicated to each of those shortcuts you just mentioned. 🤣
Windows+V
Also win+space to switch from English to Japanese and back! And inside that, shift+caps to switch between kana and kanji, and romaji!
(I’m on Mint, but I changed the shortcuts to be Windows default because that’s what I’m used to. Still works great, sometimes I hamfist the wrong kanji in the sentence because I’m just not looking too closely, but I’ve seen native English speakers abuse the shit out of “your” and “there”.)
I definitely have a lot more I use, I just had an I Think You Should Leave sketch in my head and tried to do a shitty riff on it. 🤣
https://youtube.com/shorts/4qi7MsXyP8E
Oh, I guess there is a fourth one I've memorized. Win + L to lock the computer at work.
I have no idea what ctrl+ T, N, or W do.
New tab, new window and close tab/window in that order for Firefox.
Good ol'
C-w,M-w, andC-yYou sound like someone who frequently accidentally brings up the emoji keyboard when you're trying to go to the end of the line here on Lemmy.
Alt-E, select copy, Alt-E, select paste.
It's partially that. It's also because printers do suck more now. Had an HP 5p in the 90s that was a workhorse, reliable as hell, and would simply print whatever you sent. period.
Fair enough, printers suck! Laser printers seem to be less of a racket than inkjets, but still..
I tried older HP PSC 1315 on Windows 11.
Windows 11: Cannot find drivers, use manufacturer's website.
HP: Windows will automatically download drivers, no downloads are provided.
Uuuh... thanks?
Soooooo... archive.org.
I feel like there was definitely a golden age for printers, because when I was a kid we had an Epson Stylus Color 800 that was literally Satan crammed into a shitty beige box, but my HP LaserJet from like 2012 is still going strong.
I have a great rule to promote self reliance. I'll gladly help you, but if the answer is in the first 20 results on Google, it costs you 50 euro.
I only had one relative get angry, asking how he was supposed to know if it was. I told him to check, and he angrily said "well then I might as well do it myself".
Exactly.
Those first 20 results in 2025:
“Who were you, DenverCoder9? What did you see?!”
You vastly overestimate the level of these questions. Think "how do I send photos on Whatsapp".
Most of the stuff is accurately answered by the shitty AI most of the time.
20??? I'm pretty sure if you scroll down past 5 results you're already in the top 1% of users doing so.
I thought this was about Gen X, rooky Gen X mistake, sorry, forgot we forgotten.
They don't forget us when they are struggling with their computer...
Same
Today I had to teach two people from different generations, the difference between right and left click.
Did you mention the center wheel click? No? Probably for the best.
💀
Not just millennials… I’ve been family IT support since the late 80s. And not just printers. TVs, cable, VCRs, DVD players, BlueRay, stereos, home theater, networking, WiFi, smart appliances, laptops, tablets, phones, etc.
I mean, as a millennial I only missed that by a couple of years. I was already the most computer-literate person in the house when I was 7, in the early '90s.
Were you the only one who knew how to press the input button on the remote to switch devices?
Trick question: back then, we changed to channel 3 and turned on the device hooked up to the RF adapter.
Also, my parents struggle with changing inputs on the remote now. I'm not sure if they regressed in their old age or never knew to begin with, but either is plausible.
I feel like being competent in electronics can be so aggravating depending on how people treat you. I don’t even want to think about those giant tv/dvd/multi-disc changer set-ups with sound systems people had. Rip.
I have set up so many home theater systems over the years. And before things like HDMI-ARC or even toslink so it was always a pain to get everything plugged in and working. 14 remotes and a multifaceted spell you had to cast to get sound working. Man what a pain…
Oh yeah…I forgot about the basket of remotes.
It's because the kids don't care enough to learn. Seriously.
This is a generalization, it does not include everyone.
As a Gen X person who also does occasional family tech support, printers have always been shit as far as I can tell.
Also I don't think I've ever encountered a device made by HP that wasn't trash in some way or another.