The "MEH" syndrome

It was not that long ago when the world started to grow more interesting exponentially. Every day new invention, every day more books accessible, a new peak conquered, a new video on how to do something is available, a new gadget that makes something happen magically. One would think people would be ecstatic about it, so many things to learn, so many things to discover, NOPE. Humanity went the opposite way: into the State of 'Meh'.

The reason for this again is the natural law of equilibrium. Let me elaborate. 

Lets imagine a primitive group of people mostly driven by natural urges, like hunger, living on a patch of land. They eat what they find and the nature is in a state of equilibrium. Everyday they struggle to get food. All of a sudden one day, one of them discovers a solution, now they have an abundance of food (also known as farming, but I'm getting of topic here). The first generation that remembers how it was before, will in fact cherish the new invention and the guy who invented it, but the next generation of children will not. The reason is simple, they took the food abundance for granted, and don't need to think about it, ever. They will consume all the food, or multiply some more and consume what they produce. Now this amount of food becomes the new natural equilibrium. So for them, food is just that, food. It will not be a matter of life or death, no need to make a big fuss about it, 'Meh', its just food dude! But now there is a new problem for the next generation to solve, excess food produced, ergo TRADE... and so on, the next generation will not care about trade... etc.

The hidden problem with the exponential growth of the world, being that there are a lot of things solved, invented and introduced in a short amount of time. Consequently every next generation becomes more and more used to things being done easy and "magically", without having the time to reach a state of equilibrium. Nothing is a challenge anymore, everything is 'Meh'. Nothing impresses them, they are becoming so indifferent, that now, only extreme things (usually extremely stupid things) impress them, and they idolize the people that perform them, welcome TikTok.

Sad truth is that, new kids are not to blame. You want to learn how to make something? Open Youtube, you want to go to the Louvre? Open Youtube. You want to know how lemons taste? Open Youtube, for sure there is someone reviewing lemons! Seeing something on Youtube gives them the false sensation that they experienced it, therefore that new thing instantly becomes: 'Meh'. Meh, already, seen that! 

This indifference leads to semi literate, and poorly skilled people, it makes more trouble in the world than solves problems for their generation. Skills are built over practice and invested time, not over glaring for 5 minutes on a video of someone else doing it. We should not however, stop children use resources online. We should explain, that they are good base line and a starting point. More over though, we should always encourage them to perfect their own set of skills. 

Yo Carlos, man, you're making that guitar cry.

And as we know, even though I have seen and heard Santana countless times, I can not make my guitar cry, simply because I never put the time and effort in it.

So kids, if you've seen a video of Mount Everest being climbed, doesn't mean that you have climbed it. Try to appreciate the ones that have!