META Malfunction
Don't let the title fool you, this post isn't about that Web 2.0 social media conglomerate that we all love to hate. Instead, it is an observation that I have made over the past five to ten years and it is cemented in feedback from none other than my wife who just happens to be a mental health professional.
I don't quite remember the first time I heard the term META, but I do remember that I had to do a Google search to figure out what it was referring to. In case you are still in the dark, META is a gaming term which is basically an acronym for Most Effective Tactic Available. It has been co-opted in large part to refer to builds when you are dealing with character builds like skill points, experience points, abilities, etc.
The concept has obviously been around far longer than there was a term for it. I remember getting this guide for Final Fantasy from Nintendo Power before I even owned the game. I knew pretty much every aspect of the game front to back, and I knew that a party of Fighter, Black Belt, White Mage, and Black Mage was my best bet of making it through the game.
Obviously, the more I played, the more I tried other combinations of parties. My absolute favorite ended up being four Black Belts, but that's not really important.
Even a game as old as Monopoly has a de facto set of Most Effective Tactic Available, own Park Place and Boardwalk, build hotels, and win the game. It's an absolute classic.
With the advent of the Internet, gaming communities, social media, and streaming, it's pretty hard not to find that golden ticket to get you where you need to be in whatever game you are playing.
The truth is, as I have proven with Final Fantasy, I fall into this trap myself sometimes. I've been playing Diablo IV and Path of Exile 2 a lot lately, and I'm not immune to visiting sites like https://mobalytics.gg to ensure I am optimizing my build as best as possible. The difference is, I put in the work ahead of time.
Which leads me to the real reason for this post.
As I have said in the past, @mrsbozz is a school social worker at the elementary level. Being a mental health professional, she sees a lot of behavior and cognitive trends as they are developing. We were having a discussion the other day and I made the comment that many of the younger generation (AKA young adults entering the workforce) don't seem to have problem solving skills.
It's almost like critical thinking has become a thing of the past. In fact, there almost seems to be two extremes to the phenomenon. Either they go to the furthest extreme right away like pulling out the blowtorch in the opening photo, or they are stuck in concrete where they can't move forward without step by step instructions.
This might make me a bad boss, but I am not the sort of person who is going to spoon feed solutions to my worker. Everything I know about doing my job I had to pretty much learn through trial and error or by doing research and reading things online. While that second part could be likened to the META mindset, I would argue it is a bit different. Finding the answer online still required a bit of critical thinking and a fundamental knowledge of the problem in general.
As I have said, I am seeing far too often that people simply freeze up when they are presented with a problem that requires even the smallest amount of critical thinking. If that famous streamer can't tell me specifically what to do, I am going to rage quit and just give up.
This is one of the many issues that @mrsbozz has been dealing with when it comes to current generations of students. I know @tarazkp has also written several posts in the past concerning the lack of innovation and lack of imagination that people have in the world today. I feel those are two key components of being able to think critically and solve problems.
While video games might not be the most important thing in the world (no, they aren't), I fear that this skill or ability of being able to think quickly or "on the fly" is going to continue to diminish and eventually lead to bigger issues down the road.
We are already seeing bits of it here and there with people blindly believing whatever their preferred news outlet feeds to them.
Believe me, if you think jumping from gaming to the current geopolitical climate is too big of a stretch, it's not!
I do my best with my nieces, nephews, and employees to try and teach them how to methodically and effectively approach a problem, but sometimes it feels like a losing battle. Plus, like I said, I'm not into the whole spoon feeding thing, so try a couple times, and if that doesn't work, don't be afraid to ask me for help. I might not give you the answer outright, but I will give you more things to consider trying.
Hopefully in the end that gets us all where we need to be.
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I am glad I grew up in a generation where we were taught to ask questions and research things. Although it seems some of my generation has forgotten how to. My youngest son is as you describe most times, but is getting better now that he is living out on his own. I think being independent forces one to start thinking critically more...maybe?
Yes, that could be part of it for sure. I know a lot of the people I think of when I wrote this post are not off on their own, so you might be onto something there.
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I always used to look at https://www.icy-veins.com/ for my WOW and diablo 3 characters in the days .
That thinking part started somewhere in 1979 when they started to allow us to use calculators in school , 10 years later when we were running a tobaco store in Amsterdam part time workers mostly students couldn't calculate anymore without it. So when we had a power issue and the cash register couldn't do the calculation for them they froze.
Icy Veins is good too. I used that quite a bit back during my Diablo III days. You could be right I guess. I got pretty good at making change when I worked at Radio Shack.
Radio shack, now there is a store I miss.
I think the process of growing up has changed a lot recently. Even since my kids were young the kids spend more time online and they will probably be following 'influencers' their parent have never heard of. I played games as a kid, but I relied on magazines and friends for any info about them. I did get into programming on the early computers and that led to my career. We have to encourage the next generation to solve problems and be inquisitive. There is a life beyond the internet.
The problem is they think they no better and now matter how hard you try to teach them they have to want to learn. If all they care about is the quick answer, it's going to be a losing battle.
If they don't know then they will ask one of the bots :) 'Back in the day' I had to go to the library for answers! I'm so old :(
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Yes, what I said. We can complain about the yoots or do our best to foster curiousity and resilient problem solving.
Why think at all when I can just go to chatGPT and have it give me a step by step guide for doing anything — is what I can imagine almost all kids in school today are learning.
I had that FF nintendo power issue, and I did the same. Who knows where it is now. Last I knew, it was packed up with all my Nintendo Powers in my parents house. But in the course of the past 30 years, I wouldn't be surprised if they tossed all of them.
I had all of my old magazines for a while too, but I think they are all gone now. What a great piece of history that was! I think a lot of us get used to using the step by step instructions, the problem is when those instructions don't work you have to be able to adapt and many people can't now.
Unless they have good teachers.
I think maybe it's because too many forces are polarizing them and telling them HOW to think. As educators we find the hardest job is teaching kids critical thinking. We believe it has to be explicitly taught, but it takes a village to do that. We need to figure out how to foster resilience and curiosity. I'm glad I'm not teaching anymore.
I'm glad I changed my major and didn't go down that road. I still ended up in education, but I would have burned out as a teacher.
Yeah,I did burn out.
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