Gen Y, Internet dependency, and Stereotyping

It’s time for a little stereotyping. I’ve noticed something about myself, so I am going to use this observation to describe a whole generation. (A perfect sample size for unbiased and objective results: one).

In the spirit of transparency, here’s how I came to my conclusion:

Hypothesis: Gen Y lacks the motivation and determination to solve problems, because of our dependence on the Internet. (Nice way to say we’re lazy)

By no means do I think we are less intelligent or suffer from some genetic flaw that makes us less capable of solving a problem. I think we’re a little lazy. Yeah, that’s right. I said it. We’re lazy.

Gen Ys: don’t worry! It’s not your fault. I blame Google and the iPhone. Think about it: how many times have you been faced with a question or a problem that you didn’t know the answer to? I’m sure more times than you can possibly count. My generation doesn’t do what people for millenia have done before us, namely stopping at this point to try and figure it out for ourselves. Before a Gen X could even have started down that path, we’ve got iPhones in hand, Google query half-written. All of the questions that can’t be answered with a quick search get dumped in the “it wasn’t really that important” category.

Conclusion: As a result of having grown up with the internet, where answers are found within seconds, our generation has become overly dependent on the Internet to do our thinking for us.

Descartes said “I think, therefore I am.” If Descartes was around today he would have said “I Google, therefore I am.”