Behind the Eight

in Reflectionslast year

For something I haven't done in I don't know how long, I went out with a couple guys from work for some coffee, some pool and a chat. It was very "Sex in the City" - without the designer handbags and shoes that we can't afford. Still it was nice to get out for a few hours and spend time shooting pool and the breeze, solving the world's problems. Which had me thinking a bit, because I am pretty sure that when my wife goes out with her friends, they don't talk about these kinds of topics.

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Not that it matters, but it is interesting to note perhaps how far ranging the topics move and how so little of it is centered around people, but larger concepts perhaps and things that might not be inside our circle of control, but still affect us. Things like politics, or social activism.

And one thing that came up was the question as to whether our parents felt the same as we do about the world in terms of the direction of the young and whether it is a generational process or, something to actually be concerned about. Personally, I think it is something to be concerned about.

One of the guys was talking about the social pressure when his child was younger to get him a smart phone, because how else would he learn to interact in the modern world and learn about technology. Ten years later, his son is almost eighteen and uses his phone a lot, and well, but has no real idea about how to actually create anything for it.

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And this is where I think it is different from the past compared to the worries of our parents, as this is the common theme now, user, not creator. And the analogy I provided for how I see this is, it is

the difference between a drug addict, and the chemist that creates the drugs.

One has skills that can be applied to all kinds of jobs, as well as fundamental understanding that allows them to learn in various field and widen the skillset further - the other is a drug addict. A user only. There are a lot of technological drug addicts out there who have no more skill with technology, other than being able to swipe at the screen or play Candy Crush.

Crushing it.

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In the past, while our parents might have been concerned about how the new generation was going to navigate the world, at least during that time, fundamental skills were being developed, as these were needed to get through even the basics of childhood. Now, not so much, as there is technological support for everything and the fundamental skills that have helped us develop for millennia, are disappearing, including interpersonal skills that facilitate cooperation.

The skills of today are not skills of the individual, it is how those individuals can leverage technology. Which is fine, but the more people who build these skills, it is likely that the less there will be who can actually develop the technology to leverage, meaning that at some point, it becomes highly specialized with a very small group capable and eventually, stagnates. But what it definitely does, is makes the majority of people reliant on both the technology they utilize and the people who create it.

We can already see this happening to some extent in the "influencer" world, where people have built their "personal brand" and connected it to a platform that monetizes them, but is not actually theirs. They can call it a business and it is in some sense, but one is always beholden to the technology, the platform, and that is well outside of the control of the influencer. Very, very, very few influencers can make demands from the platform itself.

And this only gets worse as less people have real-world skills that they can apply personally, without the support of technology. Because at some point, a lot of the roles that are dependent on codified technology, can be codified themselves. Streaming influencers are already concerned about the rise of AI streamers and as they get better and better, why watch a human? In many cases, it is a shoot themselves in the foot thing, where for example, they use artificially generated voices instead of their own, which means now, who can tell the difference between human a bot?

The world is getting increasingly complex, but it it is simultaneously getting harder to make any changes, because every argument is polarized and there are a lot of arguments that have become violently opposed, or supported. But, because an individual can only strongly support at most a couple of things actively, they make their decisions about the world on those things, even if there is a massive amount of other topics that affect them. So, the political landscape is an absolute mess and getting increasingly inefficient, and it was never efficient to begin with.

As far as I can see, fundamental skills are vital for success and will be going forward, but these skills aren't taught in school, they are learned well before, when the brain is developing. However, There are now generations of kids who haven't developed this hardwiring and it is an unknown as to how it is going to impact on their future, and the future of humanity. I can predict, but it is decades down the track before we really have any good indications and by then, it will be three generations heading on the same path, making a pivot very hard, especially since in order to take a different track, creative skills in fundamental areas are needed, and they might be largely missing.

There is little we can do about the world as a whole, but there is a lot we can do in terms of our own behavior and for those with kids, how we raise them. I often meet the argument that "kids should be kids" and have time to play, but it comes from those who think that play means passively watching television, learning nothing applicable. It is nonsense - kids are curious, they shouldn't be sitting still, they should be exploring their world, getting up to mischief, testing their skills. But if you have no skills to test, I guess you have to live vicariously and watch other people flexing theirs.

Always behind the eight ball.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

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I think the fundemental skills are kinda experinces and are learnt in life itself as we do trials-and-errors, the rest like school strengthens them.

And when kids are spending their real lives staring at a screen, what fundamentals are they actually learning and teaching their bodies?

I think they are living mostly out of reality.

Deep analysis of the present and coming generations of kids and how tech influence on them since very little, Im on the same camp and I had to extreme at some point, have two boys, the older one is 10 and the younger 8, at some point I saw how they were not only spending too much time watching Youtube or playing online that I had to take extreme measures, no Youtube period I block it at DNS level because trying to control what the algo shows the account is almost impossible, implement active directory and got their computers on schedule, their users are not admin and via comand line change the dns at certain hours of the day, also block Netflix via dns, setup a virtual machine with Jellyfin for them and download all content I approve even some Youtube channels I create some scripts that monitor channels and download the content because I saw how they were becoming zombies consuming internet, now they know their schedule and when dns change and there is not internet they go and do something else, play with their toys, the scooter, ask mom to take them to the park but do kids stuff, eventually it would be lovely if they get interested in computers since I would be able to teach them everything I know about it, I can only imagine how it is in a house where kids dont have direct supervision, Im lucky my wife doesnt work and take care of our kids and Im always diligent of what they are consuming online, tech could turn to be the worst for a kid

Most parents have no idea what their kids are watching, but perhaps worse than that, they don't know what habits they are developing. Even if the content being consumed is good quality, if it doesn't generate real-world skill development and facilitate application, what is the value?

