Life skills in the 21st Century

[EgonSpengler]

I have a colleague whose grasp of what seems like basic technology is poor, to be kind. They can barely use email or the photocopier/printer. Both of which they've been using everyday, as part of their job, for 25 years. They've just refused to learn even the basics. The other day, I had to show them how to change the name of a Word file.

Anyway, it got me to thinking about "life skills." As a kid, where I grew up, if you couldn't swim and ride a bicycle, you were behind the curve. As a teenager, we were expected to learn how to balance a checkbook and drive a stick, neither of which I ever became very proficient at, and would struggle to do at all today. Basic auto maintenance is more challenging than it used to be, and perhaps is no longer considered a mandatory skill if you own a car. I'm one of two people in my office who knows how to type, and I'm not sure that's a required skill anymore, even for people who work in an office. When I was in elementary school, we were taught handwriting, but my handwriting sucks now because I do it so infrequently.

If I had kids, swimming and riding a bike would be taught early. I'd be thinking about how to teach them to use the internet both responsibly and safely. Also how to understand the news. Basic financial skills; I wasn't taught [crap] about that stuff, when I was a kid. Basic computer skills. I don't know if driving is even crucial anymore, nevermind driving a standard, but I'd say my atrophied driving skills qualify as a life skills deficit now. Depends where you live, I guess, but the traffic around here is nasty, and God help you if you're a new driver, or from a place where drivers are polite and the streets aren't clogged. I literally almost got killed by a guy with California plates a few weeks ago, and I thought, "that dude probably just shouldn't be driving on the East Coast."

What would you say are necessary life skills today? For a kid, or for an adult, if they're different.

 

[CurtSibling]

Modern life skills in today's world:

1) Texting ten people with two mobile phones simultaneously.
2) Memorising every one of your internet-diagnosed mental states and tulpas.
3) Being able to accuse everyone of being literal nazis in any situation.

Moderator Action: Stop trolling, please. --LM

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

....it didn't take long to drag politics in, did it?

 

[Lexicus]

I'm pretty sure you have to clock at least 200 hours in Minecraft before earning the basic Gen-Z membership package but I could be wrong

 

[CurtSibling]

....it didn't take long to drag politics in, did it?

It was either that or cats.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I'm pretty sure you have to clock at least 200 hours in Minecraft before earning the basic Gen-Z membership package but I could be wrong

 

[BenitoChavez]

Being able to differentiate between valid emails, phone calls, videos, etc. and those that are fake, bots, scammers, etc. I'm sure those things happened "back in the day" but it seems so much more prevalent in the last few years.

 

[AdamCrock]

Being able to live without mobile phone for longer than 15 minutes is a useful skill to have if You want to survive !

 

[Lexicus]

Ability to use a map to navigate without your phone literally telling you where to go

 

[EgonSpengler]

Being able to differentiate between valid emails, phone calls, videos, etc. and those that are fake, bots, scammers, etc. I'm sure those things happened "back in the day" but it seems so much more prevalent in the last few years.

No joke. A friend-of-a-friend lost her job after falling for a scam that cost her company $25k.

Ability to use a map to navigate without your phone literally telling you where to go

A few years ago, I read that the US Navy had restarted teaching its officers good ol' fashioned celestial navigation, after not teaching it (or at least, not requiring it) for a while. I guess they assume that if/when the fit hits the shan, one of the first things that'll happen is a disruption or destruction of the GPS satellites. How much does an aircraft carrier weigh? And what happens if one of them strays into too-shallow water? Nothing good, I'm sure.

 

[dusters]

Being able to converse in silence for hours about philosophy with zero alcohol or drugs involved - that's a skill to cultivate while 1970s and 1980s had house parties which had this often

 

[Truthy]

Being able to differentiate between valid emails, phone calls, videos, etc. and those that are fake, bots, scammers, etc. I'm sure those things happened "back in the day" but it seems so much more prevalent in the last few years.

I got this email a few weeks ago:

Spoiler :

Funny but obvious phishing attempt, but I can see a lot of people falling for it. My 21st century life skills saved me $699 in precious bitcoins

 

[Lexicus]

My work computer network got compromised by ransomware at the end of the summer and our IT staff's lack of 21st century life skills led me to get like two weeks of free vacation

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Funny but obvious phishing attempt, but I can see a lot of people falling for it. My 21st century life skills saved me $699 in precious bitcoins

I got that too, except mine had one of my old passwords (got from one of those database leaks). It's especially funny because I don't have a webcam (and I don't visit naughty websites).

 

[Truthy]

(and I don't visit naughty websites).

In my case the opposite was a giveaway... it wouldn't have taken them 10 months

But lots of other things. E.g., it just says "device" (which one?), provides no proof, is super generic in general, why is he telling me his name?, could check it was spoofing my email address with gmail, etc

 

[Lexicus]

But lots of other things. E.g., it just says "device" (which one?), provides no proof, is super generic in general, why is he telling me his name?, etc

I'm pretty sure those scams work on the same principles as bulk mailers. They send out 100,000 of them and even if the success rate is 1 in 10,000 that's $6,990.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I occasionally get a spam email where the mail-merge failed.

 

[civvver]

I think the most important skill is self teaching/learning. Even with a great technical education technology and life moves so fast it's impossible to keep up from traditional training and school. You need to be able to teach yourself the new skills to stay relevant in your field or fall behind.

Other than that everything is so specialized and automated you don't need to know how to do much. Guys a generation before me all know how to change a car's oil. I don't. Two reasons, one I can look it up online if I really need to do it, and two, it's cheaper to just pay someone. I think it's around $25 to pay someone, to buy the materials myself is around $15 plus an hour of my time. Not worth it.

I used to think hey everyone should know how to cook some basic foods, but now you can literally order almost any food you want delivered from your phone.

I used to think you should know how to drive but now there's uber.

I used to think you should know how to talk to people and communicate effectively in person but now you could be a shut in and do all your work remotely over email and probably still be quite successful if you do good work.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I'm pretty sure you have to clock at least 200 hours in Minecraft before earning the basic Gen-Z membership package but I could be wrong

I hear they're rolling out an alternative training track to keep with the times. Something about a Fortnite.

 

[Truthy]

I'm pretty sure those scams work on the same principles as bulk mailers. They send out 100,000 of them and even if the success rate is 1 in 10,000 that's $6,990.

Yeah, just numbers games so they have to be generic