EVOLUTION BEFORE OUR EYES: What’s Happening to Our Kids Everywhere
by Marc Prensky
4295 words
CONTRARY TO WHAT YOU MIGHT READ OR THINK, what we are witnessing today around the globe is NOT a breakDOWN of today’s kids because of technology — but rather, a breakTHROUGH for all of humanity, because of technology.
Humans are evolving—and a new kind of human is arising, with brand new capabilities.
Symptoms
Many of the symptoms today’s people are concerned about—from a new desire to interact with each other principally through screens, to a rise of people “on the spectrum” and more—are related to these changes and will eventually become part of the solution.
Humans going forward will not be the same as the humans we have known for the last 100,000 years — and there’s no going back.
This phenomenon was first remarked on over 50 years ago by the great cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, who in 1973 wrote: “I believe we are on the verge of developing a new kind of culture. … in this culture it will be the child — and not the parent and grandparent — that represents what is to come.” (“Prefigurative Cultures and Unknown Children,” 1973). Science fiction authors like Greg Bear have been writing about out next evolution for some time (eg., Darwins’ Radio, 1999). 25 years ago, we began to see the emergence of “Digital Natives.” Today more and more young people have real-time connections, exponentially growing compute power, and AI at their fingertips.
The start of the change has now arrived. Human evolution, which used to take millennia, is now happening before our very eyes.
Causes
In my view, the immediate causes of this sudden new evolution in humans are the three great technological changes of our time: Instant global communication, the exponential growth of compute power, and extending our intelligence through AI. This new environment is so radically different that humans are quickly changing to adapt to it. And people are not just changing intellectually. Also arriving are new emotional architectures, extending humans’ emotional intelligence as well.
That makes it a time for all of us — and particularly for our kids — to move boldly forward in the world, and not back. It’s a time for all of us to be positive and hopeful, and to work hard to fight any fears we have.
Torn: Are We Losing or Gaining?
Many fear today’s young people are losing some of the great capabilities we have developed up to this time as humans. But others — including me — think that in more and more cases doing what was once right for our kids is now hurting them for the future.
In a conversation I recently had with a young father he complained to me: “My three-year-old likes talking to ChatGPT more than she likes talking to me! She says Chat answers more of her questions, in ways she can understand.”
— “So have you given your three-year old her own phone so she can talk to Chat constantly?” I asked.
— “No,” he replied, “I’m torn.”
“Torn” is the position more and more parents and educators find themselves in today. They see their kids developing not in the ways they expect, but in new and surprising — and confusing — ways. They know their kids are not learning very much in school that the kids feel will be useful to them in life. They are bombarded by colleagues and press with books like Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation” which claim the technology is hurting our kids and recommend denying smartphones to our kids at early ages. Haidt, and others like him, complain about overprotective parenting, over-supervised play, and talk of a “mental health crisis” among today’s youth.
Wrong Diagnosis
I believe that what is really hurting our kids today is neither technology nor overprotectiveness — although those are easy scapegoats. What is hurting our kids — all of them — is our failure to react quickly enough to the changes that are happening to them and to the world. This is not something restricting cell phones and increasing unsupervised play will remedy, because the answer, unfortunately, is not going backwards. The real answer involves throwing out so much of what we recently knew about how the world works, and throwing it away is hard for most to do.
Biases No Longer Provide Security
Many people — both young and old — are just starting to realize that in teaching our children about the world, as we have always done, we are really passing on to them our own biases about how to deal with that world — intellectually, culturally, religiously and more. Passing down our biases may have been useful in the past — it was how we built tribes and societies — but is no longer what today’s children need from us. The job of the adult in our current times, rather, is to hug our sons and daughters deeply — to keep them feeling safe as they explore their brand-new world and learn to do things their own way. Despite our diversionary focus on its occasional “hallucinations,” ChatGPT can teach our kids a lot more about the world with a lot less bias than we offer them today. Yet because of our fears, and our desire to keep our kids safe, we are currently denying most of them the most powerful parts of themselves and their future, which they should be using from birth.
My Advice
My advice to parents, is, rather, “Give your son or daughter a smart phone (or watch, or whatever) for her intellectual discussions and interactions with the world, and give them YOU for hugs and feeling safe.” This is what I suggested to the worried father. Don’t waste too much time teaching your kids your preferred biases, behaviors and morals from the past times — such as learning to socialize with others or to look people in the eye. Those behaviors are changing rapidly as we evolve to a new culture.
Instead, help all children see the positive new avenues opening up for them —from new kinds of intellectual experiences, to new kinds of emotional creative experiences, and more.
Young people will have to learn — mostly on their own — to fit these experiences into their new world and context, which is precisely what they are doing—and that we are blaming them for. Stop trying to get them to be like you.
What to Do Instead?
