I still recall the dark days of having to put my projects on crappy floppy discs and having to run to the library very early in the morning to print out my assignments in high school. Everything revolved around the library, and while I loved the place, I had to deal with a long line of people who had the same idea as me.
Those were the days, huh?
Thank heavens for Google Drive and better printers!
After Redditor MafaldaDover asked the online community, "What do you wish you had in high school that kids have today?" many weighed in with their own experiences.
Kids these days... they have no idea how good they have it!
"They have tons of tools..."
My son is in his high school's robotics team. They have tons of tools to build robots to compete, including a big machine that cuts sheets of metal based on what digital file you send it. I'd have loved to have had that. When I was in high school, the most advanced tool I had access to was a dot matrix printer. (I wowed my classmates with my complex report covers made with WordArt and highly pixelated graphics.)
"The idea that once you left the house..."
Probably cell phones. The ability to call or text an individual to find out where they are was a revolution but wasn't widespread until I was in college.
Used to have to call their parents house and hope they were there.
The idea that once you left the house you were just in a communication black hole until you returned or actively called someone from a pay phone is a big change from the modern day.
You had to make plans the day or morning before, and then if anything happened to derail those plans the whole thing was just a failure.
"Personally..."
Personally, having come from high school in the 90s when we did have internet but it was more of a novelty - Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is one of the greatest repositories of human knowledge and you can see the sources. It would have been amazing for it to have been built out to where it is now while I was in high school.
"I have so few..."
Giphy
Digital photography. I have so few pictures of friends and good times we had during high school because no one carried around a camera and bothered to get film developed. Of the ones we did have, most are long gone with no negatives to get them reproduced.
"I had to carry around..."
MP3 players/Spotify and the like. I had to carry around my Discman on my long walk home from school, even with anti-skip it would still buffer every now and then. Don't get me started on batteries too. Nowadays it's so easy to listen to anything at any time, back then it wasn't.
"And it seemed to make..."
I'm in college as an older person at the moment, and honestly? I wish I had the social dynamics lol.
I was eating lunch and I heard two guys talking to each other and he was showing his friend something on his phone and he was like "Bro, she's beautiful I can totally see you guys together."
And it seemed to make the other guy really happy. I don't know if he was maybe feeling insecure about how he looks or whatever.. But you could tell it meant a bit to him.
It just seems less cliquey. Less "every man for themselves".
I'm sure there's plenty of assholes, obviously. But just generally kids seem really nice and smart these days.
"If my project file size was too big..."
A USB drive. If my project file size was too big, I had to carry like 5 floppy disks to school and spend entire home room and half of first period printing.
"When I was at school..."
Better building and facilities. When I was at school the place was falling apart and a couple of years after I left they knocked it down and rebuilt it with a state of the art media centre and technology and design department with 3D printers and Solidworks cad workstations.
"It sounds cheesy..."
So this isn't a tangible thing I wish I had, but I have a 14-year-old son and the one thing that I really admire about him and his entire friend group is that they are so open with their feelings with one another. It sounds cheesy, but it seems like kids in this current generation are much more okay with letting each other know they care. There's just an openness with them all that I find refreshing. It's something that I didn't experience in my sad-goth-staring-out-the-window late '90s high school days, and I really love it about all those kids.
"But the benefits..."
Nearly endless information at my fingertips.
There is so much information out there about how to be a better person and live a better life (how to videos, grooming tips, relationship advice, etc), safety and wellness like like learning that suicide or domestic abuse hotlines exist, communities for marginalized and minority people, and information that make us better understand the world around us.
Yeah, there is a dark side of false information, merchandising, unrealistic expectations ala Instagram influencers and porn, etc. But the benefits greatly outweigh those aspects.
I went to high school in the late 80s, BTW.
But we should also be prepared and ready to ask the right questions to have a leg up on the competition.
"What is THE best question to ask on a job interview?"
A company's history or information about a past employee were suggested subjects appropriate for questioning.
Prior Knowledge
"When you were interviewing here, what would you have liked to know before you joined?"
"This worked for me. I asked my interviewer a question about how she had personally dealt with a company policy she had just explained. She bragged about her stellar adherence to the policy. I nodded my approval. I got the job."
A Previous Employee
"One that has always gone over well for me:"
"What were some qualities that the previous employee in this role brought to the job that you would like to see carried forward?"
"Another good thing to do is research the company you are interviewing with and you can ask things about what they may be involved in or you could drop that while reading about the company, you wondered this."
Hypothetical questions were suggested as helpful examples of inquiry.
Indicators Of How Companies Treat Employees
"A question that landed me a job once was: 'If I asked your direct reports about your management style, what do you think they'd tell me?' Stumped a hiring manager and he emailed me personally to tell me about it, no one ever asked him that question but got the job.
"In my current interviews I'm asking 'what did your company do for its employees during [the virus] to improve their day to day, work life balance, etc.' and I ask 'Is there anything your company adopted during [the virus] that they plan to keep post [the virus]?"
"These questions give a lot of insight into whether a company treated their employees well."
Past Performance & Adjustments
"If we were currently sitting in my 1 year review, what would I have done in this year for you to say I excelled in my role?"
"If I could snap my finger right now and change anything about your job or the company, what would it be and why?"
The following questions about a prospective company may not be answered from initial digging on their website.
Measure Of Success & Career Trajectories
"How is success measured in this role?"
"What are some possible career trajectories within the company that could stem from this position?"
