A Generation Unaware

So I came to a realization today of something about society and people that has been brooding my subconscious for some time.  I was studying in what is known as the "HUB" at my school, I was slightly away from one of the wall plugs at the table I was at so I was forced to stretch my power cord for my laptop a bit on the floor to reach it.  About every 5 minutes someone would walk down the row between the study tables and trip over my cord.  So I experimented a little, every other person I would go a little out of my way to get their attention subtly and alert them to the cord, the ones in between those people I would do nothing.  Out of the 10 people that I didn't try to alert only 1 noticed the cord on their own and didn't trip.  Now I know this is a very small sample size, but I think it proves an important point.  People are largely unaware of what is going on around them, in both a physical and intellectual sense.

We are a generation who walks down the street with headphones on listening to music and talking or texting on cell phones.  Many people don't even watch the news and are ignorant to major issues simply because they aren't immediately affected by them.  Very few people go out of their way to observe, analyze, and question all the things that are going on around them, no matter how big or small.

Most people on the other hand I notice to be increasingly unaware of the situations developing around them.  Some might consider it to be a lack of consideration to others around them, a self centered looking out for number one attitude.  This might be the case in some situations, but I simply think that this generation hasn't properly adopted a strong observational skill sets.  I mean think about it, in this day and age there are so many different technologies that make it so we don't have to apply elementary observation skills, and can essentially run on auto pilot most of the time.

I'm a huge fan of war philosophy, particularly Robert Greene and Sun Tzu, mainly because the ideas and philosophies can be adapted to many different situations.  One thing that is always stressed is strategists need to sit back and see the big picture, taking in everything that is going on around them, and then be able to interpret it rationally and logically.

The biggest example of such is being able to read situations.  You know what I'm talking about, the girls who are completely unaware a guy has a crush on them even though it's all there,  or the guys who can't pick up on the signs that their girlfriend is unfaithful (it works both ways as well).  So many times I pick up on people failing to properly interpret social situations, and it is because they don't challenge themselves to be observant, and rationally analyze what exactly is going on.

So really why is it that people are so grossly unaware of the reality of their social situations?  Again I'm going to go back technology being the culprit.  In this day and age everything has become so impersonal.

Take communication for example, we live in a world where most of our contact with other people is done through a technological mean, whether it be social networking sites, texting, aim, or email.  I find that people have increasingly less and less face to face conversations on a daily basis.  Because of this they never develop the experience required to gain proper observational and analytical skills about people's behavior.

Another perfect example in a more intellectual sense is anything competition related.  Take a look at Left 4 Dead (or any other competitive game), the top teams are the ones who are constantly trying new strategies and learn game mechanics to bend them to their will.  On the other hand you will run across pubbers who have been playing the game just as long as you, yet they don't know some of the basic mechanics.  The simple difference is that the "noobs" never take an observational approach; they just go on auto pilot not learning anything until someone points it out to them or they get smacked in the face with it.

Take this post for what it's worth, but if you decide to take a step back and really observe and analyze everything you will start seeing many things in a whole new light.

Tags:

Communication, video games, Left 4 Dead, Philosophy

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