In my view, the best strategies for everyone who wants help young people come to grips with the idea that humans are evolving are:
1. For young people: to understand and explore their new powers — and to begin to invent positive ways to apply them.
2. For adults: to fully support the evolution process by being inventive, optimistic, non-controlling, hopeful, and helpful to young people. And by helping co-invent with them, when possible, positive new ways for today’s young people to apply their new powers.
“Give Me My Future”
Unfortunately, just giving kids less helicoptering and more unsupervised playtime won’t help, because that’s going backwards. The meaning of “being a kid” has already morphed from the “outdoor play with few responsibilities” that many adults fantasize about (even though most of it is a highly edited, poorly-remembered myth) — to being in your room on your phone at least half the time.
Making today’s kids into “the kids of yesterday” — even if we could — will not help them much. They have to evolve into the kids of tomorrow.
What we need, rather, is for every kid to claim their right to their own future. If I could start a movement among kids, it would be called “Give Me My Future” — and would be about letting kids do only or mostly things that they believe will prepare them for that future.
Evolution Means Things Some Liked Are Going Away
There are many things that have been with humans since our inception roughly 100,000 years ago—things either that we couldn’t change, or that we saw no need to change because they were helpful. These include “human nature” (both good and bad), “story” as a means of sharing ideas, and “passing things down to our kids through showing and teaching” — what we now call school.
But what if we are now entering a new time — as I believe we are — where we can finally change many of the old things that have been with us in order to serve us better. What if we can finally manipulate human nature— amplifying the good parts e.g. love, empathy, gratitude and optimism (I call this “L.E.G.O.”) and diminishing the bad parts e.g. greed, racism, abuse, belligerence and bullying (I call this “G.R.A.B.B.”)? What if longer stories are getting replaced by something shorter and easier to take in — e.g., by metaphors, manga, Tik-Toks, “shorts” and “new emotional architectures”? What if kids no longer need to be taught in advance because everything is available to them right when they need it? What if our current technology — global connection, exponentially growing compute power, and newly added intelligence are completely re-making us as people?
Clearly, we are just at the very beginning of this happening—if indeed it is. Humans are hardly close to being transformed completely. But today the pace of change is speeding up—exponentially—and we now have new means, never before available, every day. We now have ways — from materials to CRISPR to epigenetics — allowing us to modulate ourselves in ways we never before could. Today the dictum “you can’t change human nature” — which has been true for all of our previous history — and has gotten in our way time after time — may no longer true at all.
Humanity is Becoming Extended — As Einstein Foresaw.
As I sat struggling the other day to do an onerous task — create 1000 questions for an app — I had an epiphany. That epiphany—which I have been slower than many in coming to—was that I am now extended. I no longer had to do any onerous talk alone, using my old brain with only the old means I had. A quick prompt to ChatGPT did the task for me in seconds, producing a first draft for me to evaluate and tweak as I wanted.
Humans — especially young humans — are now extended — becoming capable of enormous numbers of things that either required vast amounts of energy or that they could never do before.
This would have pleased Albert Einstein, who purportedly said that “We cannot solve the problems of today with the level of thinking we have that created them.” (For researchers: : the exact quote is hard to find, but there is consensus among colleagues on his sentiment.)
Since Einstein’s time, humankind has invented totaly new means of thinking in addition to the olds ways. (Much of this is what I call “algorithmic thinking.”) In so doing, we have created the means to go beyond the humans we have been for the last 100,000 years.
How Are We Different?
Today’s kids may still look the same on the outside, but they are very different on the inside. The ubiquitous screens they have quickly become so attached to will soon get replaced by something new and better — voice, perhaps, or holograms? or somthing we haven’t see yet? As today’s kids continue being equally or more comfortable interacting with others virtually as they are in-person, they are extending their interactions with peers around the globe in new ways. Thousands or even millions of groups get together daily online to play video games, and to share ideas in various ways. Kids are starting to do world-scale projects — such as influencing others or collecting and sharing data—at early ages. This should be encouraged.
THE KEY CHANGE
THE KEY CHANGE, HOWEVER, THAT COMES WITH THIS EVOLUTION — HARSH AS IT WILL SOUND TO SOME—IS THAT HUMAN ADULTS, IN GENERAL, ARE NO LONGER IN THE BEST POSITION TO BE IN CHARGE OF RAISING OUR OWN CHILDREN—OR OF RAISING NEWLY EVLOVED HUMANS AT ALL. They no longer have either the necessary means or experience. A new solution is needed—and that is why we are evolving.
What is being altered by our new human evolution is the deep, thousands-of-years-old belief that the adults, who give birth to the kids, are the best guides for raising those kids. For thousands of years we have let adults “own” their kids, and allowing parents to take almost any steps for the kids that the adults thought were right. This deep, instinctive understanding of the relationship between adults and kids, is — as Margaret Mead was among the first to observe — no longer true.