I have a lot of fear for the direction the world is turning and the way we are going to leave it. Wall-E comes to mind :)

....but there is a lot we can do in terms of our own behavior and for those with kids, how we raise them

You are right sire, first and foremost nice meeting i appreciate the fact that you took ya time to create a wonderful community on the blockchain. Here i can share some health tips that reflected to living and more.

Back to discussions, in terms of our own behavior we all have the negative and positive attitudes or behavior. The kids are the leader of tomorrow what matters now is for us to train them well in a way they will grow and when they grow they won't depart from the way.

Great job Sir @tarazkp hoping to see you on my blog lol

The leaders of now are largely unskilled. The leaders of tomorrow are completely so.

There is little we can do about the world as a whole, but there is a lot we can do in terms of our behavior and for those with kids, how we raise them.

We blame most parents for their bad parenting while we were much younger, now the baton has been passed on to us, how well do we train our kids? Or don't just let them do silly things because they are kids?

Our future lies in our hands and that of our kids, better children, better society.

Thank you for this, it was worth reading.

I don't blame my parents, though they weren't great at parenting. At some point, we have to grow up and take responsibility, but even taking responsibility, is a learned skill not taught by passive consumption.

This is also a topic that comes to my mind every once in a while. I agree with you young generations depend completely on tech, but it is also true, their world is a tech world, much more than it was when we were young with no internet, no cellphones, and no personal computers for many of us.

I believe it is a matter of balance but nowadays parents need to put a lot more time from their side compared to the education system because the "tech" relationship is everywhere and at any time of the day, while back then, most of their "social" interaction was only in school and at home.

I believe, sooner or later, social boot camps will appear all over the world to educate those who have been having such an intense relationship with tech, that they have forgotten to live and interact in "real life", we can already see this started in Japan a couple of decades ago, but now is spreading all over, especially after the pandemics.

On the other side of the spectrum, we will see more and more ppl being left out of the system because they are far away from "user tech" knowledge, and cannot manage to get integrated into a group where high "tech user" skills are needed.

Honestly, I have the feeling the world new generations are facing is much harder than the one we had to face back then.

but it is also true, their world is a tech world

Yes, but the skills required to create that tech don't get learned from using the tech, they get learned in traditional environments that we have been "using" for years. What happens when those skills are only held by the 0.1% ?

"Social bootcamps" - doesn't that sound dystopian?

On the other side of the spectrum, we will see more and more ppl being left out of the system because they are far away from "user tech" knowledge, and cannot manage to get integrated into a group where high "tech user" skills are needed.

I suspect that if the people have the fundamental skills, picking up user skills won't be too much of a challenge and as the only people who are able to create new tech, they will get all the support they need. Imagine an Instagram influencer writing their own app.

There are a lot of technological drug addicts out there who have no more skill with technology, other than being able to swipe at the screen or play Candy Crush.

They should play splinterlands instead. After becoming good at it they would earn some crypto.

THat is true, but it takes some investment to start. People want free ;)

Owww yeah, there is a big difference (the drug addict and the chemist who makes drug) concept was very accurate to explain the idea of being only a user of the technology and not the creator of technology!

This is already a great learning for today! Thank you so much!

If you can't apply it, you don't know it.

I think we are seeing a lot more instances where people don't care how something works just that it works. I find myself falling into that habit sometimes, but not super often. I'd rather know how something was fixed versus just that it has been fixed. Cool pool hall. I haven't been to one of those in a long time. I think I still have my own cue somewhere.

Pool is a game I have been playing for sometimes. Just for fun, but I really enjoyed it.

And I see the point about new generations lacking a lot of important things in their life, like handwriting (that is a form of expression of our personality), relationships with others, pictures with "no AI", no pictures at all and living the moments, and much much more.

Staying connected with the world is really important

You make valid points each time bring the text to a post.

I understood where my father came from, complaining that my brother and sister use their phones so frequently. Can he really ask why they don’t learn to create an app?

I only mean to poke at his disposition to lament their lack of engagement, when in reality, I feel as though those curious questions weren’t encouraged for them at a time where they might be well down the rabbit hole in search of it.

Having a love of reading came from my youth as an only child for a period, the gift of a picture dictionary as a child, and long stays at the library waiting for my parents to return from work. Whereas their youth was characterized by new social media platforms and a public health crisis that kept them very insulated, I don’t see the need in berating them about how they’re not child tech prodigies.

If only the right ideas were encouraged at the right times, that would make them good and increase the chances they take hold. I’m always implying to family and friend, an idea’s only as good as its timing.

It will be the creatives that wield the power of technology that moves this next generation forward.