In any event, I have a different bone to pick:

Mindy Wiener says: We at Pool apologize to anyone who feels attacked by Kathleen’s comments. I know this was not her intent.

Are you commenting on the same article I’m reading? I don’t see attacks. I see social commentary aimed at understanding the newest generation entering the workforce.

In her statements:

Perhaps their absorption methods are different, the outcome of their upbringing.
Are those that will succeed in the business be like Danielle and Christy, or like these disaffected cynical entitled youths?
Yesterday’s event leaves me with the impression that we’re on the cusp, or maybe it’s a midway point of two diametrically opposed points. A teeter totter vacillating tightly, which way will it go?
how are they learning?
What are the mechanisms?
Anyone, anywhere would be jaded if you taught them in an inappropriate manner, inappropriate to their learning style.

Kathleen poses the questions of how the current generation is learning. She asks this as a concerned educator and professional. She wants to know how she needs to be prepared to handle a younger DE population that is culturally different – specifically in the way they acquire, absorb and process information (i.e. scanners v. processors). There may be some observations in her article which could benefit from additional citation. However, if her observations are similar to the experiences of some 23 other commenters, I can’t see how she’s far off the mark.

My perception is that she is using emotional devices to impel (impale?), compel, poke, prod and cajole the reader into action, which is the crux of the social commentary genre. Not only is she asking educators and employers to adjust their training and advancement strategies, but, she is also asking the incoming workforce to adjust its behaviors and expectations, too. In short, she is encouraging both parties to establish common ground.

Her observation – which I agree with – is that students of the “myth-information age” scan the contents of a screen or page and accept it as true without debate and without engaging conscious thought or due process. In effect, their learning process has been reduced to (or, reinforced to be) little more than a download of information. Perhaps it is my “old school” upbringing (wait! is 1988 really “old school”?) but, I cannot see any other way than for information to be digested, processed, practiced, criticized, validated and eventually accepted into the genetic code, if you will, of the worker – even data entry clerks. If the latest generation of worker expects to bypass mastery of the bench in order to lead it, I’m sorry to say that my company cannot (and, likely never will) support that expectation.

I’m going to caveat this by pointing out that I don’t have any research to back this up, and my observational scope is limited. Thus, there is probably much bias to it (and probably to many of the other comments on this Rorschach post).

If anything, I think there may be a failure to recognize appropriate authority among this latest generation. The classes are marketed by college-based consultants to high schools; no external material is introduced; the speed is dictated; the teachers are probably out of their area (especially in math & science); and nobody is allowed to judge the students. So the class is set to the pace of the dumbest guy there and mostly consist of free-for-all discussions in which everyone’s comments are equally valid. From this, they get the impression that you can be just as expert on literature after scanning My Darling, My Hamburger as any teacher is. After 12 or so years of that, just try and explain something to them - they believe that your years of experience and study are no more valid than their 12 seconds of reflection on the matter.

It’s a generation that has been taught that 5 minutes with Google is equivalent to 5 hours in a library, training videos are better than an apprenticeship, and that smarmy talk show hosts with good one-liners trump thoughtful scholars. No wonder teachers feel they have to entertain as much as educate. These kids are so hyperstimulated from watching TV while texting and from playing MMORPGs while making 3-way phone calls that they can’t bring focus to a single task for sustained periods of time. We have given them ADD.

But I seriously doubt that these problems are insurmountable or drastically different than those faced by earlier generations. Google can be useful. Sometimes journeymen are full of it and may teach bad habits. Smarmy talk show hosts occasionally knock scholars out of their ivory towers. Past generations are perhaps not cynical enough and carry lots of racist, jingoist, and culturalist baggage. Still, I worry that the “strong thumb generation” needs a reality check: “can be”, “sometimes”, and “occasionally” are different from “always”, everyone’s opinion is not equally valid, and — despite what your parents and teachers have been telling you for the past 18 years — you are not so friggin’ special that I should thank you for the opportunity to sit at the crosswalk while you saunter across the street at a pace that makes tectonic plate shift look NASCARian in comparison.

My husband and I are 35. I read to his 2 kids (7 and 10) almost every night that they’re here. Plus they have to read in school and both will read stuff on their own (the younger one loves the Digimon books, but hey, at least he’s reading something). I do find it not very cool that my husband almost always wants to watch movies when his kids are here and lets them play computer games for hours. Well, summer vacation is almost here, so ha ha!
When my sister was in her teens (she’s 12 years younger), she would often sit in the back of the van we had (I drove) and put her headphones on. I found it annoying that she wouldn’t talk to the rest of us or listen to the same music (which she usually liked).