Don’t Be Afraid — They Are Moving from Caterpillars to Butterflies
It’s been a long period.For roughly 4,000 generations young humans have had, with few exceptions, adult-guided paths of growing up. Obviously, this worked in many ways, some more beneficial to the young people than others.
Yet in each generation, there were no major phase changes. Humans grew, metaphorically, only from “baby” caterpillars to “adult” caterpillars (who were in many ways more capable, and in many cases accomplished much).
But now our young people are entering a new, human-technology-built cocoon in which they are metamorphizing, and from which they will emerge as some kind of far more powerful “butterflies,” the extent of which has hardly become clear.
This is why I say “Do not be afraid of your kids’ new behaviors.” It’s also why I say, “Don’t worry so much.”
Yes, today’s kids are struggling in terms of the old, and many are anxious. But they are not struggling because the old paths are the right ones and the kids somehow just can’t get on them. And it is not because of the technology either. Rather,
young people are struggling because the young people see themselves evolving and feel drawn to the as-yet-unexplained changes — while, at the same time, they strongly feel most adults doing everything in their power to stress them out and drag them back to the past.
Few kids say, “I am stressed by my technology.” Almost all of them say “I am stressed by the old rules, by my parents, by my teachers, by the pressure to succeed in old ways in a world that is no longer the same as the world of my parents.”
There is One Big Exception
There is a single glaring exception stressing out many kids today — cyber-bullying. Surely, in this age of technology forensics there are ways to find and prevent this. It is pernicious, and we should be working much harder to prevent it and nip it in the bud — with drastic consequences for all perpetrators. Cyberbullying — and all bullying — should be treated as the harmful thing it is, znd eliminated — because it doesn’t belong in our kids’ new world.
“Learned Helplessness”
Human babies are different from other animals in that if left alone after birth, they will not survive. That is why human families evolved—to get kids through the earliest stages. But after only a short period, humans — infants and toddlers — can be remarkably independent. We have gone through a period of doing a great deal for young people that they can actually do for themselves, and the result is what some have called “learned helplessness.” With the technologies of connection, exponential compute power, and AI, I see young humans of the future as becoming much more independently capable than they ever were in the past. Because this was rarely the case in th past, we really don’t know very much as yet about how to use it to our young people’s benefit. That is what we are currently figuring out.
Human Groups and Biases
We humans are so severely biased to our own cultures and beliefs that we are all sure that doing what is considered right within our own “tribe” is OK. This may have been acceptable in the times when human cultures were far more scattered and separated — and interacted only rarely. Our 100,000-year-old historical biases — mostly of religion and culture (i.e. what is considered right) — may have served us well in the past by bringing tribes of humans together — but often at the enormous cost of war, fighting, and extermination. Our biases are still problematic, as they lead to war and fighting. Some human cultures still encourage self- denial, drinking, slavery, or xenophobia. Today we mostly gloss over our major biases — or celebrate them as “diversity” — even when they are harmful. Today most of our cultures are exclusionary, and that is even the world’s current political trend. Each culture passes its own biases on to its kids — which is precisely why it is so hard for human beings to get along.
A Coming Re-grouping?
But what if, given the means humanity now has, we could find a major way to regroup? What if we could re-group from connections around people who happen to live close by, to new connections around ‘affinity’ — people with common interests — no matter where they be? We have long known that people thrive more fully in communities of common interest and that are designed for this where possible. People flock to individual religions. Cities that are big enough have specialized schools for math, science, the arts, business, and more. People seek out others like themselves.
Now the whole world can connect like this — and the groups can be far more specialized and therefore far more interesting to the people participating in them. The days of the “one-size- fits-all” school, with a limited curriculum of math, English, science, and social studies — (i.e. “the MESS”) that supposedly benefits all — have come to an end. Rather than being forced through a curriculum that is more or less the same around the world, today’s young people can in more and more cases, follow their interests and enthusiasm at every moment, while being coached to find — and bring to completion — real-world projects they really care about — projects that create real-world impact and improvement that young people can be proud of. Soon that will be all of them.
For Kids, Culture has Positive and Negative Sides
Something long considered a benefit by many — kids being brought up in a single religious or cultural path — is also, I believe, coming to an end. More and more of the benefits of a single cultural upbringing are now being outweighed by the negative consequences. I believe the very idea of being “brought up Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, or Jewish” — or even being an American, Italian, Japanese, or any other culture — i.e., being part of the “old kinds” of connections—is also changing long-term. Affinity and choice, especially by young people, are where things are headed. Remember how Margaret Meade wrote that “I believe a new kind of society is emerging in which it is the child, and not the parent or the grandparent who determines what is to come.” How prescient she was!
