The Next Generation Doesn’t Need More Technology. They Need Better Adults.

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Breakthrough. Maybe it's going to be shaped by the adults who decide to show up.
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Randy Black. Randy Black. Randy Black. Randy Black. Randy Black.
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Randy Black. Randy Black. He's a troublemaker.
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Welcome back to Randy Unscripted. I'm Randy Black, and this is a podcast where
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I kind of just talk about whatever happens to come across my brain whenever
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it just happens to come across it.
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And one of the things I've noticed over the years is that when former students
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come back to the schools and visit, they almost never talk about the technology.
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They don't talk about the laptop they used in class. They don't talk about the
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software that was being rolled out.
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They don't remember most of the tools that seemed to be so important at the time.
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What they remember are the people. They remember teachers who encouraged them.
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They remember coaches who pushed them.
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They remember adults who took an interest in them when they needed it the most.
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And honestly, the more I've thought about that over the years,
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the more it's changed the way I think about the next generation coming up.
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Because if you listen to enough conversations, you'll eventually notice there's a pattern.
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Every generation seems to worry about the one that's coming up behind them.
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You hear it all the time. Can't spend too much time on their phones.
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They don't pay attention. They don't communicate.
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They don't work as hard as we did. They're distracted. They're disconnected.
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And honestly, if you've been around long enough, you've probably heard some
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version of that conversation going on for years.
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The funny thing is, though, every generation seems to have its thing.
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At one point, it was television. Then it was rock music.
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Then it was video games. Then it was the Internet. Now it's social media.
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And artificial intelligence.
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And don't get me wrong, technology has changed a lot about the way that we live.
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And some of those changes have been good.
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But some of them, man, maybe not so much.
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But lately, I found myself wondering if we might be asking the wrong question.
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What if the biggest challenge facing the next generation isn't technology?
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What if they don't need another app or another device or another breakthrough,
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in artificial intelligence?
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What if they just need better adults? Now, before you take that the wrong way,
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this isn't going to be an episode where I complain about parents or teachers or society in general.
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In fact, it's kind of the opposite.
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Because after spending years working with students, working in education,
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and working in technology, I've started to notice something.
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The young people who seem to do the best are not necessarily the ones with the best technology.
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They're usually the ones who have somebody in their corner.
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Somebody who listens. somebody who encourages them somebody who holds them accountable,
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somebody who sets an example that's worth following,
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don't be wrong technology can do a lot of things,
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but it can't replace that so today i want to talk about influence i want to talk about mentorship,
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and i want to talk about the responsibility that all of us have to the people
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who are coming up behind us.
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Because maybe the future isn't going to be shaped by the next big technological breakthrough.
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Maybe it's going to be shaped by the adults who decide to show up.
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And that's where I think we've gotten a little confused sometimes.
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We live in a world that absolutely loves solutions.
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If there's a problem, we want to fix it. If something isn't working, we want to improve it.
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And more often than not, the solution we reach for is technology.
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And don't get me wrong, I love technology. I've spent a good portion of my career
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working with it directly.
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And I've seen firsthand how the right tools can make learning better,
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can make communication easier and can make opportunities more accessible.
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Technology can be an incredible force for good.
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But every now and then, I think we ask it to do things that it was never designed to do.
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When students struggle, we look for a new platform.
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When communication breaks down, we create another app.
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When people feel disconnected we build another social network when families
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get busy it's easy to hand a child
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a screen and hope it fills the gap the problem is that some challenges.
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Aren't technological problems. They're human problems. And human problems usually
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require human solutions.
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A student doesn't need encouragement from a piece of software.
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A young person does not build confidence because an algorithm told them to.
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A child doesn't develop character because they received a notification on a device.
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Those things happen through relationships. They happen through conversations.
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They happen when somebody invests enough time to know a person's strengths,
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a person's weaknesses, their fears, and most importantly, their potential.
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And technology can support those things. It can make them easier.
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It can help us to stay connected. But it can't, under any circumstances, replace them.
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I've seen schools spend thousands of dollars on new tools while struggling just
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to find enough people to mentor the students.
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I've seen organizations invest heavily in systems while people quietly sit back and feel unseen.
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And I've seen young people surrounded by technology while they still feel completely alone.
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That's not a technology problem. That's a people problem. and people problems
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are solved when people decide to get involved.
