Two-thirds of children don't know what a floppy disk is, survey reveals

By Shivali Best

 

The floppy disc, the storage device of choice before we all started using USBs (Image: Dorling Kindersley)

 

It’s the universal icon for ‘Save’, but it seems that many youngsters have no idea what a floppy disk actually is.

 

A new YouGov survey of 2,011 children aged 6-18 examined how familiar kids are with technology from previous generations.

 

Researchers showed the children photos of 12 different technologies and asked them to name them.

 

Full Story: https://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/two-thirds-children-dont-know-12495063

Interesting topic.

It sometimes comes to my mind that I live with youngsters who don't know what a music cassette is.

Not to speak of a tape recorder!

Ask them what a Revox A77 is

 

I started at the job with 8 inch floppies, mid to end 80s.

128 kBytes if I remember right.

Had to swap them to load a compiler.

Would not fit on one

At the university (early 80s) even punch cards were in use.

Edited May 7, 20188 yr by KhunBENQ

ask the other end of the age spectrum and ask them what a hashtag is

Yep.  For me it was the 5 & 1/4" floppy, late eighties in high school.  Had a plastic box for them, used to have to take it to Computer Science class.

 

And then for my first laptop - the Windows OS installer was a collection of something like 17 x 3.5" floppy disks

Less than 20 years ago we used to watch movies from a CD.

 

When downloading movies started to happen, I thought "nah that won't work, too difficult"

 

Why would they need to know, other than for just general knowledge?

Of course one could argue that the pictured disks are not really "floppy" disks, with the name really relating to the original (really floppy) disks.

Ask them what a punchcard is?

and then there's this one...

 

While we are all wandering down memory lane, I remember my first encounter with a "computer". A room full of whirling tapes and card punching machines that probably had a lot less punch than the device I am typing this on now.

2 minutes ago, car720 said:

manual rewind.

Its bizarre to think about it now isn't it?  But it was a regular thing.  Sitting on the couch with a pencil in a tape, spinning it around for a long time to rewind it.  And we thought nothing of it then - its just what you did

I recall doing my telephone technician apprenticeship in the late 70s, it was a big deal because we were the first intake that didn't need to learn Morse code.

20 minutes ago, car720 said:

Yes, this is a good question.  I recall when people used to complain to me about kids taking calculators to school.  "They should know how to do them in their head, the way that I had to when I was a kid".  The only problem there is that we only had to do half a dozen sums a week compared to hundreds a day later on.  I honestly believe that if you don't supply your kid with the latest technology then you are hobbling their later life as they will always be playing catch up.

You have always been hurrying after the emerging technology, and at a certain point had to admit you lost it.

So will your children.

Slide rules, abacus and all those tee squares, protractors, compasses and parallels. What a world we left behind!

13 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

I recall doing my telephone technician apprenticeship in the late 70s, it was a big deal because we were the first intake that didn't need to learn Morse code.

I'm guessing you're a Brit, mentioning "telephone technician apprenticeship" - TTA.

I started as a TTA in 1975, although no one used Morse code, I vaguely remember covering it at college. I do remember Murray code (2 out of 5 code) for telex. Remember "A ops B ops CD" on Strowger?

(sorry about going OT)

 

A lot of things, especially technological, children can't know, but what disturbs me most is their ignorance of morals, philosophy, politics and other essentials of civilisation.

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Two-thirds of children don't know what a floppy disk is, survey reveals

So what! Probably 20% don't know who their father is!

I took early retirement from a UK police force in 2011 and we still had one of these in our control room, and it was used regularly, I'm not sure why as we also had secure e mail and Fax to other forces, maybe it was in the event of WW111 

 

Cheetah Telex Machine. 

 

13 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

Interesting topic.

It sometimes comes to my mind that I live with youngsters who don't know what a music cassette is.

Not to speak of a tape recorder!

Ask them what a Revox A77 is

 

I started at the job with 8 inch floppies, mid to end 80s.

128 kBytes if I remember right.

Had to swap them to load a compiler.

Would not fit on one

At the university (early 80s) even punch cards were in use.

Give them a VHS videotape and let them work out what to do with it or even what it is!!

I bet in ten years, the kids won't know what a CD is, now everything is streamed or copied onto a USB memory stick.

 

Just now, bluesofa said:

or copied onto a USB memory stick.

 

A what ?

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Two-thirds of children don't know what a floppy disk is, survey reveals

Don't worry, when they get to our age they will certainly experience something very similar to it!!

Knowledge of floppy disks is hardly a necessity, surely it goes for this and many things from the past.

 

About 5 years ago I told a group of 30something expats a joke about Woody Allen and Warren Beatty - zero reaction. Then I realised they had no idea who they were - and both were still/are alive. Conversely would us older bods have felt the need to be familiar with stuff from the 1920's and 30's? - I actually am, but then my own (older) brother calls me an F'ing anorak!

38 minutes ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

A what ?

hahaha love it

I got a birthday card in the postal mail.

My 9 year old, who is really quite clever, asked me what it was.

After I explained it, she said, "Oh it's like a paper email."

 

Some English books used asking about cd players and other obsolete gadgets (Super Minds). One thing is the floppy, but a lot of Thai students have no idea about basic issues in our life, like, what is the capital of Malaysia, or Singapore in South Thailand. History knowledge, even if it is a history of Thailand tending to zero. English, we all know. Why is it surprising they do not know what is a vinyl record?

I once used the IBM 8-inch floppy diskette that could store a massive 80 KB of data.

Why would they need to know something that is not in use anymore?

1 minute ago, janclaes47 said:

Why would they need to know something that is not in use anymore?

They don't

 

More for us than for them

I am stunned that one third do know what it is. That seems awfully high to me.