I love you Millenials!

[zzontar]

Yes, one day your oil-changing skills will save your life.

From the list I provided which only a very partial list, all you guys can go on about is an oil change? You know that says a lot in itself, don't you?

[Loki2u]

*removed*

[whatwhat]

I figured this would be an interesting thing to post here..

Was reading the Letters section on Castanet and came across a letter in response to an article about people still setting campfires.

Article here: https://www.castanet.net/news/BC/203771/still-ignoring-campfire-ban

Letter here: https://www.castanet.net/news/Letters/203936/A-lesson-in-fire-safety

Just saw your story about people lighting campfires under our current ‘state of emergency’ conditions (cough, cough) – the picture showed mostly young people... hmmm. Hopefully they really do get to pay the $1150 ticket out of their pocket. Even worse, they obviously have no respect for themselves, their neighbours, or anyone else.

How many people, just this summer have lost their homes, businesses, livelihoods (luckily so far, not their lives) to wildfires? About half of which are started by human idiots!

As I was reading the article, I thought to myself, how did they get photos of these young people who were lighting these campfires?? That sounds pretty crazy, so I decided to look up the article and see for myself.

It was a stock photo. Just a random photo Castanet was using of people around a campfire to use for the related article.

I don't know if the lady who wrote the article reads the forums, but I hope she does. She clearly doesn't think very highly of "young people", and this continued bias from the older generations just keeps on rolling.

[neilsimon]

Yes, one day your oil-changing skills will save your life.

From the list I provided which only a very partial list, all you guys can go on about is an oil change? You know that says a lot in itself, don't you?

The skills required to get on in life change from generation to generation. Once upon a time, being able to tell safe berries from unsafe ones was about the most important skill you could have. We live in a time of rapid change and in developed countries, only people of my age and older will remember life without ubiquitous computers, and only a few years younger will remember life without the internet. These two changes have probably done more to change life for humans in the time they have been around than anything else did in similar time before.

Getting back to your list, I know plenty of people who are getting on in years and never learned to drive. Others around my age and others who are younger. The fact is that people who lived in urban centres in the 70s and 80s often didn't learn to drive and the same is true today. Driving is also a skill with a finite lifespan. I fully expect to see self-driving vehicles as the norm before I pop my clogs. My kids are probably the last generation for whom learning to drive is a very useful skill.

Repairing things is useful, but also getting harder. Can you repair a motherboard? How about a broken TV? The list goes on. That said, kids today are playing with 3D printers, so they can design replacement parts, new items, etc.

Neither my mother, nor any of my grandparents ever knew how to change the oil in a car. Now, starting with my father and including myself my siblings and my sons, we all can. More than that, we call all build a car (to a fashion) and make somewhat engineered modifications. My father built a kit car, I have extensively modified my kit car and maintain a classic and one of my son has built lots of off-road toys from Jeeps, etc. He's not old enough to drive on the road, so that is his focus for now.

The fact is that the list of skills you gave is not of ones particularly common in the past, and certainly not a good representation of the skills needed to survive. Kids today are generally better educated, though probably not as much as their grades suggest, and are quite capable. They live in a society with different challenges and while we have less need for handyman skills, we have greater need for engineers, programmers, etc.

Millennials have different skills due to different requirements being placed on them, but they are better suited to their environment than we are. They are no more lazy than we are, but if you judge them by the requirements we had to meet, then they are relatively lazy and if you judge us by their requirements, we are relatively so, and somewhat incompetent too.

Here is a list from Heinlein from 1974:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Can you solve equations and programme a computer because that's one area Millennials are doing much better than previous generations?

[RupertBear]

I once got a free jar of home-made pickled beets from one of my aunts, after I stopped her VCR from flashing "12:00".

[Even Steven]

I once got a free jar of home-made pickled beets from one of my aunts, after I stopped her VCR from flashing "12:00".

Brilliant. See, technologically minded people will always find ways to feed themselves.

