HIVEMINDEDNESS

We discussed the emerging hivemind on WTEF this morning and I contend that we need to foster this emergence in younger Digital Natives if we hope to survive as a species.

People my age (Generation X) and older define freedom differently than Millennials and younger. For us, "Freedom" meant absolute autonomy, personal property in a libertarian way. Today, younger people think that the more groups and networks they belong to, the freer they feel. This is a small example of the emergence of a hivemind.

I call them Digital Natives because my generation, GenX, had analog childhoods. No internet, smartphones, Google, etc. This upbringing embedded analog solutions to problems that are now obsolete.

All the studies about how we should limit screentime for kids are down by GenX or Boomers. As maddening as it may be, if we took the time to look closer at what these kids are doing on their phones at the dinner table, we'd understand that they are fostering this hivemind which may save our species. They are communicating with vast swaths of their contemporaries and developing an intraternal dialogue that we desperately need them develop.