We started off talking about core competencies and competitive advantages, but it quickly spiralled into a discussion on the reduction of skills due to inexperience, and where the future may be heading. The client is in the manufacturing business and has backed up claims that the younger workers that come into the company, are far less skilled than they should be, which is due to more digital learning, and less practical, hands-on practice. Not only this they are also more demanding of their working environment, focusing on enjoyment, rather than the tasks at hand. And, they are less patient, less resilient, yet have an inflated sense of their worth.
Changing, not improving.
His words, not mine.
Change is inevitable, but change doesn't always mean for the better. Most likely, no change is wholly for the better anyway, but the changes in the way we have been living our lives is likely leading us into worse results. For instance, Our young brains are shaped by our environment. If you picture locking a child into a room with white padded walls, giving them no toys, and not speaking to them for the first three years of their life, their brain is going to be shaped by their experience, or lack thereof. You might imagine that they are going to be lacking certain circuitry, as well as physical ability, due to not having the stimulus required to generate it.
This is what happens to all children, as their brains are shaped by the stimulus in the environment, combined with their natural genetic structure. A child who is hugged and read to, played and talked with, is going to develop a different brain structure, as well as emotional and physical framework than if that same child was sat in front of a screen for a lot of their early years. And this conditioning is going to affect their daily life in the future, and their access to opportunities and the way they handle their experiences.
Part of maturing is learning from mistakes, yet I don't think many people appreciate what this means in today's world, because mistakes rarely happen. At least in the same way they used to. A kid would go into the playground, fall over and scrape their knee, and learn. But in the digital environment, tactile learning doesn't happen, and all the mistakes get pushed into the mind and emotional realms only, where reality doesn't matter. What I mean by this is that a mistake can trigger the mental and emotional responses of failure, but the event doesn't need to be real at all. But because the brain is designed to learn to protect us from risk, these non-events become the learning environment for development, making them seem existential in nature, even though they are meaningless in reality.
A world without failure?
My client mentioned one of his colleagues from the US, who no one likes to talk to because speaking with him is a minefield. Every conversation becomes combative, because he sees everything as an attack on him, a threat to his existence. He is quite happy to talk about controversial topics however, but he can't deal with any disagreement from his own viewpoint. So everyone is "forced" to tippytoe, trying not to upset him.
He is a tyrant.
And that is what spoiled children become when they live a childhood of getting what they want, when they want it, and how they want it. When they don't have to deal with disappointment, or learn patience, or handle opinions that counter their own. And this is the environment that many young people have become accustomed to, as their digital fantasy world is a place where they are served what they want, when they want it, and do not have to handle anything they don't want to handle, because they can just move to another experience they want to have without cost.
There is always cost.
The cost is that we have to live in a world of tyrants who are unable to effectively discuss the topics that matter to humanity, because those topics are contentious and the conflicts trigger their anger, anxiety and discomfort. They have had a life devoid of discomfort, so they are very, very sensitive to anything that makes them feel slightly negative, which explains the extreme amount of depression in the younger generations too. But it isn't just the younger generations, because we are all in this world together, all being forced to endure an environment that has a lot of change, but very little improvement.
Whatever we think is the best version of ourselves, it is unlikely the one that feels the most pain, yet that is what we are conditioning ourselves for, as we keep avoiding little discomforts now, at the expense of feeling discomfort more readily later. It is a similar process to eating poorly now for the taste of the food, and making ourselves ill later due the habit of eating poorly.
We get what we want, not what we need.
It is an interesting conflict, because "getting what we want" should be serving our best interests, but it is not. Instead, it is creating an environment that supports our worst version, as we inevitably want what is not good for us in the long-term, and while the "future" never arrives, we change in the now to live in a now to come, as a worse version of who we are. If you let a child choose all of their meals, they are unlikely to end up as a healthy adult, but by then, their daily habits, their mental, physical and emotional wiring will be conditioned to eat poorly, and changing those habits becomes an immense job and possibly impossible.
Once an addict, always an addict.
This is because addiction creates such strong wiring in us, that once formed, it can only be contained, not destroyed. It is always there, ready to go back into service to give the carrier more of what they want. Yet, what we are doing with ourselves and our children now, is changing our brains into those of addicts who get what they want, not what they need.
