October 26, 2025 • 6 mins
Gen Z might be the most connected generation in history, but as technology takes over, some timeless skills are vanishing fast.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And Amanda jam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm always interested in whether the passing of skills matters.
Like you know, I'm a punctuation pedant and it drives
my friends crazy. If they send me a text, they
have to double check that they've got their apostrops apostrophes
in the I.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Am one of those friends. I have to I've employed
a proofreader for every text that I send you.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Could you call them a puff reader because you've got
it wrong? Yeah? Well, I hate putting pressure on people.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Very hard, but I have said you were drunken text.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And I don't know why this stuff matters to me
because I know that language is organic, or would all
be talking like Chaucer, you know what's you know?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
It was an old what's century? Sixteenth century?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Just hard, you know, like Shakespeare in English. We don't
talk like that anymore because language is organic.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I pretty see thus, But I don't like being part
of the move. I don't like being the yeah brigade, Yes,
that's where we are now, heading into new territory. I
don't know if I like it.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
But old school radio broadcasting, like when I started this,
you had to speak properly with an authority voice.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I used to be exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
You used to sound like Clancy from Skippy. Mister Hammond,
mister Hammond, you spoke so well, but now you listen
to podcasters. Yeah, it's like standing next to chainsaw.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, Also, there's a certain stack of skills that we're losing.
And I don't know if it matters. I saw this article.
It's about gen Z. Gen Z are categorized from being
thirteen to twenty eight. Yep, it's quite a big span.
But they've done a survey on whether they can do
certain things and most of them can't. And I don't
know if it matters. Number one, writing incursive. I'm left handed,
(01:45):
so I can't write well anyway. When I first came
to Sydney, I've been born in Brisye. Came to Sydney
and I had to write with a cartridge.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Pin of cartridge pin.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Which is like it.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
And my mother went to see the school and said,
can she please use a biro?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I had ink all over my arms. You know it.
It sounds like I'm on the little House in the Prairie. No,
because you weren't.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
No, it has the cartridge inside it, but it had
a left handed curved nib and I just smell it
right across the page.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
It was a disaster. My handwriting is a disaster because
of it.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I'm old enough to remember the cartridge pen era. Because
you get your pen license, remember your pen license.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I never got my penal license. What happens if you
never got a penal license? If you're writing illegally, they
should have RBT people my pen license. But so, only
twenty percent of gen Z's gen Z can write in
cursive compared to ninety five percent of baby boomers. Most
schools have removed it from the curriculum. And fair enough,
(02:45):
I mean, but teachers, I don't know why you're not
allowed to use your laptop because teachers having to read
handwriting for HSC. Kids go into training to do the
HSC with distress balls and things like that. Because your
muscles in your hand, you're not. No one's used to
handwriting anymore, fair enough, No one, or actually three out
of four gen Zettas struggle to read an analog clock.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, could you do it? I can read down log clock?
Can you?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
What's this?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I've heard your time?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
I can do digital and out.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Log can you yes? And even correctly?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
You know, why don't you how about this one. Only
ten percent of gen zettas can navigate using a physical map.
Oh yeah, remember that, you know the UbD. You pretty
much have to turn it as you're driving. When we
did be on two thousand, we drive in places obviously
we'd never been to before, all over the world, and
I don't know how CRUs did it. I have no
(03:38):
sense of direction. There was no sat nav.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
You were guaranteed to get a string of green lights
if you had a UbD open on your lap.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, that's right, because you think, I'll look at this
the menu, I get a red light.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Are you allowed to do that? Though? Can you get
a UbD on your lap now and drive around with
the cops bust you for that?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Can you reach over to get your sunglasses out of
a brief case.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I was a motorcycle courier for a nanosecond in the eighties,
and on my petrol tang of my motorbike there was
a plastic screen, like plastic, clear plastic thing and you
put your ub that and you're when you were a motorcycle.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I remember you're using one and you.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Whack it in there and you'd be right along on
your bike like a whole ub D. It's if a
motorbike is not dangerous enough. And you had a CB
radio strapped to your waist and it was like.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And you go, what the hell do you get sat
nav on a bike? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I've got one on one of my bikes.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Now, And how does it work? How does it talk?
