Pew Research Center recently commented on this https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/05/22/how-pew-research-center-will-report-on-generations-moving-forward/

The field has been flooded with content that’s often sold as research but is more like clickbait or marketing mythology. There’s also been a growing chorus of criticism about generational research and generational labels in particular.

What if the purpose of school isn’t inherently to teach people stuff?

If you got really bad scores your DM may allow you a re-roll

IQ is a statistical construct devised by psychologists for a different purpose than it is used now. Perhaps don’t identify with an IQ caste leads to better well-being outcomes? It is a two way street.

Layman statistics is not the hill I would die on. Otherwise (being guilty of the fallacy myself) I now think that making a subject mandatory school lesson will only make people more confidently incorrect about it, so this is another hill I won’t die on for probability and statistics. See for instance the widespread erroneous layman use of “statistical significance” (like “your sample of partners is not statistical significant”) you see it is a lost cause. They misinterpret it because they were taught it. Also professionals have been taught it and mess it up more than regularly to the point we can’t trust studies or sth any more. So the solution you suggest is teach more of it? Sounds a bit like the war on drugs.

I agree. It is insane that they don’t make sure people understand computer basics, now that our life is defined by computers. I hate that people are divided to the “tech savvy” and “tech ignorant” camps at work. It makes me question what sci-fi had me believe about “technologically advanced societies”.

this shouldn’t be the main argument because people don’t really care about it now but it can be a nice secondary one

I do think that recommendation algorithms are a big culprit for the widespread scrolling addiction epidemic. Smart phones and social media platforms have positioned the population in readiness to consume ads and propaganda. So, I think this is definitely among the main arguments.

Plus note people were arguably repulsed when it was leaked that Facebook performed a sentiment analysis psychological experiment on them.

Agreed. This area of skills completely evades me though. So, yes, if you have some tips on that, they will be well received.

It sounds glorious!

convince friends to switch to firefox from chrome

Ah yes, you reminded me of this gem https://contrachrome.com/ (It is Scott McCloud’s Webcomic against Chrome’s data mining)