To improve means change needs to happen, but it doesn't mean all change is good. In order to make good change, we need to understand what future outcome we want to have, and then start the actions that lead to that outcome. Change for the sake of change, rarely is going to reap the benefits of improvement, especially when we are conditioned to do what is easy for us to accept, rather than what is necessary for us to do.
And this isn't just about the "youth of today" because we are all affected by the way we are spending our time, getting more of what we want now by consuming what makes us feel good, rather than what supports our own development. And the more we do it, the more conditioned and narrow we become, as the pool of experience shrinks, and the number of our development actions decline and lessen in degree. We become more reliant, more demanding, and less capable.
Tyrants.
Taraz
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I sometimes think that my generation was the top for a while. I grew up around computers, but besides playing, I had to learn how to configure them. LAN networks, IP address, DNS, torrents (trying to not catch a virus!), WinAmp and all those other crappy players that need you to detail the files, oh, and of course cracking games! It was a lot of games, but also a lot of skill acquired. I saw a meme the other day that millennials are the generation that solves computer problems for both the previous and the following generation.
On the other hand, we still had to learn so much hands-on stuff. Building forts in the woods, repairing our soft guns, patching bike tubes & repairing the chains. I had to help (and did so gladly as it was kind of fun) renovating the lower floor of my grandmas house so my dad and I could move in.
With the world becoming seemingly more dangerous and at the same time full of distractions, many parents retract from their responsibilities. Instead of paying attention and make sure the kid gets the experience without hurting itself, they prefer not to allow the experience at all. Instead of paying attention to the child, they have so many other things to do (or prefer them), and hand over a cellphone or tablet to shut it up - like the TV back in the days.
These days you see children as young as 2yrs old having a tablet, and one wonders what they need it for ??
Worst is the fact that the society is normalising it.. parents no more see the need of that early childhood formation that gives these children problem solving mindset.
Later that same child grows up to meet a harsh society where skills are really valued and they can't thrive in it.
That same child grows up to be depressed and socially awkward.. and that is how the society keeps deteriorating because if the child eventually becomes a parent, that pass on the cycle and it continues.
And younger. It makes me sick to go to a restaurant or café and see babies staring at screens.
I used to spend a lot of time around Warez sites :)
I am Gen-X, so there was a lot of hands on stuff, and the computers really only came a bit later. Though when they did come, they were far more manual, and required learning, as none of it was intuitive. It makes a difference to have everything handed over in a nice neat little package with a clean interface - or having to work it out by brute force.
The difference between the screen today and the TV, was there was very little interesting on TV back in the day. Now, the screen has 24/7 streaming anything and everything. It is an endless cycle, still driven by the fear of Missing out on something important, even though people are generally not consuming anything of consequence at all.
Just looked it up, I'm gen X, too, in the later part though. So, it's Gen X that's explaining computers to everyone :-D
And yes, you're absolutely right, the business that is made with absorbing attention has evolved impressively, leaving almost no chance for the brain to stop scrolling or watching. Even worse for a child, which generally lack even more of impulse control than adults. Though, it's decreasing in adults, too.
Add on top the effect of short-form content, and the effect is profound.
A brave new world :-(
In the past, parents used to tell their children: "It's time to come home, you've spent a lot of time outside", but today they say: "You've spent enough time at the computer, go outside".
And it is only outside, in play and nature, that children acquire the motor skills they will need later in life.
When they grow up without developed motor skills, they move through life clumsy, coiled, and dissatisfied...
I heard a great sentence: "The body gets sick when we feed it a lot of fast, junk food. It's the same with the brain when we feed it a lot of junk information", and today we are surrounded by a lot of information...
When a young brain is buried with a bunch of unnecessary, dirty information, the head of the one whose brain it is, will not turn out well...
A tyrant or something else depends on the position he reaches during his life.
And it is a downward spiral, as the less people move, the more we will fall into other negative routines in diet and consumption.
I think they are mini-tyrants. Not with the power of dictators, but each acting like a little Hitler.
We are about the same age, we are members of the X generation and so far we have had contacts and cooperation with countless people.
As we get older, younger people enter the scene, and we are lucky to have the knowledge with which we can "fight" with them.
And you know what I find interesting about the situation, almost like a theater performance?
When there are two such young mini-tyrants on the stage, on opposite sides.
Then all their ignorance, misunderstanding, lack of empathy and culture surface...
Sounds like global politics at the moment.
