Being able to swim seems to be a special thing. When I was growing up I learned to swim. As I grew I was very surprised to learn that not many people can swim. Most of the people I worked with through the years never learned to swim, and I don't know very many people that have ever swam in the ocean. I used to love swimming, but with age and time and distance from childhood I simply have not done much swimming in the last fifteen years.
Smallsteps is learning a tool that not many will have, likely even fewer in her generation will know how to swim than in mine and yours. What you mention about not having the skill of others in videos is very real it seems. Game bikers, and skateboarders never having actually rode a bike or a skateboard in real life. I do feel sorry for the kids raised by video.
It is a vital skill in Australia (I am not a good swimmer at all) and in Finland, because the entire summer centers around the water, beaches and pools in Australia, lakes in Finland. So many people drown it is crazy though.
My mother encouraged us not to swim because of her fears of drowning. Seems a bit counter-productive!
What I think is most insidious with the consumption of skill is the feeling of having the skill. It is like watchin a Kungfu film and then getting into a fight with a Kungfu master.
That is so true in so many ways. We have or had some commercials over here for Holiday Inn hotels that took that view. "I'm not a (choose a profession), but I did stay at a Holiday Inn.
Stupid people do stupid things.