Technological advancements often lead to societal shifts, but sometimes we lose sight of valuable skills in the process. A user asked the forum, What important life skill(s) has society lost? Here are the common responses.
PATIENCE
With advanced technology, people want everything to be accurate and fast. And nowadays, they can’t handle anything going wrong.
“The ability to be patient. With everything having maximized efficiency, people have become too reliant on convenience and can’t handle when something goes wrong.”
RESILIENCE
We all wanted to be successful at everything we tried at the first attempt. But nothing comes that easy, and people nowadays tend to give up easily.
“Resilience is just about gone.”
CORDIAL NATURE
It is not fair to treat someone harshly when they are polite. There is no point in disrespecting people when they are behaving well.
“Being cordial. Yes, I understand some people don’t deserve respect, but for god sake, why be a jerk to someone who’s being nothing but nice to you?”
MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS AND FRIENDSHIPS
With many distractions and choices, people started to maintain distance from friends and other relationships.
“Keeping friendships and relationships.”
“I was at my great aunt’s yesterday, and she was talking about the huge gatherings they used to have (100 people for birthdays, 300 for company events), and I thought about all the people her generation had spoken about – they had so many close friends and acquaintances that they would constantly communicate with. And what do we have now? I have five friends and my parents, the same for my husband. Everybody else has become so distant we only occasionally meet through other people.
There used to be communities; people had so much social support. We have become so individualistic and distant from Everybody. Is it because we have so much choice in who we interact with? That we can get everything we want, so we don’t feel the need for a community that would support us? Is there so much going on these days that we are tired of it all and just want to be left alone?”
SEWING
“Sewing.”
“It’s kinda funny that a lot of “tough guys” (and women) consider a man who sews to be something to laugh at. Sewing is useful.
Throughout history, sewing has been considered an essential skill that soldiers must learn. Nick Offerman happily boasts about being an excellent seamster. It’s such an odd skill to “gender.”
READING A MAP
“How to read a map.”
CRITICAL THINKING
“Critical thinking. The decline in this is, in my opinion, the primary reason we’ve descended into arguing about things that don’t matter instead of discussing things that actually need to be discussed to run a country. And I’m not even a Yank; it’s a global problem.”
EMPATHY
“Empathy. It’s becoming harder and harder to find the “helpers” that Mr. Rogers’s mom told him about.”
BEING IDLE
“Being able to just exist without constant stimulation. People cannot be idle in their heads for even half a second without pulling out the nightmare rectangle. It’s super sad.”
“Most people are just not comfortable in their heads, according to a new psychological investigation by the University of Virginia.
The investigation found that most would rather be doing something — possibly even hurting themselves — than doing nothing or sitting alone with their thoughts, said the researchers, whose findings will be published on July 4 in Science.
In a series of 11 studies, U.Va. psychologist Timothy Wilson and colleagues at U.Va. and Harvard University found that study participants from a range of ages generally did not enjoy spending even brief periods alone in a room with nothing to do but think, ponder, or daydream. The participants, by and large, enjoyed much more doing external activities such as listening to music or using a smartphone. Some even preferred to give themselves mild electric shocks than to think.”
COMPASSION
“Compassion. People treat it as a weakness and use it against you until you learn to hide it. Which becomes bottle it, which then becomes far more dangerous.”
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This article was originally published on Mrs. Daaku Studio.