Sounds about right. You know though, I think a lot of it just has to do with the world too and I don't know if there is really a way to fix that. My nieces are a good example. Growing up, they were always limited with their screen time. My sister and brother in law were always really good at that. They had strict rules and expectations. Now that my niece is an adult, despite all of that, she is on her phone constantly. Maybe in a different world she would be even worse? I don't know, it just seems like you can't win no matter what you do sometimes.
Yeah, it is the world. That is why even the adults that didn't grow up on screens really at all, let alone the internet, still exhibit similar behaviours. The difference is, that their brains weren't conditioned to be digital consumers, and they learned skill prior to sitting on the screen.
Yeah, that is true. I will be the first to admit I probably spend more time on my phone than I should. Usually I am reading stuff though, I very rarely watch videos.
If it leads to action, then it is empowering. If it is a thin disguise to avoid dealing with other stuff, then it reduces us.
Chamge is inevitable, and we need to know that. The early we admit that no matter what, change is constant. Any human who doesn't want to go through the process of change is not ready to develop. Even in the world we are today, a lot of things have changed with time, and there are a lot more developments brewing through the process.
I can relate to this post because it reflects a lot of what I’ve been observing, too. It’s true that many young people today prefer comfort over growth, and I see it even in schools and workplaces. Everyone wants quick success without going through the process that builds real skills and strength. Personally, I believe technology is not the main problem. It’s how we use it. Many rely on it too much, forgetting that real learning often comes from struggle, failure, and patience. I also think our society now celebrates ease more than effort, which makes people less prepared for real challenges. Your point about “change not always" meaning improvement” really touches me. It’s something I’ve come to realize as well. Not all progress is positive if it weakens our values and discipline.
Also, the way society glorified wealth and a quick way of making it. The era of cryptocurrency and short content and other ways available for the youth to make money make it more difficult for our youth to be focused.
For sure. The people who have a lot by doing nothing, are the most worshipped.
You know I so much love the point you made saying that one can change without improving, that says it all.
This topic of discussion is not as simple as it seems.
Not all kinds of change is welcome.
Our human brain works in various dimensions. And once an idea or ideology is planted it become very difficult to adjust afterwards.
Just like Socrates said "an unexamined life is not worth living."
Sincerely my heart goes for the younger generation. It has become a norm in the society that one of the indications of a wealthy home is how lavishly breed the children are.
I agree that not everything a child wants should be giving to them. This is because while we as adults can chose our distractions, these younger ones are eager to embrace whatever idea comes their way.
And those childhood experiences goes a long way to give them perspective with which they see the world going forward, and those ideology once planted are very difficult to change, or do I say improve on. Hence the need for caution in those early days.
I think the adults are getting to be not much better. It is like people are no longer maturing as they age, because they aren't experiencing a broad enough pool of experience to learn from.
I completely agree with you when you said that people nowadays are living in stimulus and reacting to everything around them. I have read a book that was written many decades ago entitled How to Live 24 Hours a Day. I highly recommend that you check that book out. It's a very quick read, but it's very profound.
What relates your post to that book is that even during the time the book was written, people were already having a hard time just not doing anything and just be bored. Boredom is actually a good thing if you think about it because nowadays when people are bored, we tend to distract ourselves. We tend to pull out our phones, check our feeds, and get swayed by the algorithm or be entertained and diverted from boredom itself.
Boredom is a very important thing because it allows our brain to think things through and think deeply. People are no longer using their brains right now... we are all just reacting to stimulus, and you are absolutely on point on that one. I completely agree with you.
I wish that there's a way for us to understand the repercussions of not being able to jus t sit down and think because right now, I see a lot of the youth and even some of my friends who can't spend time just to be mindful and to have some realizations after a short while of solitude and thinking. This is because they always go out there and allow themselves to be swayed by society's opinions. We need to take back control of our minds and to actually think!
Exactly. They are filling their mind with the thoughts of others, so they don't have to think anything themselves. Now, many of those thoughts aren't even from others, they are AI generated. A mind full of artificial filler material. Pretty sick world.
Of course change is not always positive. And to be frank society is undergoing negative changes in almost every aspect of its existence. The sad thing is that people who are tasked with doing something about this alarming situation, like parents and political leaders, aren't doing anything about it.
