The thought of speaking extemporaneously to another human on a phone can be intimidating – like the fear of public speaking, which runs at over 70% in the general population. — Photo by Onur Binay on Unsplash
"Digital natives." That's what they call Gen Z.
It's a reminder to all of us "analog oldsters" that members of Gen Z were born into a different world than Boomers, Gen X'ers and older Millennials.
The Z-crowd – basically teens and young adults – doesn't remember a time before texting, TikTok and Venmo.
Our older son once did a one-off video with some college friends on TikTok that got millions and millions of looks; and then he shrugged and immediately retired from the platform. (I'm trying to imagine writing one column in 1982 that got 30 million reads and then deciding writing was too easy to be fun.)
The other day I was in a room with some other Boomers and X'ers, and a lively discussion broke out on how helpless our children are when confronted with basic, 20th-century tasks.
For example, the parents of high school seniors all lamented that getting their children to compose handwritten thank-you notes for their graduation gifts was like pulling teeth. (Honestly, this has probably always been a heavy lift.)
One mom said her son was so vexed by the task that she gave him a form letter, basically saying, "Thanks for the (blank). I hope to use it for (blank)."
Another mom said her daughter worked on her thank-you notes, but when addressing them, she wrote the recipient's name at the top of the envelope. The mom said that only then did she realize her child had never addressed a snail-mail missive.
For children like mine – who are ages 21 and 17 – thumb-typing "thx" on a text message is the closest they've come to penning a thank-you note.
The parents also agreed that kids today are allergic to phone calls.
One parent suggested his daughter call her soon-to-be college roommate and got a flat "no" in response. Anything, apparently, is better than a spontaneous voice conversation.
I assume this is due to lack of practice. Texting has been the preferred form of person-to-person communication for this cohort since they got their first smartphones – which increasingly happens in elementary school.
The thought of speaking extemporaneously to another human on a phone can be intimidating – like the fear of public speaking, which runs at over 70% in the general population.
Our older son told me the other day that he had to telephone 12 repair shops before finding someone who would work on his industrial-grade pressure washer. I couldn't have been prouder if he had won a Rhodes Scholarship.
Writing checks is another life skill that will not survive the next generation, I'm afraid. I'm sure that neither of our sons, despite having checking accounts, has ever written a check.
One of the parents in my group discussion the other day said she had to send her son a photograph of a signed check to show him how to fill it out.
In a small victory, our younger son has learned how to endorse checks – a skill he learned depositing earnings from his yard-cutting gigs.
"They're even getting to know me at the bank," he told me the other day.
Victory! I know young people who have never set foot inside a bank.
Alas, we late 20th-century people probably just need to get used to changing times. Unless we want to show off our skills plowing with mules and churning butter. – Chattanooga Times Free Press/Tribune News Service
