Gen Z and DiY

[Tris]

I make a living getting Handyman work through an app. I can't honestly say that the proportion of work I get via Gen Z is any higher than other age groups. As a 60 year old who grew up in an era when most people did most things themselves if they could, there definitely seems to be a decrease in the number of folk with entry level competence. My favourite was the guy that hired me to change a toilet seat. He had a really nice house, so I asked what he did. He was a Surgeon. How can someone who cuts open people, fixes them and puts them back together not have the nous to change a bog seat

To be fair, if he's earning 6 figures a year from those hands I don't expect he'd risk it

 

[Amplidyne]

I make a living getting Handyman work through an app. I can't honestly say that the proportion of work I get via Gen Z is any higher than other age groups. As a 60 year old who grew up in an era when most people did most things themselves if they could, there definitely seems to be a decrease in the number of folk with entry level competence. My favourite was the guy that hired me to change a toilet seat. He had a really nice house, so I asked what he did. He was a Surgeon. How can someone who cuts open people, fixes them and puts them back together not have the nous to change a bog seat

To be fair to a person who is a surgeon, a lot of them work very hard, and a lot of hours helping people. They are also well paid.
Perhaps he felt that he'd rather just pay somebody to do it for him. It's a matter of time isn't it. By the very nature of this site we're all handy types, but if you're not interested, just want stuff fixed, and have the money to do so, then why not?

I spent years servicing and repairing my own motors. These days I just take it in and let them get on with it. They even collect it.

 

[paulrbarnard]

I make a living getting Handyman work through an app. I can't honestly say that the proportion of work I get via Gen Z is any higher than other age groups. As a 60 year old who grew up in an era when most people did most things themselves if they could, there definitely seems to be a decrease in the number of folk with entry level competence. My favourite was the guy that hired me to change a toilet seat. He had a really nice house, so I asked what he did. He was a Surgeon. How can someone who cuts open people, fixes them and puts them back together not have the nous to change a bog seat

More likely just didn’t want to do it and had the money to pay someone else. I’ve done that more times than I should myself.
Got to ask yourself what you would like to do with your spare time, change a toilet seat or go to the theatre or whatever.

 

[Chubber]

More likely just didn’t want to do it and had the money to pay someone else. I’ve done that more times than I should myself

Yup. Four years ago I payed to have my hall, stairs and landing redecorated. I have redecorated 6 houses in 3 countries and thought 'Sod it' and for the first time ever, used a tradesman.

Best money I have spent in a long time, for the results and lack of aches and pains!

 

[JSW]

More likely in my mind is that a lot of modern housing doesn't allow the space to devote to the tools and workspace needed to practice

That's a really good point actually. I'm looking at downsizing, not too bothered about the house, it's the potential for a half decent IE bigger than single garage workshop that is the stumbling block.

My lad moved back home at the start of the year, the rent on the open plan flat he and his mate were sharing became exorbitant, cracking flat though, 2 beds obviously, huuuge open plan living/dining/cooking space, but no room for a toolbox never mind workspace.

 

[Chubber]

Good point.

I set up a work space for a chums son, his shared flat was all 'engineered' wood floors and rugs. I used a piece of 15mm ply that fitted under his bed on which he lay a 'workmate'. He kept a few tools in a low lidded under-bed plastic box. We stuck some non-slip mat on the front 12" so once you had pulled it out it didn't slip around when standing on it.

He managed to build a bike trailer on it, and did his bike maintenance on it.

 

[Agent_zed]

It would be interesting to see the results of the survey across all ages groups. I know plenty of people from all generations who don't know how to do basic DIY tasks.

One of my dads tenants, a women in her 70's, called me (as my dad was away) to go and reset the trip switch as she'd tripped it using her toaster. Apparently didn't know how to reset the trip. MCB's have been around for at least 30 years and she still didn't know how to push up a switch.

I have the opposite problem with my young son, he is keen to make things and will happily use his saw and hand drill. I showed him how to use a screwdriver at 4yrs old and he proceeded to undo the door thresholds and anything else with screws he could find! Doh.

 

[Ollie78]

I was thinking about this today and I wonder if there is an element of necessity to learn any diy.
I have always been relatively poor so there was really no question of getting (paying) someone to do any simple diy tasks, you just did it yourself unless it was gas fitting or something.
Even if I can afford to get someone to do work it doesn`t really occur to me, my initial thinking is, where did I put the tool for that ? I have to remind myself that maybe I don`t have to fix it myself.
The other thing is, early access to tools and watching people use them. My Uncle had a workshop building ash car bodies (for old Bentleys mostly ) and my Dad was always tinkering with vintage cars. So all my life I have seen people using tools, it is just normal to me.
So, of course the opposite must be true if your parents/ family all had clerical jobs and non diy hobbies then how would you be exposed to DIY stuff.

 

[Chris152]

It's also worth remembering (maybe someone's written it already and I missed it) that Zs were brought up in an economy that encourages people to replace stuff, not to repair it. We used to do all sorts to our cars as youngsters, these days it's not so easy. Computers? Unless that's your thing, out it goes to be replaced. All quite deliberate on the part of manufacturers, obsolescent and deliberately obstructive to diy repairs, which creates a dependent culture/ mind set. Good for profits.

 

[JSW]

It's also worth remembering (maybe someone's written it already and I missed it) that Zs were brought up in an economy that encourages people to replace stuff, not to repair it. We used to do all sorts to our cars as youngsters, these days it's not so easy. Computers? Unless that's your thing, out it goes to be replaced. All quite deliberate on the part of manufacturers, obsolescent and deliberately obstructive to diy repairs, which creates a dependent culture/ mind set. Good for profits.

