I was talking with past Cars Yeah guest Deb Pollack about younger people who are not in to driving and cars like we were at their age. She shared some perspectives that made me ponder and ask questions.
Do mobile devices have something to do with younger people’s lack of interest in cars and driving?
I’m a Baby Boomer and grew up barely able to wait to be able to drive. The car represented freedom and a way to better connect with friends who didn’t live near me. It took me to places I couldn’t normally get to due to the distance. It made me independent and I felt grown up. A bike and skateboard were my main means of transportation, and using the telephone for hours on end was frowned upon by mom.
The car was a means of connecting with others.
Today’s youth grew up with mobile devices, enabling them to communicate instantly in a variety of ways with friends and the world. They are already seeing and doing things via their devices that I couldn’t’ even dream of as a child or young adult.
Has this contributed to a lack of interest in driving and so in cars?
What say you?
I do agree. There is a few great shift within the whole car industry and this is the greatest show ft. Weather we like it or not. Younger people care more about social media. They rather watch tv programs that is about interacting with other people; big brother or paradise beach. Its about the integrity that the younger generation doesnt care, or are not afrid of sharing their life with others. Their life is about on or off line. They rather preffer to be the one who sitting in the back seat rather steer the vehicle.
The iphone generation, that we have created, wants continuesly to be entertained without their own effeort. While older generations used to entertain themselves and created something out of boardness, these are the consequenses we are facing now…
I like you found freedom through the use of cars when I was young–and I still feel the same way today. Many of the “younger” crowd simply see the automobile as an appliance like a refrigerator. Many younger folks would rather use their mobile device to call Uber or Lyft to get them where they want to go–all the while they are texting their friends on their mobile devices telling the world through Facebook where they are and what they are doing. I used the car as a way to have my own space and freedom to go anywhere on a whim. I am sure that with the advent of self driving car, even more younger folks will be getting into their own autonomous cars and texting and tweeting their friends on the way to wherever—
I had not really thought of that, but that may be one explanation. I also feel that many young people grow up in more ‘affluent’ households than we did, and thus, the family probably owns at least two cars already. It’s just easier and cheaper for them to borrow a family car.
Interesting. I think that it has more to do (at least in Europe) with being more ecologically aware.
That freedom that the car provided us in our formative years, also supplied us with our social network. Whether that be in our neighborhood, across town or around the state we lived in. With the introduction of the car into our lives, it provided our information network to the world. We became enthralled with not only where we could go, it also provided us a window into meeting new people and places, it was our introduction to a new frontier.
Today, that same sense of exploration is available to our youth today. The connections they make using social networks enables them to explore that environment, only now it is the world. The connections, technology, and love of exploration are ignited by what they see on their mobile devices. There are no limits to their talents and where it can take them. I think all of us that are of the baby boomer generation would be equally infused with that same excitement if we too had that access. In place of ‘hearing’ or reading about the wonderful Grand Prix races, imagine if we could actually watch the races unfold and the stories of the drivers that would get spread around the world, instantly.
Let’s applaud the youth for their talent and abilities and provide them with the media to help them explore the world of transportation, what ever their choice might be. It is up to us to be the stewards of the automobile dreams of today for our youth of tomorrow.
Absolutely Doug!