Young people are 'lost generation' who can no longer fix gadgets, warns professor

The Telegraph ^ | 28DEC14 | Sarah Knapton

[familyop]

Danielle George, Professor of Radio Frequency Engineering, at the University of Manchester, claims that the under 40s expect everything to ‘just work’ and have no idea what to do when things go wrong...This year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are entitled ‘Sparks will fly: How to hack your home’ she is hoping it will inspire people to think what else they can do with common household objects...Ideas include using a magnifying glass and shoe box to turn a mobile phone into a rudimentary projector; how to use tin foil to make too small batteries fit correctly and how to turn a bottle of water into a lamp.

[cork]

I learned to do a lot of things because I didn’t have the money to pay someone to do it. I also learned a lot from helping friends and family in the same situation. I now have a theory that is why should I pay someone to srcrew up what I can screw up perfectly well on my own. Most of my experiences with so called experts haven’t been very positive.

[5by5]

I just sent my daughter to college with a set of tools. She’s studying industrial design and loves to make stuff.

[mrsmith]

Yeah, forgot bicycles- an excellent learning device.
The big change for youngsters today is that electronic devices do not have discrete components but microprocessors and computers.
No tubes to take to the tester at the drugstore, no capacitors and resistors to check with a meter.

For my grandparents nearly everything was home-repairable, for Boomers most things were, for my grandchildren only some things are repairable. So I sympathize with someone today assuming ‘we have to replace it’, though I regret they are not assuming they “can do”.

[Smokin' Joe]

Travis, everyone knows one of the first ‘tools’ an attractive woman learns how to use is a guy who can fix things.

[SunkenCiv]

Repairs are often beyond the capability or the motivation of the manufacturer as well. The parts are too numerous and too small to be diagnosed economically, much less repaired. It’s not their ability to repair electronic junk that bothers me, it’s their inability to fix ANYTHING that does.

[Travis McGee]

That won’t help her if she breaks down in the desert or a ghetto.

[Smokin' Joe]

The vehicle that I drive is nearly 20 years old.

The 'baby' of the fleet is only 14...the oldest is 73. Things have become a mite more complicated over the years. I opened the hood on the '41 to show my nephew the original engine, and he said, "Where's the rest of it?".

Without hesitation I replied "It was 1941, there was a war on, so that was all you got." (I know, rotten, but I even kept a straight face.)

In all fairness, that kid can fix most anything with wheels or tracks.

[Popman]

There’s a minor epidemic of people calling emergency services because they’re locked in their cars and can’t get out.

I have a 2006 and 2012 vehicles, both have a movable door lock on the inside of the doors...

You are telling people have become so stupid they do not understand to open the door they simply move the lock to the open position and pull the handle...?

[nevergore]

My next door neighbor does what you do.... He was in the construction industry for years but was priced out by cheap illegal alien labor...
Now he does this full time and loves it!
Plus, he always has a backhoe if I need one :)

[ansel12]

My point is that something else has changed, everything didn’t become electronic, the electronics are extras, that we were not repairing as kids in the past, anyway.

Boys in the past had the energy and curiosity and drive to do many things, and they were not repairing their TVs, telephones, and movie projectors and cameras, and microwaves, and all the other new “electronics”, but they were building rafts, go carts, tree houses, forts, and repairing many of the same mechanical things that they are using today, they were robbing components and little engines and gears, to fulfill projects from their own imagination, parts that are even more readily available today inside of our throw away devices.

[moovova]

“If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.” Red Green

The words “hammer” and “duct/duck tape” were never used in that article.

Sad.

[tophat9000]

They can change their "gender"... but can't change a light bulb

[familyop]

"I'm a baby boomer and am the complete opposite. It has been my experience that age (young/old/middle) makes little difference in whether a person is mechanically inclined, so to speak."

That may be true, UCANSEE2. Here's the reason for my commonly stated assumption that more younger folks are more technically inclined. I live on the CO Rockies and am the only technically inclined Baby Boomer for many miles.

A few of the young people here are the only ones who show any desire to learn a technology or get their hands dirty (necessity), even though there are no vocational/technical schools for useful technologies (building houses, hot rods, machining, etc.). The community colleges only have programs in regulatory and social troublemaking. How many of us Baby Boomers have recently swapped or rebuilt a transmission or engine, done some welding or building construction?

Most of the people my age or older are employed by local government or retired with government or government-derived pensions (government-derived: e.g., government contractors). They spend their time indoors, manufacturing gossip to make trouble for others and most likely smoking pot.

The situation might look very different in some of the other parts of the country, where fewer Baby Boomers have good retirement prospects or where local governments don't listen so much to neighborhood NIMBYs (the "not in my back yard" folks).

But then look at the prospects for employment and income for many of the younger folks. Many more of them may soon be in situations where they'll repair and build or else.

[MV=PY]

"tapestry of obscenities"

LOL! I'm stealing that!

[dfwgator]

I stole it from A Christmas Story.

[Chickensoup]

It has been my experience that it is rarely the computer that fails. My car is computerized, yet I have replaced motor mount, battery, wheel bearings, brakes, air filter, oil filter, oil, various lights, tensioner pulley, fuses, fixed the window cranks, etc.

_____________

Other things break but a dead computer will put an otherwise good car out of commission.

[Chode]

yup...

[ansel12]

How many of us Baby Boomers have recently swapped or rebuilt a transmission or engine, done some welding or building construction?

Tons, masses of us.

[familyop]

"It has been my experience that it is rarely the computer that fails. My car is computerized, yet I have replaced motor mount, battery, wheel bearings, brakes, air filter, oil filter, oil, various lights, tensioner pulley, fuses, fixed the window cranks, etc."

True! I enjoy also counting and decoding the "check engine" light flashes to troubleshoot for electronic repairs. Very easy.

[mrsmith]

The dispiriting effect of the lack of opportunity is a definite cause IMO.

Not to deny many other factors such as the lack of fathers, the useless schools, exposure to the feminized product of the media...