[RupertBear]

I once got a free jar of home-made pickled beets from one of my aunts, after I stopped her VCR from flashing "12:00".

Brilliant. See, technologically minded people will always find ways to feed themselves.

I do admit that I am in envy of the generation that canned out of necessity and always had a root cellar full of home-made and delicious preserves, rather than people like me who might can fruits and veggies once or twice each fall.

[Omnitheo]

I put food on my table for years by fixing people's electronics.

[zzontar]

Can you solve equations and programme a computer because that's one area Millennials are doing much better than previous generations?

I'll admit millenials are good with computers, and are also more reliant on them. As far as equations, I don't think millenials fare too well unless they have the help of computers and basic problem solving skills that don't involve computers are also waning. Good for them if they can live their lives while being reliant on computers, and though everyone in general is starting to have little choice in that department, all kinds of things can happen in the future where being completely reliant on electronics will turn people into virtual slaves and the MacGivers will flourish.... IMO. Good post you had though.

[Omnitheo]

Millennials don't exist

[whatwhat]

I'll admit millenials are good with computers, and are also more reliant on them. As far as equations, I don't think millenials fare too well unless they have the help of computers and basic problem solving skills that don't involve computers are also waning. Good for them if they can live their lives while being reliant on computers, and though everyone in general is starting to have little choice in that department, all kinds of things can happen in the future where being completely reliant on electronics will turn people into virtual slaves and the MacGivers will flourish.... IMO. Good post you had though.

But why can't people who are good with computers also be good at MacGyvering too?? You keep just trying to paint everyone with one brush, but guess what??! Sometimes people can be good at two different things?!?!?!!!

Surprisingly, some things that are coming back around are those "old school" skills such as camping (and even survival camping), canning, hunting, gardening etc.

[zzontar]

But why can't people who are good with computers also be good at MacGyvering too?? You keep just trying to paint everyone with one brush, but guess what??! Sometimes people can be good at two different things?!?!?!!!

Surprisingly, some things that are coming back around are those "old school" skills such as camping (and even survival camping), canning, hunting, gardening etc.

I'm not painting everyone with the same brush.Like if one said the Chinese are shorter than the Dutch, blacks can run faster than whites, women are better at sewing than guys.... there's always going to be an exception. If you want me to say millenials are better or equal to old school survival skills than other groups, you'll be waiting a long time.

[Poindexter]

The one thing that millennials and all other age groups can agree on is that the generation to follow is always worse, and they would be just as right as we were.

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?
More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they’re on the brink of a mental-health crisis.

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.theatla ... le/534198/

[RupertBear]

I work with a lot of millenials and I see the same things in them that I saw in myself and my friends years ago.
In my opinion there are basically two types of people; those who are book smart and those who are street smart.
Those that are book smart are the educated ones who can program a computer, but lack the basic survival skills if they are lost in the woods for three days.
Those that are street smart my not have the formal education, but they know enough about a lot of things to get by.
Call them millenials if you want, but I see many of both kinds of people in my co-workers.

[whatwhat]

I'm not painting everyone with the same brush.Like if one said the Chinese are shorter than the Dutch, blacks can run faster than whites, women are better at sewing than guys.... there's always going to be an exception. If you want me to say millenials are better or equal to old school survival skills than other groups, you'll be waiting a long time.

I don't want you to say that we are better, but hopefully one day you'll learn that everyone is unique especially in basic abilities. Doesn't matter the age.

Even you admitted that people in older generations can't do everything on your list (which you conveniently ignored all my posts about, shocking). But for some reason you seem to think that millennials being unable to do basic "survival" skills is somehow worse then old people being unable to do the exact same skills. Unfortunately, I don't think it is worth much effort in trying to open your eyes as you clearly have an age bias. I hope one day, when you're old, and sick that the millennial nurse/doctor/fire person/police person/care aid etc will be "good enough" for you ;)