American Millennials are among the world's least skilled

[DesiPower]

To get ahead of the competition, we need to stop leaving our kids future in the hands of union workers and politicians. Like every other country we are compared to, we need to privatize education.

 

[Imp]

This... AGAIN?

Millennials be da dum. Something Facebook, social media, phones, all the time.

Oh, no they not, we da smar.

/thread

 

[biostud]

To get ahead of the competition, we need to stop leaving our kids future in the hands of union workers and politicians. Like every other country we are compared to, we need to privatize education.

All those in top has the best public education in the world.

 

[TheSlamma]

I think Gen X is going to be the most "traditionally" IT savvy group. We grew up with PC's. By that, I mean we literally were born and blossomed along with them in the golden age of computing. We grew up with Commodore 64's. Know what a Packard Bell was. Remember having to dial up to use the internet. Welcomed computer lab days where we could play Oregon Trail or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego off of the 5.25" floppie disks. Remember how amazing it was that you could eventually burn your own CD's and that you had to turn off your flying toasters screen saver before starting a burn unless you wanted a $1 beer coaster when you overran the buffer on it. We had to make boot disks back in the old DOS days to run our PC games. Had to blow dust off the cartridges of the contacts of the Nintendo games to make them work. Used to be able to run web severs directly off our computers when cable internet first came online and before ISP's locked things down.

And so on. We grew up with raw technology that wasn't perfect. People older than us were scared of it. People younger than us never had to deal with all the quirks. Most of them were figured out and fixed by us

X2

People only get stronger through hardships, this generation is the king of the First World Problems.

If something goes wrong the solution is found under "settings" or you buy a new device.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

It's almost as if people are in a race of "who can do less shit and get the most out of it".

Well, that seems to be what most companies are trying to do as well, so why not be your own CEO and mimic them?

 

[xeemzor]

X2

People only get stronger through hardships, this generation is the king of the First World Problems.

If something goes wrong you find the solution is found under "settings" or you buy a new device.

Absolutely this. I was installing Linux, playing around with Cisco routers, manipulating databases, and configuring servers at the age of 12. Because I was constantly navigating around obstacles I was force to develop my problem solving and critical thinking skills. Both the technical and soft skills I learned are applicable in my current day job.

Nowadays everything "just works". What incentive is there to tinker?

 

[Spungo]

X2

People only get stronger through hardships, this generation is the king of the First World Problems.

If something goes wrong the solution is found under "settings" or you buy a new device.

I don't need to tell anyone I'm having a problem. My helicopter parent will notice it first and fix it for me

 

[Oyeve]

The vietnam war era made americans lazy assed hippy liberal douche bags. My opinion. We need WW2 era americans! Worked hard for peanuts!

 

[zinfamous]

This is very much the problem.

Anecdotally my sister majored in Art History and got nothing but praise from my family. "Embrace your dreams" they said. "You can do anything if you try hard enough". What a load of bullshit. After spending $80k on the degree she works in sales earning $50k/year in the bay area. Everyone in my family gets mad at me when I point out that she was the cause of all her own problems by choosing a shitty degree.

Her story is not unique by any means. I can't tell you how many people in my rich high school got stupid degrees like psychology and history. The ones that succeeded came from rich families that had rich families that could buy them into a job. Most others are now working menial jobs and making excuses about how they got screwed in life.

Thankfully I ignored the advice of my parents, peers, and advisers and built a very successful career on my own. It took a lot of hard work and I got a ton of flak for not following the "normal" path.

Fuck what anyone else thinks about your sacrifices. Figure out your own way and be the best at whatever you do. Don't be a sheeple.

sounds like you aren't applying this perspective to your sister...for some reason. I guess you know what she should be doing, right?

 

[Jeff7]

Take literacy, for instance. American Millennials scored lower than their counterparts in every country that participated except Spain and Italy. (Japan is No. 1.) In numeracy, meaning the ability to apply basic math to everyday situations, Gen Yers in the U.S. ranked dead last.

Woo!! #USOA #USOA

I'm torn on some of this stuff. I'm 37. I could have done the math on that 15 years ago. But I couldn't do it free hand today. Besides, there's an app for that

Reality is so many of us are taught how to do things, and then taught the "easy" way. Once you have shortcuts you forget the hard way to do things. I've got so much other "stuff" to know and remember somethings just get shoved out of the way. I'm sure an accountant, actuary or somebody that has to work with numbers on a daily basis can solve that interest problem. But I don't work with it daily. Haven't worked with it in a couple decades and frankly, can google the answer faster than doing it myself.

In it's place I now have 300 different server names and their functions, can ramble off HL7 interface specs, can navigate without directions around multiple major US cities, and break down a DICOM conformance statement. You just tend to purge the shit you aren't using any more.

It does happen in a lot of things. I know how to get meat: Go buy some from a store or local butcher.
I don't know how to raise livestock or properly slaughter and butcher an animal. Nor could I have a reasonable shot at tracking a substantial game animal. (Not like I'd have to. I could drive around Pennsylvania back roads all night and slam into enough deer to keep the entire Duggar family fed.)