Being A Solution
"Ask them what is the biggest problem you can solve for them in your first six months with the company. Similar to 'don't think of a purple hippo,' this forces them to imagine you succeeding in the position."
Simply The Best
"Who is your best employee and why is he/she the best?"
"You will then face 2 situations mostly:"
"panicking CEO who can't answer you 'Bob who works 17 hours a day for a slice of bread' so the fear in their faces must be a big nono for you"
"entusiast CEO who actually follow their business and can tell you who is an added value for the company and why."
– ThePiz91
My experiences with job interviews are different than others seeking work in office environments.
Having had a years-long career as a dancer, my "interview" was the dance audition, where hopefuls dance in small groups of people at a time after learning a routine and then awaiting their fate after the panel evaluates their performances.
The question I may or may not have asked in such a scenario earlier in my career was: "Did I make the cut?"
I did not make the cut. And I learned never to ask that again.
I remember the worst date I ever had. My biggest regret is that I stayed for the entire thing. I should've left as soon as I realized this was not going well, which was basically at hello. But he was paying so I drank, a lot. I'll keep names and dates to myself to protect the innocent.
0/10
Big Brother Reaction GIF by Big Brother After DarkGiphy"Went to brewery, date said I had hairy arms and that meant I was horny, said "you look really awful in this light" and then tried to dig out of that hole by saying in his native language that was a term of endearment long term couples said to each other. 0/10 did not date again."
Lucky 13?
"My wife wanted to plan our 13th wedding anniversary. I was excited because usually, I plan it. She bought us some new disc golf discs and after a quick supper, we went to play. We hadn't played in forever. We were laughing and I had a great time. She served me with divorce papers and told me that the date was a test to see if she still had feelings for me. I also learned that she was having an affair that started well before our anniversary."
- rmorlock
Two Hours from Home
"Not necessarily a date but a person I was dating invited me to his parent's house for the afternoon. He wanted to introduce me to them and show me the house he grew up in. I thought it was super sweet and had no problems going. He was also in the middle of moving and needed to pick up a few things, so it really didn't seem that unusual."
"Yeah, we got there and it was awful. His entire family was there. They traveled from hours away too. This was not just meeting the parents, it was meeting the ENTIRE family. Even worse? At some point, this idiot told his parents that he had proposed. We had been dating TWO months. I spent the entire afternoon dumbfounded and just playing along."
"We were two hours from home and I had no cell service, no way to leave at all. We ended up spending the afternoon brainstorming wedding ideas and planning an Alaskan honeymoon that his parents planned to gift us. His brother even called to say congratulations! We drove back to his apartment in silence. When we got there, I got in my car and left, didn't even bother grabbing my stuff. Weirdest experience ever. I have no idea how he broke it to his parents that we weren't getting married."
You're Cut Off!
"Got set up on a blind date once between mutual friends. She shows up to the restaurant already a little tipsy, orders multiple appetizers and only takes like one or two bites from each one. Then she proceeds to order 3 or 4 more drinks and is visibly drunk at this point. She gets up and says she's going to the bathroom and staggers off. About 15-20 minutes go by so I try to call her several times but no answer."
"Finally I decide to pay the check and just leave. About 2 hours later I'm sitting at home and I get a call from an unknown number. It's the police department. She was picked up on a DUI on her way home after she ditched me and gave the cops my number to see if I could go bail her out!"
- mox44ah
Sorry?
Bbc Three Idk GIF by BBCGiphy"Well, I gave this answer on a different topic, but it ties in with this. We were out on a date, we had been seeing each other for a while, close to a year maybe. She gets a phone call. Suddenly she looks destroyed. Her fiancé had just died in a motorcycle accident."
What in the world? I mean how can we ever expect to pair off with the dating pool being inundated with liars and nut jobs? I'm going to delete my apps.
Girl, Bye.
Sassy Beyonce GIFGiphy"Had a girl openly flirt with the bartender in front of me. She says she wasn't. But handing him her own phone and asking for his contact info in front of her date seems like it to me."
Crazy!
"Came out from a movie, late at night, and date's Camaro was stolen. Apparently, he called his WIFE (that I did not know he had) and let her know where he was and what happened. She showed up and realized he was on a date! She started chasing ME around the parking lot telling me she was going to kill me. Saved by the cops who showed up just in time to take the auto theft report."
Hey Mom
"Met a girl at a country bar one night in my 20s. We were both pretty drunk but hit it off pretty good. Ended up getting her number and we agreed we'd go on a real date. Fast forward to the date, she gets in my vehicle and... she looks almost identical to my mom. I was mortified. I was polite and we went for lunch where I found out she also had a boyfriend she "wasn't sure if she was into". Never talked to her again."
- SgtGo
Liars...
"When I was in college many years ago, before the advancement of cell phones and social media, I was chatting with a girl I met on a BBS who lived on Long Island, NY. I was 18 at the time, but lied and said I was 22 because she said she was 25. We spent a few weeks emailing each other, as well as calling each other."
"We even exchanged pics. When we finally met up, things blew up. Turns out we both lied about our ages: She was really 33, and lied because she thought she looked younger. She admitted she sent a college photo to me. We still had dinner together, but it was awkward as hell. We never spoke again."
Doubles
Kill Me Now Season 1 GIF by FriendsGiphy"It was a double date. She was more interested talking to the other girl throughout the whole thing. Found out later from the other guy that his girl cheated on him with my date."
Ummm... I think I'm just going to stay single. That is a handful of crazy. Why can't people just be honest? I swear the search for love warps people's brains. Be careful out there people.
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