I wholeheartedly agree with the authors premise that many young people don't know much about computers beyond how to use day to day applications but I think there is a disturbing element that he didn't cover.

Ninety Five percent of the problems any computer user faces is about five google searches and twenty or so webpages worth of skimming away from being solved. The solution is probably presented with screenshots and a step by step breakdown. Almost everyone has an extra screen in their pocket with which to find this information if the problem is "can't connect to the internet." As long as the user can follow directions they don't need understand the finer details of what they are doing or why they are doing it, they just need to do it. The more you just do it the more you end up knowing about computers.

My mom couldn't upgrade her RAM about five years ago. After visiting her and seeing how slow her computer was I wrote down her model number and had a RAM upgrade shipped to her house. She refused to put it in, waiting a year until I came back for a visit to have me install it. About two years ago she bought a decent laptop and took a laptop repair and maintenance class. The class sounded pretty amazing; they taught a woman who couldn't replace her desktop ram how to replace screens, keyboard, RAM and every other part that wasn't soldered in. She thinks that she could probably diagnose, find the parts for and replace any part on her laptop that isn't soldered in now. Doesn't really relate to the kids part of the story but it shows how a low functioning user can change if they put a bit of effort into it.