So why are Boomers, (which I suspect a good few members on UKW fall into that category) so useless at fixing Computers?
Surely if we're the "If it's broke, fix it" generation, why can't we turn our hands to fixing a computer? rather than binning an item that cost hundreds? There's hardly a day goes by on here without someone asking how to fix a capacitor, route a power supply, new workshop builds c/w consumer units etc etc, but comes to fixing a comp? Noooo, buy a new one

 

[paulrbarnard]

So why are Boomers, (which I suspect a good few members on UKW fall into that category) so useless at fixing Computers?
Surely if we're the "If it's broke, fix it" generation, why can't we turn our hands to fixing a computer? rather than binning an item that cost hundreds? There's hardly a day goes by on here without someone asking how to fix a capacitor, route a power supply, new workshop builds c/w consumer units etc etc, but comes to fixing a comp? Noooo, buy a new one

Boomer here... I designed my first commercial computer in the 80’s and have built, maintained and repaired countless computers and electronic devices since then. I built a couple of raspberry Pi with NVMe modules and battery back then configured them as OwnCloud servers over the weekend.

 

[Spectric]

so useless at fixing Computers

You are missing something here, us boomers were born before computers and grew up with B/W tv and saw the demise of the thermionic valve as transistors took over and then by logic chips. We then used some of the early Pc's that were before anyone heard of Windows and in those days you had to fix them otherwise an expensive game, who remembers the first 286, the 386 and then the 486 running at an amazing 66Mhz. For me I have always built my own Pc's and have wrote software for many years so really the boomer generation has been a hands on and with a fix anything attitude unlike now where we are down to wear it once and buy something else and gullable enough for people to sell them worn out jeans full of holes, do you think we would have been so easily conned.

 

[JSW]

I'm not missing anything, backtrack through the number of folks on here posting "why won't windows do this that or the other?" and it soon becomes quite obvious that Boomers are just as bad as Zoomers et al for the "Buy a new one" attitude

Edited to add:- Obviously I'm not saying ALL Boomers are guilty of this, but I can say that both here and in everyday life, I come across far far too many folk of the fix-it generation that just WILL NOT even try to fix something that isn't broke, just not behaving as it should.

 

[paulrbarnard]

You are missing something here, us boomers were born before computers and grew up with B/W tv and saw the demise of the thermionic valve as transistors took over and then by logic chips. We then used some of the early Pc's that were before anyone heard of Windows and in those days you had to fix them otherwise an expensive game, who remembers the first 286, the 386 and then the 486 running at an amazing 66Mhz. For me I have always built my own Pc's and have wrote software for many years so really the boomer generation has been a hands on and with a fix anything attitude unlike now where we are down to wear it once and buy something else and gullable enough for people to sell them worn out jeans full of holes, do you think we would have been so easily conned.

Yeah but do you remember some of those fashions through the 70’s and 80’s? Certainly some gullible boomers

 

[Chris152]

I'm not missing anything, backtrack through the number of folks on here posting "why won't windows do this that or the other?" and it soon becomes quite obvious that Boomers are just as bad as Zoomers et al for the "Buy a new one" attitude

I'm sure that's true in relation to computers and that kind of tech, but for us boomers that is a relatively marginal part of the world we grew up in/ know - so we learnt to fix our cars etc. Zs grew up in a world completely dominated by that technology. But yes, we've learned to chuck it away and buy a new one, too. Carp, innit.

 

[JSW]

I built a couple of raspberry Pi with NVMe modules

Snap! Posting this from my daily driver, Rpi5 w/ 250GB NVMe

 

[Amplidyne]

You are missing something here, us boomers were born before computers and grew up with B/W tv and saw the demise of the thermionic valve as transistors took over and then by logic chips. We then used some of the early Pc's that were before anyone heard of Windows and in those days you had to fix them otherwise an expensive game, who remembers the first 286, the 386 and then the 486 running at an amazing 66Mhz. For me I have always built my own Pc's and have wrote software for many years so really the boomer generation has been a hands on and with a fix anything attitude unlike now where we are down to wear it once and buy something else and gullable enough for people to sell them worn out jeans full of holes, do you think we would have been so easily conned.

When I did my apprenticeship, I started in Sept 1971. I went down the electrical route, although there was plenty of choice in the various trades. Doing the B cert electronics endorsement, that'd be late 1972 at a guess, the first focus was on valves. The next year apprentices hardly touched the subject.

I built all my computers up until recently. I bought this one ready made last year built to the spec I wanted. It's OK.
TBH, I'm more of a computer user than anything else, so I'd rather spend the time doing other things rather than building the them.

 

[Chris152]

Of course, another perspective is that we're nearly all a bit rubbish at diy these days. Who among us builds their own house, kills and farms their own food? Very few. We browse the aisles picking up carrion, pressing buttons to get our veggies delivered, allow our standing orders to pay for our warmth. It's all rather relative, this diy thing.

 

[niall Y]

One really only starts to take up serious D.I.Y. after purchasing a house of ones own. It was often a case of paying the mortgage and the bills, with little money left over. Doing it oneself, then, was the only possible way of afford things that needed to be done to the property.

Fewer and fewer of the younger generation will be able to purchase their own homes. More and more regulations have crept into building and the trades and lots of the tasks are in danger of becoming closed shops. Things are now deliberately made not to be serviceable so one is forever reliant on the manufacturer. It has certainly moved that way with cars and many electrical goods.

So, in brief, there are fewer opportunities. And, if one can't own property ,then one isn't going to be invested in any way with spending time and money on something that other people own.