Do you handle change well? How much change has our current generations REALLY been exposed to?

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

Do you handle change well? How much change has our current generations REALLY been exposed to?

Am I wrong about the amounts of rapidly emerging changes these days being much more than folks experienced in days gone by? It sure can feel that way.

I confess I have been one (in my near 70yrs) to never look at change in the right ways at first. Yet many times , after the change has been around, then once a bit more info about it is available, I usually come around to acceptance of changes.

I arrived at a conclusion about changes a while back and I really think I am not only on to something, I think I am dead right about this.

I truly believe the generations alive for the past 50-60 years have been exposed to and are experiencing far far many times over , the amounts of change that some past generations lived thru. I am not forgetting the Industrial Revolution era that may likely have been close to what is going on today. Just different.
Industrial Revolution brought about so much "daily living" improvements and all sorts of things that ushered in this modern world. Those changes though seemed far and wide. Changes that were beneficial to so many people and things across the globe.

Today while there is so much advancements in science and medicine etc.... on the outside looking in it appears the main thing , the greatest volumes of change is thru consumer products that make us less intelligent. Just look around and it looks like the general public has been reformed into walking robots. Humans with very little and decreasing daily amounts of contact/interactions in person with others. Why? Is it because we are all too tied up with our faces and heads stuck in computers, television, so called smart phones, video games and on and on......

At the same time it feels like we are not only living thru lots of changes, they seem to be developed so much more rapidly than in the past with the goal of being presented to the public ASAP, regardless how they affect anything else in many cases. The current younger generations seem to be very talented and devoted to finding uses for and then dropping so many traditional things just as fast as one would drop a hand of hot rocks.... Unfortunately it appears in many cases either the cart got put before the horse or the change was not looked at with enough details to see what effects it will have down the road.

So it appears that these days folks care more about any new changes ASAP and forget the consequences as long as changes are compatible with my new amazing . wonderful, powerful smart phones and any of the other new devices that keep coming out each day that eerily look like they are sucking the brains and drive out of so many young, old and even in between ages.

Now, am I really very wrong about the amounts of rapidly emerging changes these days being so much more than folks experienced in days gone by?

It truly feels that way to me very often as of late. Especially when the wife , who has been teaching pre school and first grade for 30+ years tells me about all of the new stuff each and every year these young students must be exposed to and expected to learn. Plus they are expected to learn it all ASAP. Since there seems to be less and less rest , recesses , play time or simple relaxation for those very young kids now a days due to the amount of things the teachers must cover daily.

 

[walterjay]

I agree with your post. We have been subject to rapid change, especially since the digital age arrived.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

IMO those born around the beginning of the last century experienced the greatest change. Imagine going from horse/buggy without indoor plumbing and electricity to cars, planes, landing on the moon, computers, calculators, plastics, grocery stores with huge selections, refrigeration, air conditioning, solar panels, vaccines, nuclear power, etc.

 

[Pablo]

I can change pretty well.

But the internet has definitely made me a less patient person. I think kids now, people now, maybe since TV want instant gratification and free wealth, free junk, free stuff with no effort at all.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Change is the only constant. The rate of change is always accelerating. In the past 50 years, computers changed our live in so many ways.

AI is a strategic point of inflection. I know there are many who think otherwise.
I've learned to embrace change. It's funny; I developed valuable business database and analytics skills that were very rewarding over a relatively short period of time. Now many of those skills have been rendered obsolete. Rapid change is a double edged sword.

Winners and losers. Change and Capitalism go hand in hand.

 

[Pablo]

Change is the only constant. The rate of change is always accelerating. In the past 50 years, computers changed our live in so many ways.

AI is a strategic point of inflection. I know there are many who think otherwise.

AI = faster and smarter computers. There is no inflection point. The same thing continues. Different name.

 

[ripcord]

People today are not only exposed to massive changes, we are addicted to it from the moment we are first plopped in front of a screen. To understand what I'm talking about, go turn on a kid's program and count the number of times the shot cuts to a new angle or subject in a minute. It's about once every couple of seconds. Over time this causes neurological changes in the brain and increases the amount of stimulation required to maintain a state of satiation.

As a species, we are turning ourselves into digital zombies. Everytime I see a little kid sitting in a shopping cart with his nose glued to his Mom's birthing person's phone I cringe.

