Very occasionally, as the boundaries between perception and reality become increasingly blurred to older generations, there’s a dazzling shaft of light.
We are therefore considerably indebted to Derek Sach, head of Global Restructuring at the Royal Bank of Scotland, for shedding such light during his recent visit to Birmingham.
Mr Sach, a senior figure in the financial world for more than 30 years, says young people are no longer buying books or records, and some are not even bothering to learn to drive.
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He says they spend their whole lives ‘in a virtual world,’ hermetically sealed from the old realities, relying on ‘incomprehensible text messages’ to communicate.
Mr Sach suggests people in their 20s able to write a cogent piece of English are as rare as warm sunshine this spring. He talks of ‘very bright people’ at the bank who exist on bullet points alone, as if it were some vegan-style banking diet.
Call me an unashamed Luddite, (people understandably do) but Mr Sach is surely correct.
The Internet may have changed the world, but it has made hollow-eyed zombies of millions, as well as driving a virtual coach and horses through the high street, the media, the travel industry, even the old-style pornographic magazine industry which was once a rite of passage for curious male adolescents.
Meanwhile, entire generations are no longer nourishing their souls by reading great literature or listening to music.
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They are spending their time sending text messages to each other rather than learning the subtleties of the English language.
And when not relying on Dalekesque text-speak, they are offering pearls of wisdom on Twitter, the medium which brings you the instant philosophies on everyday life from intellects such as Joey Barton, Rio Ferdinand and Kevin Pietersen, whilst enabling us to chortle gleefully at the fun-filled barbs exchanged between Piers Morgan and Lord Sugar.
Or even the intimate thoughts of John Prescott.
As I watch dull-eyed young adults staring obsessively at their mobile phones in lifts, or swerve to avoid a head-on collision with yet another mobile user in mid-conversation, it occurs to me that something has gone wrong somewhere.
Or as Mr Sach might agree, man surely cannot live by bullet points alone.