Are we raising a generation of nincompoops?
Are we raising a generation of nincompoops? And do we have only ourselves to blame? Or are some of these things simply the result of kids growing up with push-button technology in an era when mechanical devices are gradually being replaced by electronics?
Susan Maushart, a mother of three, says her teenage daughter “literally does not know how to use a can opener. Most cans come with pull-tops these days. I see her reaching for a can that requires a can opener, and her shoulders slump and she goes for something else.”
All the more for me after the impending apocalypse. The cell-phone-savvy will wither and die, and I will know how to open the cans.
I’m sure previous generations were chided by their parents for being unable to stable a horse, pluck a chicken or operate a slide rule.
And in anycase, the evidence presented in that article appears to be: “I once saw a stupid kid, therefore kids are idiots”. Apparently understanding of meaningful statistical sample size is one of those technological innovations that was lost in previous generations.
Children and adults alike are being inundated with new technologies and new strategies to survive in our modern world. Most adults solve this through a combination of “getting by” and “having their kid fix the computer” but it’s hard to blame kids for not prioritizing the memorization of strategies that they don’t regularly encounter the need for.
It does imply their skills are selected to survive in an ever more complex and interdependent society (to the point that if someone doesn’t place a pull-tab on a can, they can’t open it) and an apocalypse would make life very difficult for them… but overall the strategy is well selected as a means to prosper in the world we live in now.