A new article in The Verge reports that professors are increasingly seeing the rise of a generation that can't understand even the basic fundamentals of how computers and operating systems work. The very concept of things like directories, folders, and even what a file is seem to baffle a generation that was raised on Google and smartphones, and have no concept of what storage is or how it works. To this generation, all your "stuff" just goes someplace where stuff is kept. Physics professor Catherine Garland was stunned to find that her students couldn't grasp the concept of organized file storage:

The new generation of students sees storage as a "giant laundry basket", where everything is just thrown in, and you go get what you need when you need it. One professor now incorporates an additional two hour lecture and demo in their subject just to teach new students how things like directories work in computer systems. Teachers worry that students will be ill-prepared for professional environments, especially STEM fields, that require rigid organization to keep volumes of data organized. But some professors seem to think that they'll eventually have to surrender to how the young do things.