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Our tech-addicted youths are going nowhere

5th July 2013

By: Terry Mackenzie-hoy

  

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In a letter she wrote to a friend, my grandmother said that the road from Port Elizabeth was “greatly improved” and that it now took “less than three days by wagon to make the journey”.

My grandmother came from Bohemia, which means she may well have been slightly sarcastic with “only three days”. Whatever her meaning, the fact is that, today, you can do the distance in air- conditioned comfort in five hours. Further, while the memory of the ox-wagon has certainly gone, we all know that there are alternatives to air-conditioned comfort – you could do the whole trip in the back of a bakkie, on a bus, by motor bike or scooter.

What happens when people forget the old, alternative ways of doing things? In the play The Physicists (by Friedrich Durrenmatt), it is propounded that, once an invention is not understood by users, it becomes useful to mankind, who do not care about what it is used for. Thus, the discovery of a means to overcome gravity would be used by mankind, not for universal benefit, but for universal gain.

What is happening right now, at some awful speed, is the rise of the smartphone, the app and the Internet. The progress of the first two is astonishing, as we all know. In an instant, you can communicate, write, take and manipulate photos, take videos, turn your smartphone into a video player and exchange tweets and mind candy all day long.

In this process, the traditional way of doing things is being left behind – fast. I am not sure if there is a need to teach handwriting any more. There is certainly no need to teach mental arithmetic. Recently, when we sent a mail shot detailing our services, I got the engineers to help stamp and address the envelopes. One of them did not know where, actually, to write the address or where to put the stamp.

What happens with all this instantaneous stuff and quick availability of information and the transfer thereof is that, when problems do arise in calculations or communications, the whole system comes to a halt. It becomes a legitimate excuse to send an SMS and say: “Sorry, email is down, will reply when it is back up.” This is another way of saying: “I’ve got a fax machine but I’m too tired to use it.”

This results in (as I observe) an increasing number of people in their twenties going absolutely nowhere. Their lives consist of being on holiday and living off their parents or doing a job like being a bartender or pizza delivery person while their vast social media system in the palm of their hand sustains any need they have for intellectual stimulation. As long as the various firms crank out new apps that make life easier still or new smartphones that are the latest inter- esting technology, they can stave off the boredom of work by being unemployed but with a smartphone. They are going nowhere but they do not care.

I become increasingly open mouthed when I remember that, in my twenties, some of my friends were commanding Navy ships (I was a command engineering officer), while others were growing careers in engineering and medicine. Many of their children today, in their twenties, are doing nothing.

This is not good because, like Peter Pan, we all have to leave Neverland and grow up. The difficulty with this is that, having few skills beyond screen swiping and keypad entering, many will have nothing to do. We will have to see what happens.

Fortunately, this is not true for all people in their twenties. We employ four engineering students every year so that they can fulfil their vacation training requirements. Over the years, we have had three white students and 17 black students. Apart from two duds, the blacks all work like Trojans. They do not complain – they sit and learn and ask questions. I am sure, figuratively, that they still remember when it took three days to get from Port Elizabeth to Colesberg and they are not going to do that again. For the rest . . . well, we’ll see, won’t we?

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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