What Bluegill Can Tell Us About the Future
Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:31 pm
I took my sons to a local pond today for some bluegill. The little 3 wt outfitted with a small hopper produced tons of fun & tons of fish.
However, what struck me was this: a pack of bike-riding tweens showed up, all with rods, worms, and bobbers. Now, being the dry-fly snob I am, I would usually have said something about how they can only go downhill from here, not just in fishing, but in life; but today I was happy to see them out there, since that meant they weren't at home on their devices.
They took their rods from their bikes and proceeded to cast into the pond, which was loaded with fish. After the first cast, and no bites--mind you, this was all of 15 seconds--they packed up and left. I thought to myself, kids these days (I am old enough now to say that!) are always on their devices; it doesn't matter where they are, or if they don't actually have them.
If it doesn't happen instantaneously, you must abandon it and find something else.
Everyone knows the research on the shrinking attention spans among youth--there are plenty of academic studies on them--but today I witnessed a different metric for measuring the effect of constant technology on kids: no patience even for bluegill, the easiest species to catch.
However, what struck me was this: a pack of bike-riding tweens showed up, all with rods, worms, and bobbers. Now, being the dry-fly snob I am, I would usually have said something about how they can only go downhill from here, not just in fishing, but in life; but today I was happy to see them out there, since that meant they weren't at home on their devices.
They took their rods from their bikes and proceeded to cast into the pond, which was loaded with fish. After the first cast, and no bites--mind you, this was all of 15 seconds--they packed up and left. I thought to myself, kids these days (I am old enough now to say that!) are always on their devices; it doesn't matter where they are, or if they don't actually have them.
If it doesn't happen instantaneously, you must abandon it and find something else.
Everyone knows the research on the shrinking attention spans among youth--there are plenty of academic studies on them--but today I witnessed a different metric for measuring the effect of constant technology on kids: no patience even for bluegill, the easiest species to catch.