You look at it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
I don't really use it?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Does it come up in your vision?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
You know that big Harley the Ultra it's on that
it's a big TV screen.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Is see that's dangerous? Not really? Not really? How about this?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Only ten percent of young people no more than five
phone numbers by heart.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I wouldn't know my phone number. I know yours? What
is it?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Three four one four three four?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Actually you all.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Now this is where you and I both bore down
mental arithmetic. The way we do our maths is a
bit like that. Ten percent of gen Z can do
complex math.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Without a calculator.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Complex You and I trying to look out the price
of oysters before and we thought a dozen was twenty
four or to move.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
On from that, driving manual cars and five percent. See
this is where you and I differ.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I think it doesn't matter because you can get around,
you can drive a car.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
You don't have to have that badge of earth.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
I can't drive, but who cares?
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I can drive.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I can get where I need to go without having
a man knowing how to drive a manual.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
It doesn't matter. Why are you pulling a face? See?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I think that's a snobbiness, that's that's not necessary because
if you can do the job without doing that, it's
like me saying, hey, why don't you go and light
a whale oil lamp. We've moved on, Brendan, you don't
need to can you sew any three?
Speaker 1 (05:56):
You can't hunt anymore. It's so woke.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Only three percent can sell on a button or patch
a hole because closes much cheaper now they are?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Am I boring you? Brendan? How many I've got one?
You like this one?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I've got timbre listen to I hate to go over
time with you, Brendan, you're trying to read down log
plot Listen.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Two percent of gen Z is now how to tune
a radio?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Ah, the old days are tune in the radio?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Who needs it? Getting them tuning out there? I just
put tuna on it, all right? How about this one?
This will surprise you.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Fewer than zero point five percent of gen Z can
read more code.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Okay, dot dot dot dash dash dash.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Sorry if I've spoken of my allocated time, Brenda, let's
get back to the Jonesy Show.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Tell me more about Bill's on film
And Amanda jam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm always interested in whether the passing of skills matters.
Like you know, I'm a punctuation pedant and it drives
my friends crazy. If they send me a text, they
have to double check that they've got their apostrops apostrophes
in the I.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Am one of those friends. I have to I've employed
a proofreader for every text that I send you.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Could you call them a puff reader because you've got
it wrong? Yeah? Well, I hate putting pressure on people.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Very hard, but I have said you were drunken text.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And I don't know why this stuff matters to me
because I know that language is organic, or would all
be talking like Chaucer, you know what's you know?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
It was an old what's century? Sixteenth century?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Just hard, you know, like Shakespeare in English. We don't
talk like that anymore because language is organic.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I pretty see thus, But I don't like being part
of the move. I don't like being the yeah brigade, Yes,
that's where we are now, heading into new territory. I
don't know if I like it.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
But old school radio broadcasting, like when I started this,
you had to speak properly with an authority voice.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I used to be exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
You used to sound like Clancy from Skippy. Mister Hammond,
mister Hammond, you spoke so well, but now you listen
to podcasters. Yeah, it's like standing next to chainsaw.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, Also, there's a certain stack of skills that we're losing.
And I don't know if it matters. I saw this article.
It's about gen Z. Gen Z are categorized from being
thirteen to twenty eight. Yep, it's quite a big span.
But they've done a survey on whether they can do
certain things and most of them can't. And I don't
know if it matters. Number one, writing incursive. I'm left handed,
(01:45):
so I can't write well anyway. When I first came
to Sydney, I've been born in Brisye. Came to Sydney
and I had to write with a cartridge.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Pin of cartridge pin.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Which is like it.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
And my mother went to see the school and said,
can she please use a biro?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I had ink all over my arms. You know it.
