Man, I didn't realize that article was written in 2013, it could've been written today, and it still would've been true.
I think one of the biggest contributions to the tech illiteracy of people is, 1. Schools don't really teach you about that kind of stuff (in my experience, or unless you take a special course) and 2. Everything is basically done for you now, its incredibly easy to do anything basic on computers.
At my high school most of my teachers didn’t allow cellphones in class, and would take them away for the period if they caught the student more than once.
There isn’t a lot of need for cellphones in a classroom, especially if the students have access to school laptops/computers.