For todays 18-to-24 year olds, even if they make very little money, the last thing to go is their smartphone. http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/02/fact-of-day-even-on-less-than-15000-per.html For us Boomers, it would have been the car.
What did you expect? The government is taking care of them, so they'll keep expensive luxuries that they can't afford and let the rest of us pay for food, water, and clothing. Besides, if they sell their car, it's not a big deal, because they don't NEED a job anymore.
Smartphones/social networking crap has just taken the place of actual interaction with their fellow humans personally. Kids which are raised without stuff like facebook will be at a real premium in 10 years or so and can demand much higher salaries for occupations which require actual human to human interaction and communication.
What the article fails to mention is how cheap it is to have a cellphone nowadays. Why wouldnt you have one? And honestly, what an amazing tool a smartphone is. Would you want your daughter driving around alone without a cell phone which could save her life in an emergency? Not everyone only uses thier cells for texting friends emoticons. If I was a kid still making 15k, I know for sure one of my expenses would still be a cell phone, its just WAY to powerful a tool today.
Actually very little people use human to human interaction anymore so that isn't a skillset that's in high demand. Knowing your way quickly around the "smart" technology would be much more useful. Why would I want to hire some guy who only knows how to communicate with people face to face. This would waste a lot of time. A smart phone is really no different than communicating by telephone or telegraph, its just the amount of information that can be transferred quickly that has changed.
Can't agree. Face to face will be important for a long time. Look at the complete idiots on this forum. If there were no internet, they wouldn't be such idiots because face to face doesn't tolerate that. Society will wake up to that fact soon.
Yes human interaction will always have a role but more and more, work is being done through non human means. Knowing these skillsets will be vital to anyone entering the business world. If you don't know how to e'mail, text, create power points and so on you will be at a sever disadvantage in the workplace.
They are a toy. I think I'm the only one who wants a phone to ... call people. Most of the people I know use it for angry birds and other games, or wasting time on facebook. That's why people want the phones -- they're toys for grown ups and are used mostly for entertaimment. I don't care what you do when you have the money, but if you're poor, you shouldn't be wasting money on toys and entertainment when you could save that money toward a way to get out of poverty.
