What Worked for Us, Will Not Work for Them

Jonathan Morris Schwartz
5 min readApr 27, 2022

Little Timmy was told to find something he loves, and do it for a living…Timmy loves video games, watching YouTube, and social media…what’s the job for that?

Photo by Anthony Fomin on Unsplash

If I don’t love going to work….I’m not going

I know every generation has some version of this. Those crazy kids! With their blaring music and provocative clothing and radical ideas…they’re all lazy, spoiled, whiners. What’s new?

Here’s what’s new…The average American reads at the 7th or 8th-grade level, understands math at the 6th-grade level, and has an 8.25-second attention span. When asked what they want to be when they “grow up,” they say they want to work in technology, particularly gaming and social media.

Somethings not adding up here?

You don’t need a Ph.D. to realize someone functioning at the middle school level in English, math, and science is not qualified to work for Microsoft or Google.

Furthermore, Technology companies need fewer employees than retail, education, criminal justice, and health care — which also require post-secondary vocational or collegiate training….AND, requires skills beyond what most young adults are achieving in high school.

This is not a rant against today’s youth. Anyone who has teenagers or young adults knows they are part of an exhilarating, intelligent, progressive, and energetic generation…who happen to be living in an age where everything from basic education, sexuality, family support, and reliable career pathways, is being turned completely on its head.

The children of today are OUR kids. We’re raising them. We’re responsible for their poor reading and math skills and minuscule attention spans. The blame, to the extent there is any, is staring at us in the face.

What does it do to a young lady?

How do young women, particularly pre-teens, process the fact that celebrities like Bad Bhabie, Blac Chyna, Bella Thorne, and Cardi B are earning between 110 and 240 MILLION dollars a year on a platform called Only Fans where they share sexually explicit poses and more.

Jonathan Morris Schwartz

Jonathan Morris Schwartz is a speech language pathologist living in Ocala, Florida writing about love, politics, philosophy, and consciousness.