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Professor: Young People Are "Lost Generation" Who Can No Longer Fix Gadgets
antdude points out this story about one of the problems with our ever increasingly disposable world. "Young people in Britain have become a lost generation who can no longer mend gadgets and appliances because they have grown up in a disposable world, the professor giving this year's Royal Institution Christmas lectures has warned. Danielle George, Professor of Radio Frequency Engineering, at the University of Manchester, claims that the under 40s expect everything to 'just work' and have no idea what to do when things go wrong. Unlike previous generations who would ‘make do and mend’ now young people will just chuck out their faulty appliances and buy new ones. But Prof George claims that many broken or outdated gadgets could be fixed or repurposed with only a brief knowledge of engineering and electronics. "
wrong, we over 50 were taught to fix shit, starting at age 10 in my case. Guys [1] usually fell into two categories, the electrical or mechanical.
[1] sorry wrong headed thinking about women meant females left out, though sewing and cooking are good skills everyone should have
Car factory worker here. Welding and paint shop is mostly automated nowadays, but assembly is 99% manual. It's just not designed with reparability in mind. Or it is, but in the sense that repair shops and sellers are here in Europe normally the same business , and with nowadays margins you better let them charge a whole hour to change a bulb.
Thank them they still let you change a fuse...
And for robot “reachability”, it's normally the other way around. Industrial robots in car making are bulky things not meant to access small or hidden spots. For that, it's better a human being.