A person who can't be disagreed with, whose point of view on any matter is always correct, is but a fool. Sorry for saying that. That person has no place in a civilized environment. And that person is going to have a lot of problems in their relationships, most likely they are going to be abusive controlling partners. Sadly, that's the breed of kids being raised today.
Definitely, because the person has already been programmed to see life that way,
Early formation during childhood goes a long way in determining a lot of things..
I agree with you that the society is sinking with regards to this.
And I don't think it'll get better even.
Only if individually and intentionally parents begin to realise the amount of decay.
A lot of responsibility fall on parents in this regard. But few will own up to it.
Blind leading the blind unfortunately.
And I see it in the friends of my daughter already. They don't really know what friendship is meant to be. They are mostly tyrants, only interested in getting what they want.
A child's intellectual development is largely shaped by his surroundings and it often depends on the environment in which he grows up. There is also a matter of genetics. The way children used to learn from mistakes physically is now being reversed. Today, the brains of many young people are updated. Although patience is very low among this young generation, they can use their brains properly in many cases. On the other hand, the experience that older people have also takes them much higher in terms of reality.
I don't think this is true. We started farming 10,000 years ago, yet our brains still tell us to crave sugar that we can now get easily. Evolution is very slow.
I think we need to find a balance between technology and real life interaction so that future workers are not only skilled, but also flexible.
Flexibility seems to be a trait of the past.
I totally agree with this. I had an encounter with some guy who claims to be a skilled electrical engineer. I invited him to fix my water dispenser which developed some electrical fault, his cost was outrageous, when I inquired of the reason behind such hike, he claimed he's a graduate which is the reason for the hike. He ended up causing more damage to the machine, yet not being able to fix it. Most youths these days don't want to exercise patience and go through the learning process.
95% of the issues we face today started from how our lives had been programed or conditioned right from childhood. It becomes part of us which is rarely easy to change. We live with the consequences of our choices. An adage has it that ; "it's impossible to be a lefty at old age".
Our present way of life is the mirror of what the future looks like. Especially looking at our youths, parents and parenting. Everyone wants it soft .
Did you still have to pay?
I haven't heard this one!
But it is interesting how many paeents get upset at their children spending too much time on screens, when they are the ones that put them on the screens in the first place, so they could get peace and quiet.
No, he left on the guise to get some parts for the repair, but never came back.
Okay! It's my native adage.
I agree with you, and it's worrisome.
to everything, turn, turn, turn..
I find myself usually thinking about the best 1 liner i can say, then not expecting any following convo.. makes me happy and i dont get dissapointed by people's lack of caring or they just seem 'busy' with their own silliness. :P
I like to have in-depth discussions with people, and most people I meet who are younger are unable to hold a decent conversation, without them just repeating all of the crap they have heard elsewhere. There is no thought in them.
😉 yes.. i think its better, psychologically, for me to satisfy.. to give my 2 cents on it.. without waiting for or expecting any kind of reply, but if they is any follow up convo, then that is awesome. :)
I agree, not all change is progress. The more comfortable we can get, the less resilient we can become. It is very scary to think that our next generation might not have that patience or discipline to handle real life challenges. That is why we need to find a very big balance between technology and lifelong experience before it is too late to do that.
It might already be too late, because even if we start to turn now, the momentum will take decades to shift to something healthy, and by then, the opportunity might be gone.
I had to rethink about how the life we live in this modern time, on how it shapes our minds. We have made life so convenient that we forgot how discomfort is also part of our growth. If we never struggle or we never learn, then how can we just grow like that?
Sometimes, as you said, this can be connected to addiction, looking at what is actually happening in the world today. And if we can check our habits and thinking today, we can see where the problem is coming at from.
We grow soft.
Unfortunately, I don't see a clear future. In my country there too much kids having babys. You can figure it out, they main arm to keep their children quite, is the smartphone. So, the thing is turning dark. There is enough work for phisiquiatricians
We are turning back into apes.
Many tends to confuse change with that of improvement. When it comes to digital learning, things have become more easier but it also takes away those real world experience and learning that have built our strength and character. The part about getting what we want, not what we actually need. It's a very good point to note. This is true for individuals and for society at large.
Another thing that I have observed in my son's generation is a lack of drive. I think that is because they basically have everything and they don't desire anything really bad like we did after Soviet Union fell apart.
Sounds like my youngest right now. I think he's at least somewhat aware that it's a problem and we're hoping he'll grow out of it -_-