Rollo

So apparently people are laughing about how gen z is complaining about class presentations, and saying things like "Wow, they can't even read analog clocks or speak in front of the class? They can't do shit nowadays." Listen, I also think public speaking is an important skill to have. And the analog clock thing I also kind of agree with. However, presenting in front of the class never once helped my social anxiety. Anyone who actually has social anxiety knows that having someone else force you to put yourself out there does not help your anxiety. If anything it makes it worse. Social anxiety requires your own methods. You need to be the one to figure it out. Everyone needs to be able to present eventually, yes. It is an extremely important skill to have. But presenting in front of the class does not help.

And I think the problem is it's a complex issue that's being unjustifiably oversimplified. I love sharing my work, absolutely. I like talking about my opinions on certain matters, especially if the topic is something I care about. But what gives me anxiety is the act of standing up in front of a big group of people, and personally explaining my project to them. I go to school with these people, if I mess up I'll feel awful for weeks thinking about what they thought. Obviously they might not have even cared if I did mess up, but that's kinda why anxiety sucks so much. Sure, standing up on this proverbial soap box on a Minecraft animation forum is totally fine for me because I know if I say something stupid, I can always take my time, think about what I said, what they said, and say something better next time. A presentation is a one-time deal. If you mess up, you're screwed. The fear of that happening only gets magnified ten-fold with social anxiety like that. Like I said, being able to handle that is an extremely important skill to have. But when you have social anxiety, that problem suddenly turns into something different that we're not really trying to fix properly.

Listen, from the almost 3 years I've been on this forum, I've learned the importance of constructive criticism. Criticism is the only sure-fire way to succeed in my book. When you give a presentation in front of 30 mindless teenagers who just want to leave, you don't get that. Not even from the teacher. Sure they might give you a score written on a piece of paper, but that's not real criticism is it? How am I supposed to be better at giving presentations if the only sign I'm doing something wrong is a number on a transcript? "This presentation sucks" does not tell us how to improve. And it really sucks that the current mindset that a lot of people have is that forcing you into that system will actually help you. It doesn't. Trust me, I know. If we want to actually help people improve at public speaking and to actually be able to use that skill in the real world, why don't we teach public speaking? There are a few schools out there who have it as an option, but being so important I think it should be required.

thank you for coming to my ted talk