A great deal of change is happening in the US. Some would say for the best and others would disagree. President Trump continues to be a very divisive figure but actually is doing some good things despite his stupid and childish Tweets.
Social media is so prevalent in the world and certainly in the US. Sadly some of my long term concerns about social media are coming home to roost. Prove of this is the recent problems at Facebook and Zuckerberg testifying in the Senate today. So you may ask what's the problem?
First is our right to privacy. With social media and Millennials we have a society that increasingly has no desire to protect their own privacy. The social media giants are driven to make money and will sell whatever data they have to whomever will pay (hence the Facebook issue). Sadly the millennials who for the most part lack social skills and are lazy, have traded their privacy for expediency. In short they don't really care who sees their lives play out on social media. Actually most of them spend a great deal of time sharing things on social media I would never dream of showing anyone.
I caught a bunch of them the other day SnapChatting pictures of the poop to one another, bragging about size. Really? They prefer to text than talk and will all have arthritis of the fingers by the time they are in their 40's.
So in short privacy is rapidly going the way of the typewriter.
Next is our younger generations. Millennials and some GenXers. In short we have provided these generations with so much access to information and data that they are overwhelmed and lazy. Yes I said it Lazy. Let me add Gullible.
How do I know this? I have 4 millennial boys who married 4 millennial ladies and between them all have about 1000 millennial friends. So my personal experience with millennials is very strong. Add to this the number of them I have hired trained and continue to work with today. While there are some every interesting studies on millennials I rely more on my own personal experience, although some of the national data is complimentary.
So back in the 60's and 70's if you wanted information you had to work for it. literally. In college you had to go to a library and actually search through books and microfiche to find specific data or information. We used to call it research. Even simple things required effort. You wanted the number to a restaurant you had to get a big phone book, know the alphabet and search for the number. Same for so many things in everyday life.
Why is this important? for several reasons actually. First effort was required in all cases. One could not truly be lazy unless you had servants or a very willing friend. Second the process of finding information required some skills and during the process we were learning. Third we had a sense of accomplishment when we found what we were searching for that often led to us remembering all or part of it. Thus expending our knowledge.
One could argue that because finding information is so easy today does not mean folks are any less intelligent. I would agree and maybe even say that many are more knowledgeable because information is so easy to access. The part that is missing is learning the source and validity of data and information.
Today millennials believe nearly everything they see on social media. Ridiculous since most of social media is opinion not facts. You know what they say about opinions,"they are just like assholes we all have one". In short because of the overabundance of information (real or not) and the ease with which we get it, we have created a very gullible generation that for the most part is misinformed about so much.
So why is this a problem you ask? its a huge problem because many millennials are actually bright and some are even articulate. They fill their heads with this social media trash and then spread it like a gospel amongst their peers. The next thing you know a whole group of folks believe a bunch of utter crap and begin to defend it. Sometimes in extreme cases they find that their basis is false and will try to conjure up lies to make it real.
The other problem is that these millennials are overwhelmed with information and often turn to their comfort zone - social media. Since this platform is their basic way of communicating with one another and it is so fast and worldwide, disinformation can spread like a wild fire. Next thing you know the world is believing something with no basis in fact. Add to this the insane media and we have a real problem.
The media in the 70' still used to stick the four W's of good journalism - who, what, when and why! Today with 24 hour "news cycles" we are bombarded with primarily opinions. And as you saw above these are not reliable facts but more often pure conjecture. The media spews this stuff 24/7 and then social media becomes the multiplier or in some cases the catalyst.
So now it is virtually impossible to sort fact from fiction and policy, decisions and finances are all being affected by this. We have a whole generation that is gullible and lazy. They think folks like me are dinosaurs and don't have a clue but sadly that's far from the truth. I used to be young and rebellious. I used to think my folks were not "hip" but I never thought they were dumb. I respected the work they had done to get where they were and knew first hand the effort it took to do so. Today the millennials get things so easily with no effort that they cannot respect what we had to go through.
Personally I don't care about their respect but I do care about their ignorance or misinformation. In 2025 they will make up nearly 75% of the US workforce. They will ultimately be a bigger generation than the Boomers. So will they be able to find their way through this misinformed morass? Will they be able to make sensible decisions and form intelligent opinions? Or will they follow the masses and eventually walk right off a cliff?
The other problem is understanding the value of relationships. I get that tech and social media have changed the way we get and maintain relationships. Change for change sake is not always good. Having deep personal relationships where we get tp know people well and understand their motivations, beliefs and philosophies is important. Sure one could argue you could do this through social media but I would challenge that. Here is why. Social media cant convey to all our senses (yet), Swiping right does not constitute a relationship (I know its a hook up method). My point is there is no substitute for human interaction and we are rapidly moving away from it.
Along with this deterioration in human relationships comes the devaluation of it. That is an equally horrible problem. Trust, respect and empathy slowly fade away. This does not bode well for the future.
