‘I asked a young 20-something what would happen if power was out, cell towers were down, Internet was unavailable, and your iPhone died? The expression was that of a child who’d lost a puppy.’
I had the pleasure of describing that very example to my elderly parents last week in trying to educate them as to the socially dysfunctional digital generation that is now present.
It’s really frightening to me, and I’m 31! My younger brother, 3 years my junior, is totally dependent on his cell phone. When it chimes with a text message, he’s got it in his hand faster than he would pick it up if it rang. He’s got his “IT Drip.”
I asked my 9 year old cousin if he knew his multiplication tables yet, and his answer was a quizzical, “What are those?” I asked him if he knew what 5*4 or 11*5 were. He asked if I had a calculator. This was at 9.
When I went to McDonald’s last week to get something to nosh on the road, they’d lost power and were still bringing up their machines. They took my order, but they couldn’t plug it into their terminals. I gave them a $20 for an order somewhere in the neighborhood of $9.50. I got a $10 bill, a $1 bill, and $0.50. I gave him back the dollar and the clerk says, “Oh, you can just put that in the Ronald McDonald house.” I just shook my head and did exactly that.