Gen Y Needs to Learn...?

By Margery Weinstein

Gen Y Needs to Learn...?
I've always been more of a pinball person. I'm a Generation Xer, so I should be a little more hip, but you'd be surprised. Gen Yers, whom I define as those born between 1982 and 1993, love video games and anything high-tech, "the experts" solemnly agree. So, for the purposes of training, you might suppose anything that's online, and involves becoming an avatar-robot, would be just the thing to hook them into training you otherwise expect them to daydream about lunch through.
I'm a little skeptical. People may tend to compartmentalize the pieces of their lives, and what's enjoyed in the leisure of one's home isn't necessarily what's expected in the office--or even wanted. To an X Box fanatic, a multimedia-laden simulation game designed to teach her the layout and operations of the manufacturing floor might not trigger thoughts of work in her brain, even if the content is work-oriented. What I mean is, since they've been playing video games since they were a child for fun, the act of playing an online game may reflexively link in their brains with good times, not good sheet-fed press operations.
It's also funny to think about your perception of Gen Yers if the best way to train them you feel is through a game. Are they so childish that their mind can only learn if they think they're playing a game? It's kind of insulting and condescending. I doubt whether the average Gen Yer--or any sane employee for that matter--would be sensitive enough to be offended by such a point, but it occurred to me, anyway, as revealing of our impression of young people today.
When all is said and done, I agree the odds are the younger generation will enjoy high-tech wizardry in place of school marm lectures about not letting the machinery get their fingers, and not putting the wrong kind of paper in the press so the company suffers multi-thousand dollar damages. But techno-flashiness isn't the only way to reach these up-and-comers.
It's shocking--it's slightly frightening--but some of them (there's a chance) have read books.