STEM stuff is pretty important though, at least if we want to keep progressing technologically. Those fancy apps and cellphones don't program and design themselves, at least not for a few more decades.

 

[Hugo Drax]

I think Gen X is going to be the most "traditionally" IT savvy group. We grew up with PC's. By that, I mean we literally were born and blossomed along with them in the golden age of computing. We grew up with Commodore 64's. Know what a Packard Bell was. Remember having to dial up to use the internet. Welcomed computer lab days where we could play Oregon Trail or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego off of the 5.25" floppie disks. Remember how amazing it was that you could eventually burn your own CD's and that you had to turn off your flying toasters screen saver before starting a burn unless you wanted a $1 beer coaster when you overran the buffer on it. We had to make boot disks back in the old DOS days to run our PC games. Had to blow dust off the cartridges of the contacts of the Nintendo games to make them work. Used to be able to run web severs directly off our computers when cable internet first came online and before ISP's locked things down.

And so on. We grew up with raw technology that wasn't perfect. People older than us were scared of it. People younger than us never had to deal with all the quirks. Most of them were figured out and fixed by us

True, For millennial computing is like using a Microwave and sticking a popcorn bag inside of it and pressing the popcorn button.

So I laugh when they say Millennials are tech savvy. You don't hear on the news regarding people who know how to us a Microwave being called RF engineering savvy.

Even the new cars are coming with all kinds of nanny alerts so you don't drive into a wall or oncoming traffic.

 

[Harrod]

This pretty much sums up my experience with millennials at work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz0o9clVQu8

 

[HeXen]

I know of a few millennial that can't and flat out won't change a tire. Their parents get them AAA services so I guess there's no need to know.

 

[Mai72]

Different generation.

I think it goes back to not wanting to do the dirty work because it is beneath them. There was an article just last week about British youth. It stated that they are the least capable of all generations to be able to fix anything. We live in a disposal society. Need a new computer? New TV? Throw it out and buy another.

 

[NoTine42]

Different generation.

I think it goes back to not wanting to do the dirty work because it is beneath them. There was an article just last week about British youth. It stated that they are the least capable of all generations to be able to fix anything. We live in a disposal society. Need a new computer? New TV? Throw it out and buy another.

Because children and their parents were all indoctrinated by their teachers. In the teacher's world, education is good and manual labor is bad.

If a teacher wants a raise, they get an advanced degree, so they teach their students that more education is always better.

 

[biostud]

All the top countries has the same gadgets and technology as US, so that cannot be the reason for the difference.

 

[Nograts]

If it makes anyone feel better I think everyone is a fuckin moron but that doesn't mean I've lost hope in some of you.

<3

 

[Naer]

Technology/smart phones/tablets are not skills?

 

[ImpulsE69]

You can't even get them to move out of their parents, you expect them to change a tire??

Really though, they all have dreams of becoming a fast youtube sensations that will land a TV / movie spot. It really isn't different than kids wanting to be rock stars back in the 70's/80's/90's. The problem is they don't have a work ethic. They want it immediately. I deal with this every day. If it doesn't come to them in the time they think it should, they just stop.

If becoming a star was a big goal back in the day, it is even more so now because it is perceived as so much more accessible and easy with minimal effort. Have you SEEN some of what is popular now?

signed

~Grandpa

 

[pcgeek11]

Title needs to be changed to "American Millennials are among the world's most selfish self entitled dummies on the planet".

My son is a Millennial, but doesn't fall into this as we have always taught him to tink for himself and not to rely on the quick fix for every problem. Moved out at 18 and has supported himself and now his family very well working in the emergency medical field.

I do agree that a lot of parents are at least half the cause. The kids have the other half of the blame.

 

[Nograts]

I do agree that a lot of parents are at least half the cause. The kids have the other half of the blame.

Do the whorish moms who don't know the baby daddy's name get 75% of the blame since daddy-o isn't around?

 

[pcgeek11]

Do the whorish moms who don't know the baby daddy's name get 75% of the blame since daddy-o isn't around?

Those are special cases and get all of the blame.

 

[pcgeek11]

This pretty much sums up my experience with millennials at work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz0o9clVQu8

Funny. Too bad a lot of it is true.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

I think what they're referring to are general skills rather than specific skills you've been trained to do. The arithmetic involved in that problem should be trivial - it is trivial. But, it's not to the generations of people brought up with technology. Mentally, it should take about 10 seconds. At $100 per month, you've paid the loan back in 10 months. So, the other 2 months are $200 in interest, plus 12 months times that extra 3 dollars = $236 dollars in interest. 236 is what percent of 1000? If I asked that last step today, of even my best students, I'd see virtually every one of them reach for a calculator.

They weren't even looking for something as specific as 23.6%. The correct answer is "any value between 23 and 24."

Here and here are some other sample questions. Hard to believe that correctly interpreting a negative slope on a line graph rates as a 3/5 on their difficulty scale.

Meanwhile, here's a 8th grade exam from 1912. There's even a drawing question in there - "Sketch briefly Sir Walter Rawleigh, Peter Stuyvesant." lol

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Maybe it would already help a bit if you'd not get a degree for being good at kicking/throwing/hitting/catching a ball.