Tl;dr the internet/smartphones has/have killed conversation
A couple weeks ago some students at my school illustrated, in my opinion, one of the most dissappointing things about the current generation. Now this isn’t something negative about them, but simply one aspect of the world they’re growing up in. A few students were involved in furious debate and for a few days at that. This is a rare occurance, especially at the middle school level because they were making reasoned arguments, actually debating and making good counter points. Now the topic at hand might seem nonsensical, but it could easily be used in a real class or debate club. The question was “Is water wet?”.
Now to the dissappointing part. After a couple days of hearing this on and off another student who was not part of their debate googled it, found an answer and thus ended the debate and for a split second, before the gloating began, you could see that both sides had that look in their eye like something was taken from them. This is a pure example of life before smart phones, the internet and google. Talking to other people and thinking deeply about something. Learning how to talk to and interact with others. Being passionate about something you believe to be true. Watching them debate and make the conscious choice not to simply look up the answer was fascinating. So of course having watched them do that, I started them off on another nonsencial debate and played devils advocate long enough for it to take hold.
