Velocity. Our world spins with great velocity. It keeps getting faster, and faster, and faster. Actually the word velocity doesn’t even begin to explain the rhythm of our lives. I can’t find the right world. I can’t find the word that depicts the frenetic accumulation of information, and the constant change, which surrounds us. I feel that we are living in a rhythm similar to the speed of light.
I received an article today, written by Lilly Fonseca, which truly pinpoints the situation in which we are living.
Through a research study, Nielsen found that the average time of a website visitor is 56 seconds. http://updateordie.com/updates/geral/2009/05/voce-tem-apenas-56-segundos.
The fragmentation of attention spans keeps increasing.
This video also gives us an idea of the exponential times in which we live, and its consequences. This isn’t a new film, but several old versions have been “revamped” over the past three years. This keeps the information, freshly up to date and full of impact. Several countries have given out their information, and this allows them to compare their own country’s reality, to the original video.
In this “Brave New World,” unimagined by Aldous Huxley, there are infinite possibilities.
This question constantly pops into my mind:
“How will we generate all this knowledge if we are constantly faced with the need to stay up to date?” If we spend 56 seconds on each website, how will we generate any knowledge?
We went through a phase knows as the “Era of Knowledge.” Perhaps we are entering the “Era of Information?” Although this film shows us that Generation Y uploads enormous quantities of information, I question if we can really consider this “information.”
Knowledge comes from information. But knowledge only happens if there is a capacity to compile the right information and if there is extensive reflection, thus creating new concepts and innovation.
Does Generation Y have the capacity to filter relevant information, separating it from everything else which floats in this vast sea of content, lingering between new mediums and formats? Do they have the capacity to turn this information into knowledge?
People tell me that this generation doesn’t have the same level of concentration as Baby Boomers. It’s true that young people’s attention spans are disperse. We know that young people watch television on their computer with the Internet in the background. We also know that gadgets play their music, and simultaneously beep with text messages and phone calls. Considering this, will Generation Y be able to dig through information in a deep and profound manner? Will they be able to find the right information and content while constantly being bombarded by the ideas, concepts, and advertisements, which follow them through their accelerated life, the life in which they already have various “avatars” (personas) to keep up with?
If we can’t generate knowledge, my vision tells me that the world will lose a lot. I could be wrong, perhaps this is the natural way of things. Perhaps it’s natural for only a few people to be able to fulfill the role of scientists, educators, legislators, creators, etc.
We’ve raised our kids, preparing them for these exponential times. They’ve acquired languages, and been through prestigious courses and schools, which pride themselves on their modern education.
Like true “helicopter parents” http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/08/13/helicopter.parents/index.html, we wanted to make sure that our kids would have solid values, be well traveled citizens of the world, and be open to the new. I ask myself, in a society of information, will other skills be necessary to deal with the “new world?”
The article “What companies should know about Digital Natives“, by Dr. Urs Gasser, a scholar on Generations, from the Berkman Center at Harvard, claims that in about 20 years, Generation Y’s kids, will have spent 20,000 hours online. 20,000 hours is about the time a professional pianist spends to complete his musical studies. Dr. Gasser also confirms the idea that young people, read the “headlines,” but don’t end up dedicating themselves to the entirety of an article or text.
I’ve seen parents get called into schools, because their kids, in their schoolwork, “copy and paste,” information which should be reflected on, thought out, and linked to theoretical frameworks. The same theories that we, as kids, used to have to prove! Who remembers that? Today, it’s nonexistent.
Don’t even get me started on the Portuguese Language! This is the generation who abbreviates words, uses acronyms, and doesn’t care (as we, Bay Boomers cared), if they are simplifying a rich and beautiful language, with a poor vocabulary. Even the sound of words becomes banal and generic. Also, we haven’t yet begun to worry about how spelling will change and evolve, to fit within the “140 characters.”
Will the new generation, the 140 characters generation, start expressing themselves in “140 characters” just like on Twitter? Their sentences short and their thoughts fragmented? Isn’t generation Y a bit concerned?
How can we predict this future? How can we reverse it? How, and in what way? I don’t think that the Baby Boomers have completed their mission. I think that there needs to be reflection and discussion, between generations.
Together, different generations, can walk together, tackling these questions as a team, perhaps even changing the “music” that’s currently playing in our background.
