Americans are increasingly looking up “how-tos” for basic life skills

Plucked from the same millennial phrasebook as “Live, laugh, love” and “But first, coffee,” anyone who went to the laundromat or filed their taxes in the early 2010s might be familiar with the adage, “Adulting is hard.”

However, for any number of reasons — from confidence in the future dwindling to losing hope about owning a home — “adulting” may have only gotten harder since then.

Concurrent with a culture where most basic needs can be instantly met for a nominal fee, everyday know-how seems to now be viewed as relatively inessential for the average American to learn at the outset of adulthood.

Skill, baby, skill

But when adults do inevitably need to know-how to change a tire, or tie a tie properly, where do they turn? As reported by Axios on Sunday, Google and AI chatbots are increasingly being used as the world’s biggest “Adulting 101” class.

Indeed, looking at search data from Google, queries regarding rudimentary cleaning techniques (like using a washing machine), basic financial knowledge (annual tax filings, using credit cards), and day-to-day practical skills (like using a hammer, which apparently needs explaining) have all reached record highs in recent months.

And it’s not just Google: YouTube and TikTok creators that offer life lessons — such as paternal guide “Dad, how do I?” and countless how-to cleaning accounts — have boomed in popularity. Prompts on ChatGPT, which just last month hit an all-time high of 780 million visits in the US, also often revolve around tackling pillars of adult admin, like managing personal finances.

Axios suggested that the reduction in practical skills training in US schools could be driving the trend, with home economics classes on the decline… Either that, or people simply don’t want to ask their parents or teachers how to do things anymore when the internet is right there.