Last week, I had a nice long drive to North Central Ohio and back. I traded in John, Paul, George and Ringo for the 1980's channel on my XM Satellite Radio. Driving across I-80 (coincidence?), I soon realized that I know the words to every corny, crappy song ever made in the 1980's. How is this possible? When Billy Ocean's, "Get Out of My Dreams, Get Into My Car," came on and I knew every word, the answer was clear. I spent way too much time as a kid watching MTV.
Seriously, if anyone would have asked me about any of the artists or songs from the 1980's, I would have been clueless. Yet, as soon as the sounds of those snappy beats and funky keyboards began to reverberate off the interior walls of my truck, each and every note, chord, word, AND video image came back to me. I can remember the frame by frame images of Europe's, "The Final Countdown," video more clearly than my son's first time on a bike or my daughter's first softball hit. Think about how scary that is!
Let's think about what this has to do with Career Development. Imagine if I, and the millions of other 30-somethings who spent 1000's of hours watching MTV, would have spent that time studying physics or literature or anything else. At a minimum, more of us would vote in the next Presidential Election than for the next American Idol. Don't get me wrong. I was a pretty well-rounded kid having played ball, picked at a guitar and read the occasional book. But I don't think I studied anything as much as I studied MTV videos. No wonder my generation in probably the least informed generation in the history of the USA. With the advent of Facebook, YouTube, Gaming and the myriad of other social media, one has to wonder what our next generation will be like.
My generation and the next should be among the world's most educated and well-informed group of Americans. iPads, WiFi, Cable TV, etc. give us all access to more information than the public library could ever possibly make available. What do we all use it for? I have a very bright...possibly brilliant...teenager who does not know John Wayne or Isaac Newton or even Marilyn Monroe. For goodness sakes! I thought it was a prerequisite for a teenage boy to stumble across Marilyn Monroe photos someplace! All of this really makes one wonder what we are all doing with the instant access to information that technology has afforded us. Is technology just distracting us from what is really going on? Our center was full of job seekers this week who keep telling me that 'nobody' is hiring. Yet, I got out of my dream and into my car, drove around and counted over 100 help wanted signs within a ten miles radius of our career center.
No comments:
Post a Comment