One of the biggest changes we are seeing is the tech that surrounds us. That change has an impact on all of what we do and experience - and its affects are not all known yet.
Phones:
Well, they are not really phones because nobody calls each other anymore.
I have a friend who has a couple of kids that are over twenty years old now. The kids grew up with their mom and developed a few habits. My friend is the dad and he talks about some problems related to the boys being very kid like. There are personal hygiene problems. There are work problems too. When they have jobs, they generally go to work on time and deal well with their bosses well enough to get by. The problem is that they do not manage their money well and they spend it on things that are not necessary while missing paying their bills at times.
When they are not employed, they have ways of making money. One of them even tried starting a business. The other bought products in bulk to sell them but opened and used one of each of the products for personal use. That reduced his stock and any money made on the rest of the bulk order would only just cover the one item that he started using - namely a phone.
The kids do a lot of gaming and much of what they select is related to designing their own car, boat, or plane and then testing it for performance. Their education is in design as well so the game choices are in line with what they have done or will do in the future.
People skills.
It seems like all "kids", in general, are growing up with a lack of maturity as far as face to face interaction with people, common curtsey, and self confidence. Their confidence is in their phones. You ask about a math problem, they grab their phone. I saw customer service employees at a home improvement store all flip out their phones, like holstered arms, when asked about a certain kind of hammer by a customer. It is as if they are consulting their rectangular brain that they carry everywhere. what happened to knowing the products. Maybe they do not know what the product is or where it is located in the store because they are too busy observing instagram instead of their surroundings at work. Ot could it be that there is a lack of interest in memorizing the location of said product.
If you ask them their opinion on something they will search for a video or reel and show you how they feel about that thing you mentioned.
I also heard of another friend's child who felt depressed and made an appointment with a psychologist on his own. He is of age, so that would be logical, but it fell through when they could not get to their appointment on time. Oops, I slept in that day. They talked to a friend and were advised to do a session with Chat GPT. I am not sure how that went. I wish I could have asked the young adult.
Some of the lack that I mentioned above shows up at those times when they need solutions and cannot find the route to resolve a thing via youtube, instagram, AI, or their calculator.
If a person never uses their legs to walk or their arms to lift and move things, they will likely not be able to walk or lift anything very well, or at all, if the lack of use continues for a long time. The brain is the same way. I used to speak a foreign language, and I still do, but if something comes up, out of the blue, and I need to use it, I am less able to find the words I need for anything more than greetings and "what is your name?"
Take it a step further, These kids grew up relying on their shiny black rectangles and they have never had to be without it. Now the world is adding AI to that same mix to further atrophy the mind.
Getting back to the face to face interaction topic. I find that there is no real ability in some young adults related to attention span. They may be able to focus on what a person is saying for a minute or two but they they seem to lose interest because there is no dopamine hit coming from whoever it is that is speaking. There is not fantastic action or a cool trick to amaze them and they fade back to their phone mid-sentence.
I grew up without smart phones in my proximity. I gained all of my person to person skills in a world without them. This could just be the new generation gap the same as when I was younger. There may be no real problem with relying on tech. I hope that is true. But if there is a problem, it will certainly lead to slavery of one sort or another. When the authorities take the thing they rely on, they will give in to any demand in order to get it back.
I could write more about AI and the coming addiction to that, its likelihood of being a source of control, misinformation, defamation, or even just clouding all info until nothing is believable at all, but this post is more about tech and its affect on humans especially the ones that are now just joining the workforce.
gifs selected from what PeakD offers.
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