Practical DIY on the decline?
September 16, 2008
Neatorama.com recently linked to an article by Popular Mechanics about how Americans are out of touch with practical DIY skills.
It would seem that many of us are losing the ability to actually perform DIY skills such as changing a tire, fixing the bathtub or installing a ceiling fan and yes, sometimes, changing a light bulb.
The article quotes sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein as saying:
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, coöperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
I’m not sure about you, but I can on a good day maybe task myself with one or two of the above (planning an invasion and cooking a tasty meal if you’re curious). Ask me to build a wall? I’d just point you in the direction of a great masonry. Balance accounts? Talk to my wife, the accountant. Butcher a hog? Well, you get the picture.
Granted, Heinlein’s task list is ambitious. It’s like asking a kindergartner to walk on stilts in the middle of a sandbox. It probably won’t happen. The kid might be smart enough to call his friend, the circus performer, who will not only gladly put on the stilts but he’ll hold a fishbowl as well. In this day and age, we’ve got contacts, professionals, who will do these things for a whole lot or a whole little greenback.
That said, it would seem impractical or more technical DIY is on the rise. Just to name a few DIY resources: Make Magazine, Readymade, Lifehacker, DIY Life, DIY Network and one of my favorites, Instructables, just about anyone can learn how to build a solar-powered kite or superpower an appliance.
The question is then, has the DIY skill set atrophied or has it evolved into something else entirely?
5 comments
Maybe social media is the new DIY. I can’t drywall a basement, but I can edit a video of my kid’s first bike ride and post it to Facebook in no time flat.
by Rob Cottingham on October 7, 2008 at 12:34 am. #
@Rob: You’re probably right. A few years ago we didn’t have the tools nor the capability/knowledge, at a consumer level, to edit video and post it online.
Social media has made distribution simple. 9+ million views on a video? That’s got legs.
by kartooner on October 8, 2008 at 3:00 pm. #
Whatever you do, don’t read Hemingway’s list of “stuff you have to do to call yourself a man” (or something). I guess I’m a total nancy!
But yeah, the basics are gone because for the past 20 years it has become easier to just go to Wal-Mart or Google a quick fix when something breaks. The streets of Home Depot are littered with the clueless who saw something on HGTV, but they have no real skills to do the task. Part of this is a breakdown in society and our educational system.
Most of it is attributed, I think, to the way we’re living. Consumerist, narrow-focused lives of leisure and the assumption that the world bows to us. How is that a breakdown of DIY? Well, if your brain doesn’t need to exercise certain functions, just like muscles, those areas will atrophy.
It’s a lot like those old Star Trek’s where the people were hapless prisoners to the tech their ancestors had created, yet they couldn’t fathom its operation nor could they imagine a world without it.
Personally I hope the economy makes us all realize we gotta DIY a lot more. Having grown up a bit in the 70’s, I distinctly remember my parents doing a lot of stuff at home. They put themselves through grad school while I hung around, so they had no choice. We gotta get to the “no choice” part.
I have no beef with Make, Instructables, etc. but I fear the basics (geometry, problem solving, reading instructions, etc.) are going away. That scares me.
by Victor Agreda Jr on November 13, 2008 at 2:19 pm. #
My wife watches HGTV too much and I’m forced to DIY. Thanks for the read. I’ve bookmarked your site.
by Grant on February 5, 2009 at 7:15 am. #
What an interesting idea. In my house DIY isn’t a problem thankfully, but I wonder as I raise my kids, if there are a lot of people today who just weren’t made to help around the house as kids — or didn’t have BOTH mother and father around to give them a broader DIY scope? I know fatherless homes have been on the rise for a long time. I imagine that hasn’t helped.
My parents divorced so I got the crafty, home, teaching skills passed to me from Mom, but Dad wasn’t around much so I missed out on a lot of the handier skills like anything involving a screwdriver. I’m learning now!
And Rob C has a great point, but I wouldn’t call it a positive trade-off at all. As silly as the movie WALL*E was, I can see a future where people don’t do much at all but “push buttons”. Scary.
by Natalie Jost on May 4, 2009 at 4:38 pm. #