4 ms·

What would be the long term effect of young generation totally incapable of long term attention?

• blobbers 5y ago
  I think it also affects ability to wait/be patient and long/short term gratification.
• Zababa 5y ago
  Nothing? I feel like complaining about the long term attention of "the young generation" has been a thing since Ancient Rome.
  • Levitz 5y ago
    I really don't think it's comparable. The kind of complaints Ancient Rome had is the same as we had 50 years ago, which boiled down to adults wondering why youngsters didn't act like them. In due time youngsters age, become adults themselves and the cycle repeats. There is no shortage of adults addicted to social media. We can see the effects of it in many of us and I think it's fair to worry for the consequences it may have in developmental stages. For one, the idea new generations have about "privacy" is something I'm seriously worried about. When I was 15 I was aware that only a moron would go around the internet giving personal data. That is now expected behavior.
    • Zababa 5y ago
      > There is no shortage of adults addicted to social media. We can see the effects of it in many of us and I think it's fair to worry for the consequences it may have in developmental stages. That's one way to see it, another way is that it's a form of adaptation. Now that everything goes very fast, you need people that can jump around things very fast to stay on top of these kind of things. I know that I personally couldn't be a social media manager, or invest in crypto/NTFs/the latest trend, because that stuff goes way too fast for me. But on the other hand, I seem to be better at going deeper into stuff for long period of time than these people. There's a chance that it's still a net negative, for sure, but I don't think we should dismiss that as "people worse than before". > For one, the idea new generations have about "privacy" is something I'm seriously worried about. When I was 15 I was aware that only a moron would go around the internet giving personal data. That is now expected behavior. I think that may be because you can be a bit more "yourself" than before. For example, it's easier to be publically gay right now than 15 years before. It's easier to publically be into niche hobbies. I think that's because people are more exposed to them, and it's something feeding on itself. I don't know if it's positive or negative, I think it's relatively neutral.
      • godDLL 5y ago
        On your first point, that is easy to measure, no? The effectiveness of the younglings at keeping up? On your second point, I think people care less about other people. That explains how you can be tolerable, no matter what they actually think of your conduct. They don't care.
        • xboxnolifes 5y ago
          How would you measure it? At least, I don't see what way would be easy.
          • godDLL 5y ago
            Take a group of younglings and a control group. Separate them. Use a script to explain a problem to them, compare questions. Tell them to write down their own description of the problem, compare answers. No?
            • xboxnolifes 5y ago
              In order to measure effectiveness of keeping up, we would also need something to measure against. I don't think we have past data on the topic, so at the minimum we would need years to see changes over time.
              • godDLL 5y ago
                Or over differently advantaged populations, with a large sample size. Should we not start now, if this is a question worth discussing – it's worth exploring.
• godDLL 5y ago
  They would be useless at jobs. So they won't get hired. So they won't get untethered financially from their parents. They wouldn't be interesting people. So they wouldn't meet someone. So they won't have children. They vote. Whichever way the last 6 weeks of TwitTok told them to. I'm sorry, I seem to have something in the oven, brb