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Generation "D"

enaberif

enaberif

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Lamb said:
How is it bad that people use new tools to make their lives easier?
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Its not about using new tools to make their lives easier. If you read the article you'd see people are willing to essentially give up most of their lives to simply have a device in front of their face.

The generation of now is that of one where communication devices are such an essential piece of their lives that if they left the house without their cell phone they would feel completely lost and naked.
 
I agree that our reliance on technology has become far too great and the adoption of said technology is starting at younger and younger ages. I imagine in the near future, kids won't even know what a pen or pencil is and they won't even know how to write their name, let alone the alphabet.

We've already come to a point where kids can't tell time on analogue clocks. As you say, map reading as well will become a thing of the past as we all have GPS in our pockets. Likewise teachers used to say "well you won't always have a calculator with you!" but that is now false as well.

The saddest part of this survey is the 25% of people whom admitted to using electronic communication with a person in the same room. I imagine this number is likely more than 25% though.

...but without it, it feels like you are hugely disadvantaged.
 
It's not just communication tech that's an issue, it's also the information that's available. With the advent of easy access to always-on information we're swiftly losing our ability to memorize / remember information.

There was an article running around a while back that compared our current inability to store multiple phone numbers in memory with the ability of folks in the past who could easily recite 20+ (I'm mostly guessing at the number, it could have been higher than that) 7+ digit phone numbers. This phenomenon is fairly well documented and I'm assuming the effect falls across the full spectrum of readily accessible information.

Imagine trying to call your closest friends if you lost access to your contact list? How many of those phone numbers could you come up with out of memory?
 
Technology advances, things change, necessary skills to be able to live change too, and it won't be the end of the world just because some skills disappear. It may not be necessary to know what a pen is in the future because pens just won't be necessary anymore, just as it's not necessary to know how to make bread today since you can just go to the grocery and buy one. We don't need to know how to ride a horse because we don't need them anymore. We don't need to know how to make fire because we don't need them anymore. Younger generation don't need to learn to count because they learn to use tools that are more effective and less prone to error than the brain. People don't need to learn others phone numbers because guess what contact lists are for.

You can argue all you want about the good and bad of this, but the thing is that every generation since the dawn of mankind have been saying things about how the younger generation gets dumber and don't know this or that and how the world will come to an end because of this. Guess what, we're still kicking and breathing. In today's society, we have to learn much more things, much faster and more efficiently than the older generation because the pace at which the world goes just keep getting faster and faster. Younger generations don't have time to learn how to write correctly and count simple things with their head that they have to learn how to code, how to do algebra, calculus and even harder stuff along with more complicated physics and science at large while keeping pace with the advance in technology and the overflow of information coming from all around the world. Even geniuses such as Peter Higgs said they wouldn't be able to keep up with the flow with today's expectations in science because they are simply just too damn high.
 
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Lamb said:
Technology advances, things change, necessary skills to be able to live change too, and it won't be the end of the world just because some skills disappear. It may not be necessary to know what a pen is in the future because pens just won't be necessary anymore, just as it's not necessary to know how to make bread today since you can just go to the grocery and buy one. We don't need to know how to ride a horse because we don't need them anymore. We don't need to know how to make fire because we don't need them anymore. Younger generation don't need to learn to count because they learn to use tools that are more effective and less prone to error than the brain. People don't need to learn others phone numbers because guess what contact lists are for.
Click to expand...

Nope, sorry. In this case I think it can be the end of the world. Other studies are out showing that the younger generation have a greater grasp on how to use technology over older groups but at the same time the skilled people needed to make that tech has actually dwindled. We are losing skills needed to live in this tech driven future.

That aside I honestly think that everyone should know how to start a fire and cook. Just because it seems old and out dated does not mean its unnecessary, I think we can attribute a lot of the current weight issues in north America to the on demand food and loss of basic cooking skills. And I am sure there were some people in Toronto with a dusty old fireplace that were greatful someone knew how to start a fire.

I think googles and all that are a tool that will allow a greater distribution of information, but heavily relying on it will not make our lives any better. I use GPS because its damn easy and great, but I also know how to read a map or tell where north is if I ever was in a situation where I didn't have working tech. I think the biggest potential loss from all this easy at hand tech is the loss of the ability to learn.
 
my 17 month old son has 2 tablets and understands touch screens. However he will also learn basic non-tech survival skills with me during many "out of cell range" back mountain horse camping trips of which I take several per year. My life and his will be a good mix of Tech and Farming / Ranching / Survival.
 
this reminded me of a quote I read long ago...

“Never memorize something that you can look up.” ― Albert Einstein
 
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