I was in school for apparel design, my 2nd degree, from the ages of 29 to 32. Most–but not all!–of my fellow students were the “college age” of 18 to 22. They all displayed the previously mentioned characteristics of Gen-Y; however, not all the time and not all of them displayed every one or the same ones. Sometimes it was annoying. The rest of the time it was ok. We all had to read.

I love reading, but I think somewhat more important, or at least on equal footing, is that parents of these 20’s and younger people need to teach them to be respectful. I look like I’m in my 20’s and sometimes I feel people don’t want to take me seriously. Also, I see kids pushing past people instead of saying “Excuse me” or not giving up their bus seat to an old person and other stuff like that. Just because your parents were strict with you doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t discipline your kids (both + and - ) and teach them some manners.

GREAT post!!!

I am in the Gen-X era (which is really not too distant from Gen-Y) and I blame my own generation (just a little) for “creating” the current generation. It was Gen-X who grew up with the first Atari and played video games for hours on end. It was Gen-X who saw and applauded the transition from brick phones (remember those?) to cell phones. And it was Gen-X who always craved a quicker, faster computer processor. Instant gratification began in my generation and has never waned.

I grew up immersed in some book or other reading material and can not imagine absorbing information any other way. I never embraced audio books because I am not an auditory learner. Podcasts may work for some, but never for me. I have found over the years that I am a visual learner and need to see it in black and white/color before it will make a bit a sense to me. I agree with a previous poster who stated that maybe those who were in attendance were making note of the book and planning on purchasing it from you later. However, you can’t deny that there may be a few who cannot learn from reading a book. It MAY be helpful to offer your book in an ADDITIONAL format (e.g. Podcast, E-Book, Audio, etc.) for those who have difficulty staying focused with a book in their hands.

LOVE your blog and your no-nonsense posts. Keep it coming!!!

Reading - we still read, just in different ways. The internet is a huge factor here (cool book alert: check out Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times for a collection of essays on how the net has changed publishing). There’s definitely still a market for useful/interesting books though - both as a source of knowledge and as a tangible piece of literature.

Entitlement/Obnoxiousness - yes, it’s there, but I know tons of people around my age who’ve started nonprofits, are active in the political and volunteer communities, and really care about the world and how they can make a positive impact. We’re not all instant grafitication junkies, but everything does move at a much faster pace nowadays (mostly thanks to the net, I believe) and everyone needs to keep up.

Granted, I can’t speak for everyone, but parents could be to blame for the some of the sense of entitlement of my generation. Personally, I’ve had at least a part-time job since I was old enough to work and have managed to support myself since I’ve graduated from college (and as a writer, no less - clearly somebody’s reading something*). My parents taught me to work hard for what I want and I thank them for it.

I second all the people who commented about my generation’s lack of caring about ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. Yay for us.

Thanks for making such a thought provoking post, Kathleen!

*Fashion is just one of the many topics I write about (web media and how it’s changing virtually every industry is another favorite topic - technically I also do web media consulting, but it’s really just writing by another name). That said, your site is one of my favorite examples of quality writing/blogging content on the internet.

I found this website, because I was searching for a book and found Kathleen’s book. I read it cover to cover the first weekend I had it. I like books especially Kathleens book, because I make notes in margins, mark pages, highlight items and ask myself questions about the material and how it applies to our business while reading and I just can’t get that level of interaction while listening to Podcasts.

I would love to find more reading material; a scan of the forums lead me to the “Designer’s Guide” which I purchased over a week ago and would have read by now but I haven’t received the book yet.

We don’t have a sense of entitlement to be sure, I’m more worried about being taken seriously, and the only way I see that happening is through educating ourselves on the industry and the proper way to do things. This website has already become and invaluable resource. Thank you for everything so far Kathleen.

BTW - Thanks to Kevin for the “Harrison Bergeron” (Kurt Vonnegut) reference. I read that when I was in High School being a beyond avid reader until I changed my career to go in Fashion. I appreciated the reminder it gave me a flash of inspiration.

Another BTW - I read somewhere that visually artistic people do not process their creativity with words. I noticed when I started making more visual objects I stopped reading as much. Now I never read for recreation, I only read in the summers when I have time and those are technical books to catch up on. When I was young, reading was a huge escape for me and now that I love what I do, I never have time to read “stories”. So maybe that has something to do with it all.

Thanks again to everyone!