British Study: Millennials Lack Basic Survival Skills

A survey of British millennials revealed that they have almost no knowledge of practical skills such as map reading or fishing, compared to their grandparents’ generation, The Express reported.

“Despite the rise of TV shows such as I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and Bear Grylls: Born Survivor, young people lack basic survival skills such as building a fire or catching food,” a spokeswoman for the London Boat Show, which conducted the poll, told The Express.

More than half of young adults (roughly those born between 1984 and 1999, ages 18 to 31) reported being unable to tie a single knot and 40 percent had never swum in open water, despite their residence in Britain, an island nation.

The London Boat Show conducted the poll, which discovered that simple life skills have been forgotten and replaced with advances in technology. For instance, a majority of those under age 44 (millennials included) prefer to use Google Maps or Sat Navs to get around, while over half of British residents over 55 prefer a paper street map.

Only one third of the 2,000 people surveyed knew how to spark a flame by natural means, and less than a third had caught their own fish or seafood.

Elderly Britons were three times more likely to be able to tie a sheepshank knot compared to their younger counterparts, a full 44 percent of whom have never actually been camping.

An American study in August found that millennials are physically weaker than young people were in the 1980s. The growing reliance on technology can distract millennials from enjoying nature, learning basic survival skills, and being more physically fit. While older people may mock them, technological changes have made the old survival methods and connection with nature seem less relevant.

Many millennials still enjoy the outdoors, and as young people get older, they might decide to educate themselves on survival skills and rediscover camping.