[dmonitor]

> they and their peers were fairly proficient with tablets, etc.

I'm really curious what people mean when they say that. I didn't grow up with smart screens, but I've never felt particularly encumbered by them, and I wouldn't even consider using them a skill. What does the difference between a "bad iPad user" and a "good iPad user" really amount to? Is swiping Tiktok and watching Youtube really something you can become proficient in?

[marcellus23]

How is it any different than being proficient with a regular computer? Or any other tool? They're fast at typing, they know where the settings are, they can get around using muscle memory instead of needing to examine every screen to see where things are, etc etc.

[dmonitor]

In gaming, there's the terms "skill floor" and "skill ceiling" to describe a game's capacity for handling user adeptness. A low skill floor means anyone can play with low requirements, and a high skill floor means it demands a lot from the player. Low skill ceiling means that it takes very little time to reach the peak skill level, while a high skill ceiling means it can take years of play before taking full advantage of the tools it gives you.

Tablets seem to have a low skill floor and low skill ceiling by design. There's no file system, they can't run unsigned code, they can't write code, and are essentially just internet media players.

A PC has a somewhat low skill floor as well (as any mass consumer product should), but the skill ceiling is very very high. A confident user can also easily break something essential.

[yoz-y]

Regular computers have less handrails and you can hose yourself.

Back in the day even a 12 year old needed to at least sometimes poke around autoexec.bat so some understanding as to why things are happening was necessary.

[ewgoforth]

Finding how to change a specific setting on your iPad/iPhone, etc.

[egypturnash]

I have been using an iPad for years and every fucking time I accidentally trigger the creation of a second window I have to flail around for a while before I can figure out how to get rid of it. Presumably there are people who deliberately create multiple windows on these things and actually do serious enough work on them that this is useful, "my experiences with trying to ditch my lappy for 100% ipad" is definitely a genre of blog post.

[tonyedgecombe]

You can disable this in the settings.

[egypturnash]

You can? Last time I looked you could not. I hate it so much. Where do I go to turn it off?

[tonyedgecombe]

Settings > Home Screen & Dock > Multitasking > Allow Multiple Apps = “off”.

[egypturnash]

I don't have a "multitasking" section in "home screen & dock". Possibly because I have an old ipad that constantly fails to update past 15.7 for some damn reason. Guess I get to keep cursing this feature.