On the surface, growing up is wildly different than it used to be. But despite technological advances and shifting cultural norms, coming of age remains a universal human experience. No matter the place we did it or the tools we had to facilitate it, nearly everyone struggles at one point or another to understand his identity or make sense of the world around her. We’ve all wondered how we fit it and struggled to learn how to do those things adults are expected to know how to do.
So what does that process look like when everything around you is “smart”? Your mood plummets, so your wearable device automatically contacts your best friend, your parents, or your therapist? You know where your friends are at all times because of signals from their devices; does this enhance the “fear of missing out” or eliminate it? Does the sheer volume of information about global issues paralyze you with fear as you age, or are you trained to deal with it all expertly?
Countless articles (including this one from Entrepreneur and this one from Forbes) explain how our entire lives will be part of a massively connected grid that takes care of most of our mundane and forgettable tasks, gives us access to information and people in unimaginable ways, and changes how we relate to each other and our environments.
So, does this Internet of Things change our rites of passage? According to Terry Collins, Lead of the Student Needs 2025+ Connecting Team, it will in some ways.
Introverted students who struggle to match the energy and level of interaction of their extroverted peers will find more, less stressful ways to connect and be engaged, she says.
Also, “When everything is customized just to us, some students will be able to pass through previously difficult stages of life with much more ease,” she says. “Their psychological energy might not have to be focused on the mean girls in the bathroom, and they might grow up in an entirely new way.”
Nonetheless, she says being immersed in technology will never take the place of the in-person social interaction that characterizes most of our coming of age experiences. As she says, “Some things can only be felt and understood when the bandwidth is not just digital.”
