I feel like for 10 of those years, it’s acceptable. Maybe even like 12-13 because everyone doesn’t learn at the same pace. But for at least the last 5 years, this dude was living in a kind of ignorantly blissful haze that makes me envious of his carefree life.
the real “how are you this retarded” is not from op. the real “how are you this retarded” is expecting people to understand how the devices they’re using work.
anyone that never had to work on something or troubleshoot problems with it will not have an inherent understanding of how it functions.
When you know how rockets and jet engines work, because someone explained it to you but nobody explained how car works, people might just apply that knowledge to cars.
People expect that others are born with knowledge or that it magically appears in their brains. Its not that op is retarded, its his parents that forgot to teach his son some basic stuff. When I see memes with how bad the current generation is, they forget its not the fault of the generation, its the fault of the parents. When they don’t teach their children that, how should they do it?
I’d question even that. Hardly any user knows how their phone works, so why would cars be any different? You probably should know basic maintenance but most cars tell you what they need anyway.
Understanding physics issues like momentum, traction, and the way a car turns is important to not crashing. Otherwise you get people making poor decisions on ice.
Note that OP made a distinction between “need” and “ought to” and I agree. You don’t “need” to know any of these, but you “ought to” because knowing them TO SOME DEGREE helps you use the machine more effectively and safely. Networking course is definitely going overboard, but I still think they’re important to know. I’m pretty sure doctors already do understand the basics of how MRI machines work.
Learning the basics of how WiFi works avoids people getting confused when WiFi doesn’t “just exist” everywhere, or why it drops out suddenly when a lot of people are using it even if you have full bars. Learning about HTTPS and SSL lets you understand what it keeps secure and how that can keep you secure when you’re e.g. banking.
That being said computers and software now are specifically designed to hide their inner workings as much as possible to simplify things for their users so it’s a bit of a special case.