Young People a ‘Lost Generation’ Who Can’t Fix Technology, Professor Warns

People under 40-years-old expect technology to ‘just work’ and don’t know how to remedy problems, meaning more gadgets, computers, and appliances are being discarded rather than fixed, according to the professor giving this year’s Royal Institution Christmas lectures.

Professor Danielle George of Radio Frequency Engineering at the University of Manchester will lead the lectures, entitled Sparks Will Fly: How to Hack Your Home, starting December 29^th.  Professor George sums up the thrust of her lecture:

 “We’ve got a lost generation that has grown up with factory electronics that just work all of the time.

All of these things in our home do seem to work most of the time and because they don’t break we just get used to them. They have almost become like Black Boxes which never die. And when they do we throw them away and buy something new.

But there is now a big maker community who are thinking hard about what we do with all of these gadgets. They are remaking and repurposing things.

I talked to someone who had used some LEDs on his bike so that he could put up a message as he was cycling.”

The Royal Institution Christmas lectures will air on BBC Four between 29^th and 31^st December.

Source: The Telegraph