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Young people are 'lost generation' who can no longer fix gadgets, warns professor
Danielle George, Professor of Radio Frequency Engineering, at the University of Manchester, is giving this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
Quote:
Young people in Britain have become a lost generation who can no longer mend gadgets and appliances because they have grown up in a disposable world, the professor giving this year’s Royal Institution Christmas lectures has warned.
Danielle George, Professor of Radio Frequency Engineering, at the University of Manchester, claims that the under 40s expect everything to ‘just work’ and have no idea what to do when things go wrong.
Unlike previous generations who would ‘make do and mend’ now young people will just chuck out their faulty appliances and buy new ones.
But Prof George claims that many broken or outdated gadgets could be fixed or re-purposed with only a brief knowledge of engineering and electronics.
This year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are entitled ‘Sparks will fly: How to hack your home’ she is hoping it will inspire people to think what else they can do with common household objects.Prof George said: “We’ve got a lost generation that has grown up with factory electronics that just work all of the time.
“All of these things in our home do seem to work most of the time and because they don’t break we just get used to them. They have almost become like Black Boxes which never die. And when they do we throw them away and buy something new.
“But there is now a big maker community who are thinking hard about what we do with all of these gadgets. They are remaking and re-purposing things.
I know that the OP quoted an article from the UK, but reading it, it sounds a lot like what is happening in the US as well.
The scary thing, when I was young I always wanted to go with my father and uncles when they went out to fix things. (They were all plumbers and handymen at one point in their life or did it on the side for extra money). I watched as people worked on cars and fixed computers. And eventually I used to fix computers for a living for a bit as well. I can do some of the other stuff as a result too.
My kids are not interested in ANY of that... Heck they are not even interested in getting drivers licenses. I wanted one ever since I can remember.
I think a lot of it has to do with the disposable society. Even cars now are practically disposable items. After 7 years the manufacturer doesn't have to keep parts for them around - and unless they are still using that part for a newer car, they don't. If you have an unpopular model car junk yards can't even help you. It gets to the point that it isn't needing the mechanic skills to fix it, you can't get the part to fix it.
I know that the OP quoted an article from the UK, but reading it, it sounds a lot like what is happening in the US as well.
The scary thing, when I was young I always wanted to go with my father and uncles when they went out to fix things. (They were all plumbers and handymen at one point in their life or did it on the side for extra money). I watched as people worked on cars and fixed computers. And eventually I used to fix computers for a living for a bit as well. I can do some of the other stuff as a result too.
My kids are not interested in ANY of that... Heck they are not even interested in getting drivers licenses. I wanted one ever since I can remember.
I think a lot of it has to do with the disposable society. Even cars now are practically disposable items. After 7 years the manufacturer doesn't have to keep parts for them around - and unless they are still using that part for a newer car, they don't. If you have an unpopular model car junk yards can't even help you. It gets to the point that it isn't needing the mechanic skills to fix it, you can't get the part to fix it.
Exactly my point of the post,to say it's
Quote:
only concerns British citizens
is absurd.
I would add to Dakster's points we had Automotive - Metal - Word working shop classes back in my school days.
Wow must've been nice living back when people barely had to work and you could spend countless leisure hours trying to fix $10 electronics. Let millennials get 40 hr workweeks with decent pay and benefits and you'd see plenty of tinkering. Then again, the elderly would never do anything to give up a reason to complain about how evil and wrong people somehow became since they were young
Wow must've been nice living back when people barely had to work and you could spend countless leisure hours trying to fix $10 electronics. Let millennials get 40 hr workweeks with decent pay and benefits and you'd see plenty of tinkering. Then again, the elderly would never do anything to give up a reason to complain about how evil and wrong people somehow became since they were young
Read that post again, let Millenials get this or that. That is exactly one of the points made by the OP, the new generation wants everything given to them, jobs, money, leisure, you name it. Hey, go out and figure it out already.
Read that post again, let Millenials get this or that. That is exactly one of the points made by the OP, the new generation wants everything given to them, jobs, money, leisure, you name it. Hey, go out and figure it out already.
Right.
CoolZombie -
We NEED millennials to work on electronics and they are not. We need millennials to be interested in what is referred to as the hard sciences. These are high paying 40 hr a week jobs, usually in the mid six figure range... My parents and especially my grandparents had a very labor intensive life just to put food on the table. Not Facebook, twit, text, a play online internet games all day. And this was back when they were kids - not adults. No A/C in the house in the southern US - let's not even talk about the car.
I don't where you thought any of us where talking about fixing your $10 phone charger. We are talking about the next generation being ready to work on the next generation of phones, computers, tablets, vehicle electronics, space travel electronics.
Wow must've been nice living back when people barely had to work and you could spend countless leisure hours trying to fix $10 electronics. Let millennials get 40 hr workweeks with decent pay and benefits and you'd see plenty of tinkering. Then again, the elderly would never do anything to give up a reason to complain about how evil and wrong people somehow became since they were young
LOL..so lack of a high paying job is the reason they don't try to fix their broken "stuff" ?
I would think lack of a high paying job would be an incentive to fix their stuff rather than throw it out and buy a new one.
Seems to me the more money the millennials make the less they actually do..they hire others to do it for them.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I wouldn't make such a generalization. Even my 3 year old grandson is fascinated by tools and pretends to be fixing things. Both my son (late 20s) and son in law (early 30s) do a lot of their own home and car repairs, though they are financially able to pay for a professional to do it. Several of the younger homeowner employees here are constantly asking me for advice on repairing/replacing things.
Total nonsense. If something breaks, kids google how to fix it and have it running again in seconds. Its the old rich lazy boomers who have huge houses full of inoperable garbage because they have no clue how to internet.
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