Teacher here. Kids want the quick dopamine hit from their phones and their school-supplied chromebooks. They do not want to take the time to try something that might be hard, and they do not want to stretch their brains at all
But seriously why innovate? Great inventors and innovators are often described as crazy or mad because the risk of failing when creating something new far outways the chance of success. Most people choose to stick with something that works that has a guarantee of some success rather than risk it all on something new.
Some of us have an insatiable need to create stuff and for those of us who are less that great at things like drawing, music, sculpture and more in general art (hehe!) that need ends up channelled into inventing stuff that “ticks”, be it software or gadgets.
The problem is not lack of innovators, the problem is that nowadays you have to somehow monetise innovation because it needs to pay for your life, which in the rentier economy we have nowadays costs a lot (especially because of the ridiculous prices for housing) or you have to spend most of your time working for somebody else to get the money you need to survive, and the work culture in certain areas (like software development) eats more and more of your personal time so there is no personal time or energy left to indulge in scratring your own innovation itch.
(From what I’ve seen the same kind of thing is happenning in the arts side of things: in some places you either accept you have to be poor for the sake of Art, or you give up on the whole thing unless you can come from well-off families who will sustain you “until your career takes off”. For example in the modern UK pretty much no new actor or actrice comes from a social class below the high middle class, which didn’t use to be the case for example when Michael Caine was starting his career).
It’s not lack of boredom that’s killing innovation (including innovative new stuff in the creative arts), it’s lack of time because unless you’re born in the Owner Class, you have to spend most of your time running on the Owner Classe’s treadmills to pay the Owner Class for a place to live and for life’s essentials.
The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.
The issue isn’t the device, it’s the lack of restraint the kids were never taught. Of course they want that Dopamine hit. It’s free. Same reason very few people seek the satisfaction of building your table yourself, when you can buy one.
Not to say kids aren’t worse, they are, and it’s awful, but it’s a symptom, not the problem, in my opinion. The problem is they have no goals. Where do they wanna end up? The world is fucked, and most of them talk about the future as if there isn’t one. They won’t own a house, they won’t get enough to live off of with a job, a good job is locked behind ungodly amounts of debt, and the world is literally on fire. Then, the people who should fix it, the people who get elected, are selling them out for money instead of fixing it. There’s no point in doing hard things if there’s nothing to gain from it.
Kids won’t improve until the world does, because they have no reason to put down the devices. The devices offer a hollow life, and that’s more than real life is willing to give them.
Sorry about the rant, I just think it’s important to keep the focus on the problem. Kids engage wherever they get the most reward. It’s our job, not teachers, to make real life better, and it can be. Until then, sorry about the kids. I’m trying to raise mine to value what there is to value, but they definitely suck right now, even if it’s not their fault.
Teacher here. Kids want the quick dopamine hit from their phones and their school-supplied chromebooks. They do not want to take the time to try something that might be hard, and they do not want to stretch their brains at all
“Why go for anything other than the low hanging fruit?” - Our monkey brains
But seriously why innovate? Great inventors and innovators are often described as crazy or mad because the risk of failing when creating something new far outways the chance of success. Most people choose to stick with something that works that has a guarantee of some success rather than risk it all on something new.
Innovation isn’t an all or nothing thing, you don’t need to “risk it all on something new”. Unless it’s huge leap in an unknown direction
Some of us have an insatiable need to create stuff and for those of us who are less that great at things like drawing, music, sculpture and more in general art (hehe!) that need ends up channelled into inventing stuff that “ticks”, be it software or gadgets.
The problem is not lack of innovators, the problem is that nowadays you have to somehow monetise innovation because it needs to pay for your life, which in the rentier economy we have nowadays costs a lot (especially because of the ridiculous prices for housing) or you have to spend most of your time working for somebody else to get the money you need to survive, and the work culture in certain areas (like software development) eats more and more of your personal time so there is no personal time or energy left to indulge in scratring your own innovation itch.
(From what I’ve seen the same kind of thing is happenning in the arts side of things: in some places you either accept you have to be poor for the sake of Art, or you give up on the whole thing unless you can come from well-off families who will sustain you “until your career takes off”. For example in the modern UK pretty much no new actor or actrice comes from a social class below the high middle class, which didn’t use to be the case for example when Michael Caine was starting his career).
It’s not lack of boredom that’s killing innovation (including innovative new stuff in the creative arts), it’s lack of time because unless you’re born in the Owner Class, you have to spend most of your time running on the Owner Classe’s treadmills to pay the Owner Class for a place to live and for life’s essentials.
The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.
People said that about newspapers, too.
The issue isn’t the device, it’s the lack of restraint the kids were never taught. Of course they want that Dopamine hit. It’s free. Same reason very few people seek the satisfaction of building your table yourself, when you can buy one.
Not to say kids aren’t worse, they are, and it’s awful, but it’s a symptom, not the problem, in my opinion. The problem is they have no goals. Where do they wanna end up? The world is fucked, and most of them talk about the future as if there isn’t one. They won’t own a house, they won’t get enough to live off of with a job, a good job is locked behind ungodly amounts of debt, and the world is literally on fire. Then, the people who should fix it, the people who get elected, are selling them out for money instead of fixing it. There’s no point in doing hard things if there’s nothing to gain from it.
Kids won’t improve until the world does, because they have no reason to put down the devices. The devices offer a hollow life, and that’s more than real life is willing to give them.
Sorry about the rant, I just think it’s important to keep the focus on the problem. Kids engage wherever they get the most reward. It’s our job, not teachers, to make real life better, and it can be. Until then, sorry about the kids. I’m trying to raise mine to value what there is to value, but they definitely suck right now, even if it’s not their fault.
^
You can upvote instead of making an entire comment, FYI
Gee thanks, I didn’t know that