A casual observer sees “something” and immediately begins to critique the situation, narrative, characters, or appearance. They do not see the underlying background, conflict, cause, science, or events that brought this “something” to the state of being observed. On the other hand, a participating mind has a sense and consideration of the effort, thought, or creativity that has been put into play to bring such a “something” to our attention.

Let’s take any old game, for example; the observer offers their glib opinions regarding the environment, characters, other players, or gameplay. They do not see the conditions or efforts of those who have created the story and its constituent parts. This is true about most observations that pertain to others performing in their career or craft. We tend to have an immediacy of perception that forces us to make instantaneous judgments, often hostile, especially if we don’t like the other side. While this served us in the early stages of human evolution due to the need to evaluate potentially dangerous situations or form alliances, our current age is pushing us toward participation and mindfulness.

While this likely does not pertain to the current generations of adults, when we look at the kids who play Minecraft, we are witnessing a phenomenon that should amaze us. As of one year ago, there were over 100 million global participants playing Minecraft, which is nearly a third of the population of the United States. These players are not battling for supremacy; they are collaborating in a massive experiment in group social participation.

Does this imply that humanity may be on the verge of a shift from passive observers to active participants? I’m certain some social scientists would call me out for my casual proposition and non-scientific approach, but I see that nothing short of a radical move is occurring in our global relationships where, for the connected kids of today, earth’s borders are falling.

The implications of these changes are noticeable already. One is no longer a non-acting cog in the machine of their work. We do not train for one day and work the following 40 years doing roughly the same task. Nearly everyone will agree these days that their jobs require full participation with continual training and learning of new ways of working and handling information. While at this time, this may be one-to-one’s self-participation in order to hold a job, it is a harbinger of what is around the corner.

Watch eight-year-olds play Minecraft, they do so in groups of four or five with their tablets in their laps and the world tuned out. What should make us think this isn’t turning into a future habit and they will expect to work the same way? And then why wouldn’t they approach learning and handling tasks cooperatively, too?

We already know that television usage is dropping among younger generations, and while some may belittle their non-stop consumption of texting, gameplay, and watching viral cat videos, the point is that they are in group communication and learning new social skills that are different from older generations.

What else can be understood about a participative generation is that they are not so emotionally affected by differences. They do not care as much about appearance, orientation, or belief systems as much as they do about communication, compassion, and skills. They are oblivious to the disdain and bias shown to them by an intolerant bunch of old people. These characteristics of our emerging generations will be fundamental traits of their culture. And it will be a culture different from our own.

The tools, education, and guidance we supply to the next generation are imperatives that rest on our shoulders to properly mentor and allow their forward evolution to occur. We should not stymie their progress because of our antiquated social conditioning that arguably served the generations of the past two centuries, though at the same time, created a mass of passive observers who have essentially, through laissez-faire attitudes crippled the environment, may have set in motion the sixth great extinction, and produced a one-sided economy with a less than noble quarreling government.

Participation is the only apparent solution to these intractable problems of our current age, but it won’t be us that lead the way. It will be the 100 million-plus players of Minecraft and the approaching hundreds of millions of people who, in the next ten years, will be playing and experiencing vast participative environments being created for Virtual Reality.

I am certain a sea change is at hand and while it is us “old-timers” that have created the stepping stone, it is also our hostility to change that could derail this important next step. Humanity must put to rest this yoke of disconnection with personal responsibility along with the arm-chair criticism formed out of passive observation and invest in and empower responsible participation for the health and vibrancy of our future.