Thanks to the wonderful research partnership that MIT C3 has with MTV Networks, we get access to a quarterly research publication that MTVN publishes. It’s called “MTV Sticky – International Youth Trend Feed”. The latest issue compiles insights from regular people across the social spectrum (i.e. teachers, shop assistants, etc) who frequently interact with youths.
This quote caught my attention:
The dentist told us that she has witnessed a surge in cases of Bruxia amongst youth (teeth ground down by clenched jaws — brought on by stress.) Whilst the teacher told us they run classes teaching kids how to cope with stress.
The prostitute told us she has experienced a trend towards more requests for group sex as young generation of males attempt to live out their internet-fuelled fantasies.
The college lecturer is astonished by how well his students work on group projects these days — thanks to their awesome digital communication skills — a task that usually flummoxed past generations.
Predictably we had a lot of comments about kids’ declining levels of discipline. And whilst everyone over 30-years-old has moaned about this for the past 2000 years, things do seem to have taken a dramatic downward turn — did you have a resident police officer at your school? Or a squad car parked outside at the end of each school day?
It’s funny… most people will read this and think, “the world today is more dangerous, more stressful, and more depraved than ever before.” I read it and think, “we’re learning to collaborate more effectively… that’s probably one of the most important developments in the history of our species.”
Good time to be alive, IMO. Of course, this is partly why I’m so excited about online gaming and user-generated content.