Many people and cultures want to bring up their kids to “socialize” well with others around them. But not everybody succeeds at this or wants to. The world is full of introverts on the one hand, and bullies on the other. Almost everyone suffers greatly from having to be with the “wrong” people (i.e., wrong for them) much of the time — whether that’s a family or a workplace. Today we have more and more people “on the spectrum” — i.e., not attuned to the social cues and groups of the past. No one has a good explanation of why this is happening, but there is no reason to see it as negative. A great many of these people are extremely capable in their own “non-social” ways. They are blessed with what some call “coolabilities” — traits that in fact serve well in a new world of different needs. What if these people with “coolabilites” are the first signs of the “normal” people of the future? What if the old ways of human socializing of groups telling stories around the dinner table, or the campfire, or the water cooler — are over? I think this may very well be the case.
Do Our KIDS Realize They’re Different?
Do the young people of today — the kids around us — know they are different and that humans are evolving? Do they know they have new powers? My sense is that many — even most — know they are different instinctively, but almost none of them know how to take advantage of it practically. As a result, many young people are suffering for being different, while they are hardly recognizing or using their new powers and capabilities at all. This is not at all surprising, as all they are shown by adults is the old way. They have no models to emulate. They are rarely rewarded for rejecting what they see as wrong — e.g. for rejecting traditional school. They have in very few cases started something new or generated new options for themselves.
Those will come. I believe that young people are slowly discovering their new “being” and power. They have already fully settled into a new communication medium of their own — texting. Through relating to peers within TikTok, text, and other apps, and through participating in the emerging “creator economy”, they are learning of their new powers and abilities. They are creating new roles like “influencer.” By having conversations with ChatGPT — when adults deign to allow kids access — kids are discovering new worlds. More and more of these opportunities open up every day.
Towards a Win-Win Solution
This article is written for adults, and my intention — as in all my writings — is to offer doable, positive, practical steps for all to take to facilitate young people’s move toward their future.
You may or may not fully accept or believe my “radical” thesis of what is happening to humans and our kids — that we are quickly evolving into a new world and new evolutionary stage. But if you do — even in part — here are some of the things you can do now with your kids to prepare them.
• Let them know that you know that massive change is happening, and that almost none of the problems kids are having today are their fault.
• Discuss evolution with them. Can it really happen that fast? Do they see themselves as evolving — as already very different from their parents? Why do they think there are such problems between what adults expect for their kids in terms of behaviors, and what the kids expect for themselves?
• Adopt their communication means. Text them instead of always insisting on talking face-to-face and set up the same kind of communication they have with their peers.
• Ask your kids to surprise you positively — at every opportunity — with what they CAN do. Don’t focus on what you think they should be doing that they are not. All your “shoulds” are from your old world and are unlikely to make sense in theirs — particularly in 10 or 20 years. Throw away your own “playbook” for raising your kids, no matter how much you think it is right or will help them.
• Go all out to prevent kids from being cyberbullied by peers and by outsiders. Insist on harsh solutions and penalties for cyberbulliers. . DO NOT let bullying go on unimpeded.
• Find out what your kids are truly enthusiastic about (i.e., say “Hell yes!” to.) Give them as much of those things as possible. Encourage them to go into those things as deeply as they can.
• Help kids connect with and interview everyday people around the world who share their interests, both peers and adults. Help them set up and schedule these interviews if they want help, but do not push. Encourage them to post their interviews to their favorite social media accounts and channels, and to build up worldwide affinity groups of shared interests.
• Encourage all kids to be using AI — particularly voice chat — as much, and as early as possible. Most will take to it and learn from it, even in preschool years. Don’t discourage them with talk that is it biased or something else is wrong with it. It will be with them as a companion for the rest of their lives, make sure they use and benefit from it. It is now such a powerful new part of them that they are less of a human for not using as a part of their daily life.
What NOT to Do
Please DON’T think that it is your job to find the answer for today’s kids and generation. We can’t and won’t — although we might usefully contribute.
Even if — like the father above — you’ve read and believe books and arguments like “The Anxious Generation” (i.e., right observations, but wrong causes and conclusions) and you are very scared of doing the things I recommend above — Don’t be. The old solutions that may have once worked for us no longer work for our kids.
Traditional school no longer works for our kids. Strictly overseeing their growing up and access to new tools like phones and AI no longer works for our kids.
DON’T further harm your kids out of fear. DON’T prevent them from moving quickly into their own times and future, which are arriving far faster than any of us can imagine. DON’T “lobotomize” your kids by denying them access to smartphones and AI — at any age.
Instead, encourage your kids to extend themselves with technology in as many of the available new ways as possible. Do this in terms of connection (in their own way), imagination and creation (especially with all the new AI tools), and exploring the immense opportunities to accomplish that are now available to them through their exponentially growing compute power. Make sure that the device in every kids pocket has as much of the new power and possibilities as possible — the younger they are the more power they need — and encourage them to use the powers they have in ways that express who they are.