Saturday, October 12, 2019
Constants and Variables 140, non-unique edition
BBC's "news" department is solid Sorosian screeching, but their other sections often produce interesting material.
This feature on the generation born around 2000 raises a good question.
Today, we all live with social media at our fingertips. But not all of us were formed by it. Simone and her friends recognise that they are unique in that they grew up and “evolved” as the world made the transition from flip-up mobiles to the smart phone age.Is that really unique? No. Variable: Some generations receive stable technology in their formative years, and some have to scramble to learn new stuff while the new stuff is being developed. The latter is a much harder learning task, because the generation has to work with a moving target, and has to reshape the culture for it. When a generation receives an already developed technology, the pre-shaped culture automatically trains the youngsters. The fastest change was around 1890 to 1920, endured by the flapper generation. They already had railroads and telegraphs and cameras, but they had to learn telephones, cars, phonographs, airplanes, radio, movies, and kitchen appliances. In many parts of the country they also had to learn indoor plumbing. The Greatest Generation was born after all of the above developments were fairly solid. They only had to adjust to TV when young. Boomers had no adjusting at all when we were young; computers came along when we were 40, and smartphones when we were 60. Constant: Everyone learns what they have to learn, and everyone learns it directly by experience. School is never ready to teach the new stuff. Books are never ready to teach the new stuff. Fussy sidenote: I'm leaving out non-universal tech. Mainframe computers made a huge difference in offices and factories during the Greatest Generation, but computers didn't invade homes until 1990. Air conditioning was universal in some parts of the country by 1960, but is still rare in other parts.
Labels: Constants and Variables, Experiential education
¶ 8:32 AM
