An Open Letter to Teenagers

 My generation was indeed unlucky – You have told me this on multiple occasions.

I know you have your own reasons and I tend to agree.

My generation in the 80s had to wait for that song to come on Vividh-Bharti (AIR) or on DD-Chitrahaar. Not everyone could afford an audio player. You can now listen to a song of your choice at the click of a button on You Tube / Spotify. To listen to non-Hindi songs, we had to wait for Chitramaala.

The movies on TV (Doordarshan) were what the program executive decided. It could be Pyaasa or Yadoon Ki Baarat on a Sunday evening. Afternoons were reserved for non-Hindi movies. Without that I would not have had a chance to watch Son Moina (Assamese) or Jait Re Jait (Marathi) sitting in small town Kozhikode. From Cable TV to satellite, we have migrated to OTT platforms. Your generation is spoilt for choice- You could check the rating on IMDB and decide if it is worth your time to watch that movie/ web-series. We just watched Hum-Log, Buniyaad and Nukkad without reading any ratings.


And not to forget today’s generation gets everything at the click of a button- Let it be the cab, food, movie ticket all that is delivered at the doorstep or on their digital device. Our generation had to literally ‘struggle’ for everything ..right.

Well, but there is a big DIFFERENCE. My generation was getting INFORMATION in a filtered manner. Although our sources were limited, it was verified, vetted, and we were quite sure that it would have gone through some kind of scholarly research before it reached your hand. We reached out to others whom we considered experts in that field and sought their ‘opinion’ as we had no search engine or AI tools. Can I say that we were consuming better FILTERED INFORMATION?

 

In the information age today you have information at the click of a button.

BUT what you are receiving is UNFILTERED. And that is a big worry. What you are seeing as an insta reel or reading as an article or a message that you get on WhatsApp is all UNFILTERED. It may be true, it may be baseless, it may just be someone’s opinion or imagination that is churned out on a digital medium.

Let me give you some examples!

  • That bro who is posting reels saying that school subjects are useless, is making that Video after benefitting fully from the school subjects. You may not need trigonometry tomorrow, but it has helped you wire your brain to think mathematically and reason better in similar situations.
  • Anyone who is saying that your aim should be to be a millionaire by 30 is probably dreaming. Oh, yes. Some can become millionaire by 30 – I am not denying that fact. But that need not be a destination. There is nothing wrong with becoming a millionaire by 45. And by 45 you may not want to become a millionaire at all and you will be a learned person who will say “Money is not everything” – who knows. 
  •  Plethora of non-evaluated or unverified ‘information’ that is rolled out as Historical facts making someone a hero or a villain! is indeed problematic.
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Remember we all are living in a post-truth world and the capabilities that you will need are the following : 

ü  Is the info / message coming to you someone’s ‘Opinion’ or based on Facts.

ü  Can there be another viewpoint for this opinion? Can I understand this from someone else’s context?

ü  Who is the expert / mentor or sources that I must reach out (other than Google / ChatGPT) to validate this?

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Finally, before I sign-off,  to quote contemporary Historian Yuval Noah Harari these could be the skills that you will need in the 21st century. 


Collaboration : You will need the ability to collaborate and work with others who are not like you. Nothing can be achieved alone- Learn to work in a team of people who may disagree with your thoughts, ideas and opinion.

Creativity : No one will want borrowed wisdom. Read as much as you can, write your thoughts and ideas. Sharpen your thinking skills. Be original. Do not outsource your thinking to Chat-GPT. Trust your Natural Thinking skills.

Communication : This will never go out of fashion. Even if you must dissent and disagree, learn to do that politely.

Critical Thinking: This is going to be the toughest skill to acquire as we mostly take decisions based on our emotions, beliefs and biases. A critical thinker should have the capacities to distinguish Opinion Vs Fact; They do not jump to conclusions quickly. They make reliable judgements based on reliable information.

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Have a wonderful 2024 ahead..... And finally for adults reading this blog, be kind to Children !

If I may quote Socrates "Fellow citizens, why do you turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth, and, yet, take so little care of your own children, to whom one day you must relinquish all."


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Location: India

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