It sounds like I'm on the little House in the Prairie. No,
because you weren't.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
No, it has the cartridge inside it, but it had
a left handed curved nib and I just smell it
right across the page.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
It was a disaster. My handwriting is a disaster because
of it.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I'm old enough to remember the cartridge pen era. Because
you get your pen license, remember your pen license.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I never got my penal license. What happens if you
never got a penal license? If you're writing illegally, they
should have RBT people my pen license. But so, only
twenty percent of gen Z's gen Z can write in
cursive compared to ninety five percent of baby boomers. Most
schools have removed it from the curriculum. And fair enough,
(02:45):
I mean, but teachers, I don't know why you're not
allowed to use your laptop because teachers having to read
handwriting for HSC. Kids go into training to do the
HSC with distress balls and things like that. Because your
muscles in your hand, you're not. No one's used to
handwriting anymore, fair enough, No one, or actually three out
of four gen Zettas struggle to read an analog clock.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, could you do it? I can read down log clock?
Can you?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
What's this?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I've heard your time?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
I can do digital and out.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Log can you yes? And even correctly?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
You know, why don't you how about this one. Only
ten percent of gen zettas can navigate using a physical map.
Oh yeah, remember that, you know the UbD. You pretty
much have to turn it as you're driving. When we
did be on two thousand, we drive in places obviously
we'd never been to before, all over the world, and
I don't know how CRUs did it. I have no
(03:38):
sense of direction. There was no sat nav.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
You were guaranteed to get a string of green lights
if you had a UbD open on your lap.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, that's right, because you think, I'll look at this
the menu, I get a red light.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Are you allowed to do that? Though? Can you get
a UbD on your lap now and drive around with
the cops bust you for that?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Can you reach over to get your sunglasses out of
a brief case.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I was a motorcycle courier for a nanosecond in the eighties,
and on my petrol tang of my motorbike there was
a plastic screen, like plastic, clear plastic thing and you
put your ub that and you're when you were a motorcycle.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I remember you're using one and you.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Whack it in there and you'd be right along on
your bike like a whole ub D. It's if a
motorbike is not dangerous enough. And you had a CB
radio strapped to your waist and it was like.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And you go, what the hell do you get sat
nav on a bike? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I've got one on one of my bikes.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Now, And how does it work? How does it talk?
You look at it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
I don't really use it?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Does it come up in your vision?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
You know that big Harley the Ultra it's on that
it's a big TV screen.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Is see that's dangerous? Not really? Not really? How about this?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Only ten percent of young people no more than five
phone numbers by heart.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I wouldn't know my phone number. I know yours? What
is it?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Three four one four three four?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Actually you all.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Now this is where you and I both bore down
mental arithmetic. The way we do our maths is a
bit like that. Ten percent of gen Z can do
complex math.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Without a calculator.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Complex You and I trying to look out the price
of oysters before and we thought a dozen was twenty
four or to move.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
On from that, driving manual cars and five percent. See
this is where you and I differ.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I think it doesn't matter because you can get around,
you can drive a car.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
You don't have to have that badge of earth.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
I can't drive, but who cares?
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I can drive.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I can get where I need to go without having
a man knowing how to drive a manual.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
It doesn't matter. Why are you pulling a face? See?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I think that's a snobbiness, that's that's not necessary because
if you can do the job without doing that, it's
like me saying, hey, why don't you go and light
a whale oil lamp. We've moved on, Brendan, you don't
need to can you sew any three?
Speaker 1 (05:56):
You can't hunt anymore. It's so woke.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Only three percent can sell on a button or patch
a hole because closes much cheaper now they are?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Am I boring you? Brendan? How many I've got one?
You like this one?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I've got timbre listen to I hate to go over
time with you, Brendan, you're trying to read down log
plot Listen.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Two percent of gen Z is now how to tune
a radio?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Ah, the old days are tune in the radio?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Who needs it? Getting them tuning out there? I just
put tuna on it, all right? How about this one?
This will surprise you.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Fewer than zero point five percent of gen Z can
read more code.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Okay, dot dot dot dash dash dash.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Sorry if I've spoken of my allocated time, Brenda, let's
get back to the Jonesy Show.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Tell me more about Bill's on film
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