 

[supton]

I don't think I adapt well--small change, maybe, but not big ones. Maybe in cases where "everything" changes I can deal with it better,

Otherwise yes, I do think this century has met a tipping point where things are changing faster than many can keep up. Pure subjective of course; I know I heard my elders complain about change in the '80's and 90's. But I think that change was still relatively slow last century, with big changes taking 20+ years to roll in--so each generation could easily master and manage.

But now? Ever accelerating. With no sign of slowing down.

To some degree I'm refusing to learn some things... because I know that, if I wait long enough, that "new thing" will become old and will get surpassed.

 

[JeffKeryk]

AI = faster and smarter computers. There is no inflection point. The same thing continues. Different name.

Pablo, I see your point, but I don't think it refers to my point. Computers have certainly increased the rate of change.

A strategic inflection point is a critical turning point for business when its fundamental assumptions, operations, or competitive landscape are about to change significantly, requiring a substantial shift in strategy and operations to survive and succeed.

 

[wemay]

Perception vs perspective. Every generation can site difficulties and challenges of their condition. Living in that reality is the only way to understand the struggles. Birdseye views (typically judgmental) cannot truly grasp ground level experiences. The "birds" are typically the older generation passing judgment as human nature does.

 

[IndyIan]

Do you handle change well? How much change has our current generations REALLY been exposed to?

Am I wrong about the amounts of rapidly emerging changes these days being much more than folks experienced in days gone by? It sure can feel that way.

I confess I have been one (in my near 70yrs) to never look at change in the right ways at first. Yet many times , after the change has been around, then once a bit more info about it is available, I usually come around to acceptance of changes.

I arrived at a conclusion about changes a while back and I really think I am not only on to something, I think I am dead right about this.

I truly believe the generations alive for the past 50-60 years have been exposed to and are experiencing far far many times over , the amounts of change that some past generations lived thru. I am not forgetting the Industrial Revolution era that may likely have been close to what is going on today. Just different.
Industrial Revolution brought about so much "daily living" improvements and all sorts of things that ushered in this modern world. Those changes though seemed far and wide. Changes that were beneficial to so many people and things across the globe.

Today while there is so much advancements in science and medicine etc.... on the outside looking in it appears the main thing , the greatest volumes of change is thru consumer products that make us less intelligent. Just look around and it looks like the general public has been reformed into walking robots. Humans with very little and decreasing daily amounts of contact/interactions in person with others. Why? Is it because we are all too tied up with our faces and heads stuck in computers, television, so called smart phones, video games and on and on......

At the same time it feels like we are not only living thru lots of changes, they seem to be developed so much more rapidly than in the past with the goal of being presented to the public ASAP, regardless how they affect anything else in many cases. The current younger generations seem to be very talented and devoted to finding uses for and then dropping so many traditional things just as fast as one would drop a hand of hot rocks.... Unfortunately it appears in many cases either the cart got put before the horse or the change was not looked at with enough details to see what effects it will have down the road.

So it appears that these days folks care more about any new changes ASAP and forget the consequences as long as changes are compatible with my new amazing . wonderful, powerful smart phones and any of the other new devices that keep coming out each day that eerily look like they are sucking the brains and drive out of so many young, old and even in between ages.

Now, am I really very wrong about the amounts of rapidly emerging changes these days being so much more than folks experienced in days gone by?

It truly feels that way to me very often as of late. Especially when the wife , who has been teaching pre school and first grade for 30+ years tells me about all of the new stuff each and every year these young students must be exposed to and expected to learn. Plus they are expected to learn it all ASAP. Since there seems to be less and less rest , recesses , play time or simple relaxation for those very young kids now a days due to the amount of things the teachers must cover daily.

I guess there's technological change and its effects on societal change? Customized media per person is a big change too.
But I think the loss of value for evidence based decision making is a big change in the last 10-15 years? And I think from that, we'll run into all sort of difficulty as a society, in dealing with the big problems.
Your example of kids getting less recess/gym, quiet interaction time, in grade one. Does your wife thinks its a good idea? No. Principal? Nope. Superintendent? not likely. People who study early childhood education? Not them either.
So why do we have policies like this, as everyone with educational experience and expertise thinks its not a good idea?

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

 

[Vercingetorix]

Mankind is born, maybe procreates and dies. It’s been the same since the beginning of time. The big things haven’t changed one bit.

 

[Chris142]

IMO those born around the beginning of the last century experienced the greatest change. Imagine going from horse/buggy without indoor plumbing and electricity to cars, planes, landing on the moon, computers, calculators, plastics, grocery stores with huge selections, refrigeration, air conditioning, solar panels, vaccines, nuclear power, etc.

