This generation is completely out of touch with stuff from even 10 years ago - because of the internet and cellphone and tech. Right?
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Zen_Again (
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December 18th, 2009
We grew up on the original Start Trek. Then we followed STNG et al. We watched the Star Wars movies in awe, and then suffered through Jar Jar Binks for our kids. But we watched it.
When we didn’t know a word, we looked it up. We then reatined that information, including the word above and below it in the dictionary. Same for an encyclopaedic article – right?
We listened to records, then tapes, then something weird before cds then cds and now mp3’s. Same with VHS.
But we remember the old 78’s and beta and 8 track – if not having used them ourselves – at least from stories, films and old tv shows.
But this generation – of which I’ve proudly contributed a male and a female to, seem to be in touch with only what is happening right now. Song from last year? Old, dad. Ancient. Star Trek? What is that? Even the boy – 16 doesn’ even know what it is!.
I dunno – I’ll google it. But do they retain it?
I dunno I’ll wiki it? But is it even an academic article or did your neighbour just spew it out. He’s 13, btw.
And farmville – don’t get me started. Ok, we had pacman and space invaders – but at least we didn’t cheat and get someone else to play for us. (haha)
I didn’t mean for this to be a rant – let’s discuss it from both perspectives. Lotsa kids have joined recently – speak freely – I don’t bite.
Parents – let’s try not to scare em off to the sex questions. There’s one with Vagina in the title and it’s sucking in the younger generation.
Talk.
ZEN OUT
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13 Answers
Well, when you watched Conan the Barbarian on Beta, did you know anything about Nosferatu? If you did, forgive me.
I’m 14 and I know pretty much about Star Trek and other great TV series since 50s.
If your kids and their friends aren’t big lovers of history this doesn’t mean that every kid is like them
My generation doesn’t care much for things from even the recent past. Why should we? How could something that has already happened be as relevant as what is happening right this second?
But really, most of my generation probably doesn’t think quite that way. It’s just that the ability for us to have access to almost anything we want pretty much all our lives has made us care little for anything other than self-gratification, and as a result, we care little for anything but the present.
Not all of us think that way, however. I, for instance, am obsessed with the past and I wish I could back to it. But, that’s another character flaw altogether . . .
@Christian95 True. But then you have Einstein as your avatar and you fluther. You da exception to the rule.
;-)
Do you remember where you were when President Garfield was shot?
@Zen_Again well maybe you’re right.
And to give you a solution I think that the problem is that today’s kids don’t understand how important were Star Trek,Star Wars and other visionary movies for today’s technology.So if some one would explain to them that Twitter,Wikipedia,internet,cell phones and other vital technologies for them were inspired by those “craps” they would become more interested by the past.
It’s 4am so this is going to be a bit shaky. ahem I read a study somewhere (I’ll try to remember to find it later) that said if you have to ‘dig’ through answers that are wrong to find the right one, then you will retain the knowledge better than if the answer was simply presented to you. So google and wiki can help or they could stunt the retention of the new information.
I don’t think all kids are like this. Plus, they are just kids. There is still time for them to learn and they most likely will have to once their social interactions are going to be with more age groups than what they find in high school.
Heck no. If it wasn’t for the Internet I would know about half the things I know now. If it wasn’t for wikipedia I wount have found out about Macgyver from looking at the Stargate page. If it wasn’t for thepiratebay.org I wouldn’t have been able to torrent the Roger Moore James bond movies. If it wasn’t for….. Well you get the pictures.
Some maybe. But not all. And not completely. There are youngsters who enjoy sending handwritten love letter, who discover great music by Queen and Supertramp and Gabriel Fauré and Mozart and Bach, who think Catcher in the Rye is a great book, and who think Forrest Gump is a wonderful movie. Well, maybe some went to Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant wondering what this Bubba Gump guy has to do with shrimps.
Why not pick the best stuff available today and the best stuff created in the past?
Here is what I think is sort of sad, it seems as if most kids have every moment of their day structured. It starts with play groups when they are babies, then comes the days of little league, dance class, swimming lessons, soccer practice, tennis lesson, music lesson, art class, and on and on and on. Home at night on the puter for fun or homework.
There is so little time for a kid to just think, to have to figure out something to do for the afternoon, to read a book (even if it is on a kindle). I wonder if creativity will eventually suffer from this sort of minute by minute structuring.
I soooooo agree with @rooeytoo – I have nothing to add. Perfect. That’s what they need – a little time unstructured to foster imagination and creativity – outside the (parent created) box.
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