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The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that what most young people
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need isn't better technology.
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They need somebody who knows their name. Somebody who notices when they're struggling.
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Somebody who believes in them enough to invest their time.
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Because absolutely no piece of technology, no matter how advanced it becomes,
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can replace the impact of a person who genuinely cares for that child.
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One of the things I've learned over the years is that young people are paying
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attention even when we don't think they are.
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As adults, we spend a lot of time wondering whether they're listening.
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Teachers sit there and wonder, are the students listening to me?
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Parents wonder if their kids are listening to the directions and instructions they're giving them.
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Coaches wonder if their players are listening in practice and in games.
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Pastors stand before their congregation and wonder, are they listening to me?
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And if we're being honest, sometimes it doesn't seem like anybody is listening at all,
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But i've come to believe that young people are often watching much more carefully than they're listening,
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They notice things They notice how we treat people They notice how we respond when we're frustrated,
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They notice whether we keep our word They notice whether our actions match the
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things we say that we believe and they especially notice how we behave when
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there's nothing in it for us.
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I can't tell you how many times I've seen students remember something that I
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had completely forgotten.
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Not a lesson, not a project, not
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a piece of technology, but a moment or a conversation or an interaction.
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Something that seemed insignificant to me, but apparently mattered enough for
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them to remember it years later.
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Man, that's a humbling thought, because it means influence isn't always happening
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when we intend for it to happen.
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Sometimes influence happens in the small moments, the ordinary moments,
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the moments when nobody thinks they're teaching anything at all.
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I think that's why character matters so much. You can teach responsibility,
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but it's even more powerful when people see responsibility.
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You can talk about integrity, but it's more powerful when people watch someone who lives it out.
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You can tell young people to be respectful, to be hardworking,
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honest, and to be kind, but eventually they're going to compare those words
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to the example that's in front of them.
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And that's where the real lesson takes place.
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Truth is, most of us can point to adults who shaped our lives,
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not because they gave a great speech, not because they had all the answers,
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but because they lived in a way that earned our respect.
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Their example gave weight to their words. And that's something that every generation needs.
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The next generation doesn't need perfect adults. None of us can qualify for that job.
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But they do need adults who are willing to be authentic. Adults who admit when they make a mistake.
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Adults who keep trying to learn. Adults who try to live their life consistently.
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Because whether we realize it or not, somebody is always watching.
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And the example that we set today, it may become part of the foundation that
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someone else builds their life on tomorrow.
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If influence matters as much as we've been talking about, then the next question is pretty obvious.
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Who's actually investing in the next generation?
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I think that's where things get interesting because we live in a time when young
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people have access to more information than any generation in history.
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Need an answer to a question? Pull out your phone. Want to learn a new skill?
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There's probably a video for it on YouTube.
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Looking for advice? There's thousands of people out there all over social media
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or in an app who are ready to step up and to give it.
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Information isn't hard to find anymore, but wisdom can be.
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And that's because information and mentorship aren't the same thing.
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We hear a lot about influencers these days.
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Some of them are entertaining, some are educational, and some provide real value.
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But an influencer and a mentor are two very different things.
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An influencer speaks directly to a crowd. A mentor invests in one person.
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An influencer creates content. A mentor works to create connection.
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An influencer may know a lot about you through analytics or through algorithms.
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A mentor knows your name.
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A mentor knows when you're struggling. A mentor notices when something just seems off.
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And a mentor celebrates your success and your challenges when you're heading in the wrong direction.
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That's the kind of relationship that just can't be mass reproduced.
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It takes time. It takes consistency. It takes showing up over and over again.
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When I look back at my own life, I can think of people who invested time in me.
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Teachers, like Jack Sanders, Cindy Shoemaker.
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Coaches, man, Jimmy Clayton, that was the man.
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Family members, Gene Black, my grandfather.
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My father, Rick Black. back.
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People who probably had no idea how much influence they were having on me at the time.
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My father-in-law who passed away in November, Bill Chapman, short time with
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him, but man, he had influence.
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They didn't shape my life because they were famous. They shaped my life because they were present.
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And I wonder sometimes if that's one of the things that we're missing today.
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It's not technology, not information, not access, presence.
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We need more adults who are willing to take an interest in somebody else's future.
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More adults who are willing to listen.