My great grandfather was born in 1870 and died in 1955.

I hate change and have a tough time adapting to it. Prolly the reason I have lived in the same house 50+ years

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

I guess there's technological change and its effects on societal change? Customized media per person is a big change too.
But I think the loss of value for evidence based decision making is a big change in the last 10-15 years? And I think from that, we'll run into all sort of difficulty as a society, in dealing with the big problems.
Your example of kids getting less recess/gym, quiet interaction time, in grade one. Does your wife thinks its a good idea? No. Principal? Nope. Superintendent? not likely. People who study early childhood education? Not them either.
So why do we have policies like this, as everyone with educational experience and expertise thinks its not a good idea?

You made me realize another change that is really not helpful to many.
For some reason..... It appears that quite often these days, society will know in a certain instance , wrong vs right and yet out of laziness? fear? being too busy or concerned about anything else? or some other simple reason, we surrender, wave our hands up and allow the wrong to be implemented. Thing is , I think many more of us are guilty of that than are not.

Have we become a real lazy society? I think there is a good chance... we have been leaning that way for a while.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

IMO those born around the beginning of the last century experienced the greatest change. Imagine going from horse/buggy without indoor plumbing and electricity to cars, planes, landing on the moon, computers, calculators, plastics, grocery stores with huge selections, refrigeration, air conditioning, solar panels, vaccines, nuclear power, etc.

I must agree with you.

All, amazing and great changes that were in fact popping up at a wildly rapid pace back in those days. Must have been exciting times.
Even though I considered those times & feel your way now, there is still so much to deal with, learn, avoid and even embrace at times these days. I think you are right and maybe my focused on era , the present day may be a close second? Regardless , its a lot on folks.

I was really thinking very much about many of the things you mention while kind of separating all those great changes from my view of the U.S.A. Industrial/Manufacturing Revolution. I was thinking of all those things as happening in a different time frame. Yet I have read since your post that many consider things you mentioned were developed in what became a kind of end to a very long running USA / IR. Much longer than I certainly ever realized. Those gains, innovations and changes that were constantly being developed , almost daily around the end of the 1800s to the early 1900s certainly changed that current world and beyond. We still benefit from many to this day.

For some reason I always thought of the Industrial Revolution in the North American region of the world was most important and active from about 1860s (many innovations were developed and invented just in time and for the American Civil War) thru about the 1920s. I thought the USA/I.R. was considered to be over some several years before the turn to the 20th century. I am WRONG.

I am surprised that the internet considers the United States Industrial Revolution to have covered a greatly longer period of time than I ever thought. According to some sites that discuss the USA / Industrial Revolution , they in fact call it from as early as the 1700s thru the early 1900s. Not at all the way I always thought of it.

 

[CKN]

Funny question to ask on this forum. You have guys who state their preferences for more of the "old stuff" than the new stuff all the time. My wife and I married in the early 80's-computers were just becoming the norm. Because we both worked in Industries that were beginning to embrace it (hers-medical billing, mine the print industry) we had no choice to but to "get with the program". She purchase an Apple 2E-green screen and floppy disks.

Many new things make life so much easier. And because I don't drink the Kool Aid on here-modern auto mobiles are better than they have ever been. When I was growing up it was not uncommon to see a few broken down on the side of the road. Now-it's unheard of and is it happens you have probably ignored some early warning signs!

 

[rstcso]

Do you handle change well? How much change has our current generations REALLY been exposed to?

By the thread title, I thought this was going to be about money and how people can't calculate change.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

AI = faster and smarter computers. There is no inflection point. The same thing continues. Different name.

Little more than a better spy tool in my mind.

 

[eljefino]

When I was a teenager I wanted a TV and stereo in my room and achieving this with a newspaper route (hah! Dying industry) meant I had to buy used and know people-- the people on my paper route setting up for a yard sale. And the stereo was this cobbled together mess with nothing matching. We all shared an Apple ][ computer until Dad decided its twelve years of service finally made it obsolete enough for a PC.

Now we're in a post-scarcity situation with consumer electronics-- anyone can get anything they want/need for pennies. We've solved communications and internet-- my $20/month Visible phone service has unlimited everything and I can hotspot a computer too. Boomers are finally retiring so career options are plentiful and pay pretty well.

But houses and higher education are stupidly expensive and the existential threats we've always had are just a litte bit more depressing than they were back in the go-go 1990s. And the cars I figured out how to fix have all rusted out so we could proceed to "Malaise era 2.0".