Posted on 12/26/2012 8:42:38 AM PST by traumer
One of Britain's leading inventors has warned that a 'Google generation' who rely on the internet for everything are in danger of becoming 'brain-dead'.
Trevor Baylis, who invented the wind-up radio, said children are losing creativity and practical skills because they spend too much time in front of screens. The 75-year-old said he fears that the next generation of inventors is being lost, with young people often unable to make anything with their hands.
But he said children could rediscover vital skills if schools used Meccano and other practical toys. Mr Baylis said: 'Children have got to be taught hands-on, and not to become mobile phone or computer dependent. 'They should use computers as and when, but there are so many people playing with their computers nowadays that spend all their time sitting there with a stomach.
'They are dependent on Google searches. A lot of kids will become fairly brain-dead if they become so dependent on the internet, because they will not be able to do things the old-fashioned way.'
Recalling how his career had its roots in the very different world in which he grew up, he said he was about five or six years old when he began to invent devices. 'During the war, when I was not at school I used to go out and collect the rubbish,' said Mr Baylis.
'One day I was out and went to this house around the corner from where I grew up in Southall, Middlesex, and this lady said, “I've got a box of stuff for you Trev, you'd better get a wheelbarrow.” So I picked up this thing and on the way back I was intrigued and I looked inside and it turned out to be a huge Meccano set.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Not to be contrary, but it also renders some children faster and smarter than we have ever been.
The levels of the sciences that young people are required to tackle are sometimes much harder than what I dealt with in high school.
I am a jeweler and change a lot of watch batteries. A couple days ago, I asked a 19 year old girl what time it was so I could set a clients watch. She couldn’t tell time.
Seems hard to believe - many can’t open file cabinets, open doors, dial land line phones, wield a hammer, pencil, or screwdriver successfully, the list goes on.
And social skills are rapidly deteriorating - courtesy is now being replace en masse with actively anti-social behavior.
Obviously not all, buy the percentage is shifting (very much like the electoral divide).
Individual handwriting and calligraphy skills already died with the advent of the PC. Grammar and syntax are now being strangled by the likes of texting, instant messaging and twitter. The reading ability of younger people, especially with regard to long and complex arguments, will be the next to go.
replace s/b replaced
buy s/b but
They have to have digital watches. Apparently many kids are not taught anymore how to tell time on a regular old clock,
They are also not taught to write in cursive. Some places still do, but many do not.
Creation of Fed
National Income Tax
Social Security
Food Stamps
Medicare / Medicaid
End of Gold Standard
Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan
And you say the NEW generation is brain dead?
My best Christmas present ever was a soldering iron.
A few years ago a friend went to Sri Lanka and asked that I forward their bills. So I put the bills in a seperate envelope and filled in the address and city, followed by SRI LANKA, ASIA.
I took the envelope to a little corner post office and asked it to be weighed, because I needed postage for Sri Lanka. The clerk told me I only needed one first class stamp. I thought well, that's funny, but I rarely use snail mail, what do I know what it costs to send a letter overseas. A few days later I had occaison to send something else, and again, one first class stamp.
A week or so later the letters were returned, POSTAGE DUE. Irate, I went to the same clerk and asked for an explanation. He looked puzzled, weighed the letters again, and said the computer said the postage was adequate. He couldn't understand it.
I asked him if he was sure he was calculating the cost for Sri Lanka, SRI LANKA. And he said, yes, absolutely, the postage rate for Sri Lanka.
Grabbing at straws I asked, Sri Lanka, Asia??
Suddenly understanding dawned. He said it was MY fault, I should have TOLD him I meant someplace overseas...
As politely as I could, I asked him just where in the Hades he thought Sri Lanka was. He said he thought it was a town in California.
True Story. Why engage the brain when there's a machine to think for you.
ping
I teach physics at a Christian college prep school.
The kids are very bright, but even the boys have problems doing setups for basic hands-on labs.
Many must be shown how to put together hotwheel tracks.
Then, they have trouble visualizing (hypothesis) what the outcomes will be because this is REAL, NOT VIDEO.
Read any college student's twitter feed (of course, having a twitter feed is problem #1). "siting in clas #soooo bored"..."out of clas gona eat a muffin #YOLO"..."omg gooood muffin #sooo ful"..."goin bak to clas #soooo bored"...etc. Truly painful to decipher.
"The reading ability of younger people, especially with regard to long and complex arguments, will be the next to go."
Its already gone. Ask most highschool kids what the federalist papers are and who wrote them and why, and you'll be met with blank stares and in some cases sneers. Information like that was drilled into me; I just know it. Not so with far too many Americans these days.
Nothing new about that. My wife has had letters to her parents in New Mexico returned demanding overseas postage. It got to be so common she started writing “USA” at the end of their address.
And in the UK..use of a knife and fork unless to stab someone.
Seems that manual dexterity in operating a fork is missing in UK teenagers...
Ministry of Health have been tasked to develop square peas for school lunches due to the inability of students to load a fork with spherical peas.
The problem was attributed to the extensive use of hand held fast food.
Example follows...
Classic double hand feeding with elbows on table.
“Not to be contrary, but it also renders some children faster and smarter than we have ever been.”
There will always be a cognitive elite.
I suspect that the internet will further separate the cognitive elite from the rest for whom creativity simply lies in a properly worded google search. No analysis required.
“The levels of the sciences that young people are required to tackle are sometimes much harder than what I dealt with in high school.”
I do not see this, rather I see the opposite. They may be exposed to key-words, but they are by no means required to tackle sciences. Those that do are fewer than when I was in high school - and soon those classes will be so poorly populated that they’ll get rid of them altogether.
The middle 3 cognitive quintiles are most severely impacted by this phenomenon, in my opinion. They aren’t forced to endure the rigors of analysis that more often than not does not come naturally to them.
it is scary.
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
— Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love
Minor disagreement. They don't wear watches. They use the digital clock app on their $120/month smart phones. You could buy a Rolex for less.
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