[mwcampbell]

> All the complaints about them are still valid

Including the complaint from the OP about how zoomers are passive? If it's true (which I'm not convinced of), it seems like a fatal flaw, unless you're saying that inaction is preferable to some of the pathologies of previous generations (presumably including mine; I was born in 1980).

[api]

I think the OP means passive in terms of technology. They work entirely in walled gardens with constrained UIs and know of nothing different.

It’s not the zoomers fault though. It was the previous generation or two that built this hellscape of cloud software and addiction oriented UIs.

[mwcampbell]

Ah, makes sense. But then, the OP also said zoomers don't know how to dance. But, as an admittedly curmudgeonly early forty-something, I wonder if that's at least partly because so much of current pop music is garbage. Then again, I guess most of any generation's pop music has always been crap; we only remember the classics from the past.

Back to technology, though, I worry about what computing will be like for Generation Alpha (born after 2010 according to Wikipedia), including my nieces and nephew. Perhaps I didn't help matters by buying them Amazon Fire tablets when they were little, though my siblings and in-laws certainly appreciated it. I feel like intervening to get them started on some kind of more open computing platform, but I fear I might sabotage the development of a new, better computing culture if I try too hard to replicate what things were like for me growing up with an Apple II and early PCs. Edit: And no, I don't feel qualified to become a father myself so I can avoid meddling with others' kids. So I guess I'll just stay on the sidelines, watch, and try to keep my opinions to myself.