I don't know the answer but I worry because I love so many of them and I pray some revelation will wake them from their social media sleep walk and let them see that easy is not always right or best.
Social media is so prevalent in the world and certainly in the US. Sadly some of my long term concerns about social media are coming home to roost. Prove of this is the recent problems at Facebook and Zuckerberg testifying in the Senate today. So you may ask what's the problem?
First is our right to privacy. With social media and Millennials we have a society that increasingly has no desire to protect their own privacy. The social media giants are driven to make money and will sell whatever data they have to whomever will pay (hence the Facebook issue). Sadly the millennials who for the most part lack social skills and are lazy, have traded their privacy for expediency. In short they don't really care who sees their lives play out on social media. Actually most of them spend a great deal of time sharing things on social media I would never dream of showing anyone.
I caught a bunch of them the other day SnapChatting pictures of the poop to one another, bragging about size. Really? They prefer to text than talk and will all have arthritis of the fingers by the time they are in their 40's.
So in short privacy is rapidly going the way of the typewriter.
Next is our younger generations. Millennials and some GenXers. In short we have provided these generations with so much access to information and data that they are overwhelmed and lazy. Yes I said it Lazy. Let me add Gullible.
How do I know this? I have 4 millennial boys who married 4 millennial ladies and between them all have about 1000 millennial friends. So my personal experience with millennials is very strong. Add to this the number of them I have hired trained and continue to work with today. While there are some every interesting studies on millennials I rely more on my own personal experience, although some of the national data is complimentary.
So back in the 60's and 70's if you wanted information you had to work for it. literally. In college you had to go to a library and actually search through books and microfiche to find specific data or information. We used to call it research. Even simple things required effort. You wanted the number to a restaurant you had to get a big phone book, know the alphabet and search for the number. Same for so many things in everyday life.
Why is this important? for several reasons actually. First effort was required in all cases. One could not truly be lazy unless you had servants or a very willing friend. Second the process of finding information required some skills and during the process we were learning. Third we had a sense of accomplishment when we found what we were searching for that often led to us remembering all or part of it. Thus expending our knowledge.
One could argue that because finding information is so easy today does not mean folks are any less intelligent. I would agree and maybe even say that many are more knowledgeable because information is so easy to access. The part that is missing is learning the source and validity of data and information.
Today millennials believe nearly everything they see on social media. Ridiculous since most of social media is opinion not facts. You know what they say about opinions,"they are just like assholes we all have one". In short because of the overabundance of information (real or not) and the ease with which we get it, we have created a very gullible generation that for the most part is misinformed about so much.
So why is this a problem you ask? its a huge problem because many millennials are actually bright and some are even articulate. They fill their heads with this social media trash and then spread it like a gospel amongst their peers. The next thing you know a whole group of folks believe a bunch of utter crap and begin to defend it. Sometimes in extreme cases they find that their basis is false and will try to conjure up lies to make it real.
The other problem is that these millennials are overwhelmed with information and often turn to their comfort zone - social media. Since this platform is their basic way of communicating with one another and it is so fast and worldwide, disinformation can spread like a wild fire. Next thing you know the world is believing something with no basis in fact. Add to this the insane media and we have a real problem.
The media in the 70' still used to stick the four W's of good journalism - who, what, when and why! Today with 24 hour "news cycles" we are bombarded with primarily opinions. And as you saw above these are not reliable facts but more often pure conjecture. The media spews this stuff 24/7 and then social media becomes the multiplier or in some cases the catalyst.
So now it is virtually impossible to sort fact from fiction and policy, decisions and finances are all being affected by this. We have a whole generation that is gullible and lazy. They think folks like me are dinosaurs and don't have a clue but sadly that's far from the truth. I used to be young and rebellious. I used to think my folks were not "hip" but I never thought they were dumb. I respected the work they had done to get where they were and knew first hand the effort it took to do so. Today the millennials get things so easily with no effort that they cannot respect what we had to go through.
Personally I don't care about their respect but I do care about their ignorance or misinformation. In 2025 they will make up nearly 75% of the US workforce. They will ultimately be a bigger generation than the Boomers. So will they be able to find their way through this misinformed morass? Will they be able to make sensible decisions and form intelligent opinions? Or will they follow the masses and eventually walk right off a cliff?
The other problem is understanding the value of relationships. I get that tech and social media have changed the way we get and maintain relationships. Change for change sake is not always good. Having deep personal relationships where we get tp know people well and understand their motivations, beliefs and philosophies is important. Sure one could argue you could do this through social media but I would challenge that. Here is why. Social media cant convey to all our senses (yet), Swiping right does not constitute a relationship (I know its a hook up method). My point is there is no substitute for human interaction and we are rapidly moving away from it.
Along with this deterioration in human relationships comes the devaluation of it. That is an equally horrible problem. Trust, respect and empathy slowly fade away. This does not bode well for the future.
I don't know the answer but I worry because I love so many of them and I pray some revelation will wake them from their social media sleep walk and let them see that easy is not always right or best.