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More adults who are willing to encourage. courage, more adults who are willing
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to say, I've walked this road before, let me help you navigate it.
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Because there is no algorithm that can replace that. No app can automate that.
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And there's no amount of technology that can duplicate what happens when one
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person intentionally invests in another.
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The older I get, the more convinced I am that some of the most important work
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we're ever going to do won't happen in front of a crowd.
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It's going to happen in private, one conversation at a time.
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So where does all this leave us? If technology isn't the answer to every problem,
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if our example matters more than we sometimes realize, and if mentorship is
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still one of the most powerful ways to shape a life,
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then what do we do with that?
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Well, I think it starts with a simple realization.
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Most of us are probably more influential than we think.
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When people talk about changing the future, we tend to imagine big things.
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You know, new inventions, new technologies, major breakthroughs,
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people making headlines.
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But most lives aren't changed by headlines.
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They're changed by relationships. They're changed by ordinary people doing ordinary
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things consistently over time.
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Here's some examples. Say you have a teacher who stays after school to help a struggling student.
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A parent who puts down the phone and gives their child their full attention.
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A coach who cares more about character than about the scoreboard.
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A manager who takes the time to develop a young employee instead of simply managing them.
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How about a neighbor who knows the names of the kids who live on their street?
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None of those things are flashy. None of them are likely to ever go viral.
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But that's often how real influence works.
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Quietly, consistently, one person at a time.
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Maybe that's something we need to remember because it's easy to look at the
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challenges facing the next generation and feel overwhelmed.
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It's easy to think the problems are too big.
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That culture is moving way too fast. Technology is changing everything,
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and there's nothing much that one person can do.
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But history has always been shaped by people who choose to invest in others.
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Not perfectly, not dramatically, just faithfully.
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One conversation, one act of kindness one word of encouragement one example
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worth following and maybe that's the challenge for all of us,
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not to to take the time and complain about the next generation not to fear the
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future in front of us not to to blame technology for every problem we see.
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But to ask ourselves a different question. Who am I investing in? Who am I encouraging?
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Who am I helping? Who am I showing up for?
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Because the truth is the next generation probably doesn't need more opinions
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about what's wrong with them.
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They need adults who are willing to walk alongside them.
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Adults who are willing to learn, willing to care, and willing to lead by example.
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And maybe, just maybe, that's how the future gets built. Not through the next
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technological breakthrough, but through ordinary people making the decision
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to be present in the lives of others.
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Technology will keep changing. It always does. But influence,
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mentorship, encouragement, And example, man, those things, they never go out of style.
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And if we want to leave the next generation something of lasting value,
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maybe the best place to start isn't with a new device or a new platform.
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Maybe it starts by simply showing up.
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As we wrap up here, I'd love to leave you with one final thought.
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You don't have to change the world to make a difference in someone's life.
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You don't have to have all the answers. You don't have to be a teacher,
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a coach, a pastor, or even a parent.
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Sometimes the most important thing you can do is simply show up.
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Take an interest in someone.
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Encourage them. Listen to them. Invest in them.
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Because long after today's technology has been replaced by whatever comes next,
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people will still remember the individual who took the time to care.
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And maybe that's how the future gets built, one relationship at a time.
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Before we wrap up, let me say thank you for listening. If Randy Unscripted has
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encouraged you, challenged you, or simply given you something to think about,
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I'd love to hear from you.
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You can send a message through the contact page at randyunscripted.com slash contact.
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And if you'd like to help support the podcast, you can learn more at randyunscripted.com support.
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Your support helps cover hosting, production, and the ongoing work of creating new episodes.
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Whether you listen or share an episode with a friend, send a note or support
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the show financially, thank you for being a part of this community because I
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appreciate every one of you.
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And one more thing before we go, I want to give a quick shout out and a thank
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you to Sylvie, the host of Two for Toonster, for the recent Boostergrams totaling 888 sats.
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One of the things I love about podcasting is the connections it creates.
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And it's always encouraging to hear from people who take the time to support
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the work that's being done.
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This episode has been all about influence, encouragement, and showing up for others.
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And in a small but meaningful way, that's exactly what support like that represents.
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Sylvie, thank you for listening. Thank you for the encouragement.
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And thank you for supporting Randy Unscripted. It truly means a lot.
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I'm Randy, and this has been Randy Unscripted.