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As a millennial, I get it. We, along with other older generations, will probably forever lament the loss of things that really aren't useful anymore: cursive, the forced memorization of multiplication tables, and the balancing of a paper checkbook.
But there's one life skill that Gen Z doesn't seem to have learned that appears to still be at least somewhat necessary, and it's sparked a lot of discussion online.
Over on Reddit, Mountain-Poem9830 explained the types of issues they're seeing in their post office job regularly: "I'm a clerk. My office is in an area that’s 95% Gen Z yuppies. Some of the questions I’ll sometimes get on a daily basis:"
1. “Do I have to have a return address?”
2. "Someone has addressed a package with the recipient on top, the sender on the bottom."
3. "'Do I HAVE to buy tape?'"
4. "'You guys can’t print my (shipping) label?' (We scan the QR codes.)"
5. "I had a kid with the 'Gen Z stare' write his name, address, city, state, zip in a straight line across the top of the envelope."
6. "Had a girl who insisted a larger package would fit in one of our small bubble mailers when it clearly didn’t."
7. "Of course I’ll help them, I don’t mind helping, but it’s like, I have to physically guide these kids through the process of addressing a letter/package/packing a package, and I’m like, did you guys not learn this in school? Because I’m a millennial, and I’m pretty sure I learned how to address a letter anywhere from first to fourth grade. Plus, I always used to go to the post office with my mom."
8. "There are plenty of Gen X/millennials/boomers who have no clue what the hell they’re doing either, and that confuses me, too, because how the hell did you send mail without email?"
Some folks in the comments were quick to jump on board.
9. "100% a thing. I'm not a teacher, but I work in an office, and the percentage of recent college grads I've had to teach this, as well as how to write out a check, is 100%. Which I get, they barely need it anymore. Everything is auto-pay or online. Even mailing stuff, they can get an online system to print it off for them from fill-in forms most of the time."
10. "I teach high school and help kids register for the SAT. It amazes me how many juniors don’t know their zip codes."
11. "My niece is 15 and couldn't give me her own address because she didn't know how to write it properly; house number, street, city, zip code."
Others stood up for Gen Z, saying they probably hadn't gotten a chance to learn these skills.
12. "Did you ever consider maybe, just maybe, they're not taught these? I'm 30 and can count on one hand how many times I've actually used the postal service to do anything besides receive the wrong mail every week and get packages."
13. "I'm a millennial ('88), and I can't remember ever mailing anything in my adult life except for a ballot, I think. I learned how to address an envelope and everything as a kid and even had a pen pal, but if I had to mail a letter to someone now, I'd probably end up watching a YouTube video or something to remind myself how to do it."
14. "I’m a millennial who was specifically taught how to address mail in school, and I could not do it today without, like, googling it or something."
And still, others thought it was a skill people could learn on their own.
15. "So...why are they incapable of learning how to do it when they need to? I don't expect people to know how to do everything. I do expect them to take ownership of things they don't know how to do and do the bare minimum research to learn. Like, that's literally less than a minute of googling."
Gen Z'ers chimed in to share their personal experiences as well.
16. "Gen Z here! Mid 20s. Nope, we did not learn envelope addressing in school. I had to teach myself almost everything by observing how it's depicted in the media and looking through the USPS website. Asking my parents to teach me things they didn't already choose to teach me was either that they didn't know, didn't care, or didn't have the time. I suspect a lot of the people asking you instead of another adult in their life are having that same situation of don't know/don't care/too busy as answers to life questions."
17. "I’m 25. My dad was even a USPS postal clerk (and driver) for 36 years. At no point in my formal education (high school, associate's, and bachelor’s) did the need to teach this skill ever arise. I was taught how to format email correspondence properly around fourth or fifth grade, and that’s about it when it comes to sending mail. We had already moved to a digital age, and most people I know don’t mail packages themselves. Even with my dad in the post office, it never came up in conversation, and I’ve never sent a letter or package in my entire life. I couldn’t for the life of me tell you anything about the mailing process. Other than bills, college stuff, credit cards, and political junk, I don’t even get mail."
18. "Gen Z here. I learned how to fill out an envelope in elementary school, but I have probably filled out fewer than 50 envelopes in my entire life. I'd have to look up how to fill out an envelope correctly now because it's just not something that's relevant to my daily life. Obviously, that's no excuse to be an ass at the post office, though."
19. One person stepped in to suggest a solution. "Education needs to include PRACTICAL skills."
20. Finally, others disagreed with that point, too. "Schools don't have time to teach that stuff. Your family/parents/guardians are supposed to teach you how to live life. I know a lot of people don't get the privilege of a family, but that's how it's supposed to work. I could go on a diatribe about what schools and teachers already go through, but I think that's usually well known."
What do you think? Should younger generations be taught how to mail packages? And if so, by whom? Let us know in the comments.
Comments have been edited for length and clarity.
English (US) 