Every generation tends to look at the kids of their day and see them as substandard. There are inscriptions from several hundred BCE that make many of the same complaints. The evidence is that no matter how weak and dumb the kids seem collectively they always do okay. If any generation had failed catastrophically across the board we wouldn't be here.
Kids tend to adapt to their situation. Situations change. The knowledge, skills and personality traits that worked for our ancestors are not the same that are vital today. The ability and willingness to work sun-to-sun tilling a field isn't so important.
Kids adapt. But also, we have adapted. We too easily forget that when we were young we were stupid and weak. Give them time. Don't underestimate them.
There's truth to what you're saying, but there's a lot of other good points in this thread. I really think today's kids are dumbing down, though, just like others have noted. My mom is a teacher, has been for the last 25+ years. Some of the answers she gets on her quizzes are ridiculous. But the problem is, EVERYONE had ridiculous answers. I think of the 30 or so quizzes I helped her grade, 1 had a 100% (5 questions, several multi-section, fill in the blank type). Maybe 5 had in the 50-100% range, and the rest were just flat out wrong. How can you teach when you have to fail entire classes?
I work as a doc in the military, and one of my jobs is physicals - there are forms where you need to explain any illnesses. Now granted, medical terminology isn't a strong suit for most folks, but I see often people spelling things wrong, to the point where I don't know what they're saying. One genius even spelled the same word three different ways, on the same page of paper (regular English too, not medical). One of my corpsman is more interested in reading online comics - I've told him at least 4 times in the last 3 days to write the room number on the chart so I can go to the right room. He can barely take vitals if the machine doesn't. I've already spoken to his chain of command, but he's totally incompetent in the very basics of being a corpsman in a clinic. I'd hate to see him under fire overseas.
Am I the world's greatest at anything? Far from it. I don't know crap about cars, but I've been tinkering with my truck. I bought a house a few years back, then went to Home Depot to buy their home repair book. I can't fix my computer either when it's wrong, but I can work it well enough for what I do, I can trouble shoot the basics, and I can follow directions if neede. I realize I need to work to get somewhere in life (but then again, I spent 10 years in college)
It's not about 'skill sets' or generational knowledge. Yes, true, I don't know how to use a slide rule like my dad does, but I don't need to. I can do math in my head or on paper if my phone, computer and calculator all die simultaneously. I can find north without a compass. I may not be able to till a field or milk a cow, but I know that cows make milk and could figure it out, I know seeds need to be in dirt and get water, so I could figure it out. At 32, I feel like I just barely squeezed into the generation where common sense was still a common attribute. Middle-late 20 year olds are (I think) on whole a lot ditzier than me. A lot of times I feel like I didn't learn something, but at least I know where to go to figure it out (library, Dewey decimal, card files) if the internet suddenly crashed. I know what puncuation is.
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