A cabbie said a recent conversation he overheard between two teenage passengers left him thinking about how young people see their future.
He had picked up two teenagers from Toa Payoh and was driving them to Jurong West. During the ride, one of them admitted that he might fail his exam because he had not studied properly.
The other teenager then questioned the point of studying hard if good results might not lead anywhere. He reportedly said that AI would replace them anyway.
The two teenagers then carried on chatting and joking about it.
But for the Cabbie, the conversation did not feel funny.
What The Conversation Made Him Think
What stayed with him was how casually the teenagers talked about their future.
He felt that young people should still be looking ahead and thinking about what they want to become, what kind of career they want, and what kind of life they want to build.
Instead, these teenagers were already joking about whether there would even be a place for them in the future.
That was what made the conversation feel so bleak to him.
He said the incident also got him thinking about his own kids. He started wondering why some youngsters seem less interested in the future and why they can appear so unmotivated or demoralized.
From what he sees, young people today are facing rising costs, tough job competition, and a workplace that is changing quickly. Now, with AI taking on more tasks, he can understand why some of them may be questioning where all that studying will lead.
The World Feels Different Now
The cabbie also compared their outlook with his own experience growing up in Singapore during the 1980s.
He acknowledged that life was not easy back then. There was uncertainty and hardship too. But he remembers having a stronger belief that studying hard, working hard, and building useful skills would eventually lead to opportunities.
He is not sure young people today have that same confidence.
In his view, the difference is that teenagers now can see how quickly the world is changing. They are growing up knowing that the jobs they are preparing for might not look the same by the time they enter the workforce.
And that can mess with their motivation.
If a teenager already believes the game is stacked against them, the TikToker wonders why they would feel excited about playing it in the first place.
But Is AI Really the End of the Road?
The comments on the video were divided.
Some people agreed with the teenagers, saying AI is becoming increasingly capable and could make competition for professional jobs even tougher. One commenter described AI as feeling less like a simple tool and more like a highly capable co-worker who can complete tasks much faster.
Others pushed back, pointing out that technology has always changed the workplace.
Computers and the internet transformed jobs in previous generations, but people adapted. Some commenters also said young people could look towards skilled trades and hands-on work, where human skills are still difficult to replace completely.
Others blamed parenting and society, arguing that some young people have been overprotected or constantly told that the future will be difficult.
But for the cabbie, the bigger concern is what he heard from those two teenagers. They were not having a serious debate about the future. They were joking about it. And that is exactly what stayed with him.
He is not saying young people should ignore the risks of AI or pretend everything will be fine. He simply hopes they do not give up before they have even had the chance to find out what their future could look like.
For him, the worrying part is not knowing whether AI will replace their jobs. It is seeing young people already wonder whether there is any point trying at all.
See the video here:
@lazycabbie Maybe the biggest problem facing our young people isn’t a lack of ambition. Maybe it’s that they’re growing up in a world where the future feels increasingly uncertain. We used to believe that working hard would lead to a better life. Do they still believe that? I use DJI Pocket 3 to shoot my content Item code: ALT-WMK-MDY https://s.shopee.sg/7KvY3dRYdF
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