'Have smartphones destroyed a generation?'

Worst thing about the solar eclipse: Every fucking person will try to film/shoot/post it.

Best thing: It may kill some of their cameras.

Experts warn not to use cell phone camera for 2017 solar eclipse

 

As a millennial (that's what we call 30 year olds, right?), I look forward to when we drive the phrase balance a checkbook from the lexicon.

 

Is "balance a checkbook" the new "Netflix and chill?"

 

Do they live in a big city?

 

Between my teenage son and some of the older people he is around -- along with some of my younger colleagues -- I'm coming around on the millennials.

Sure, they can't spell but they also put up with bullshit at work or in life. They seem to want to travel more instead of buying an Audi. I love that.

Here is what I do wonder.

When the economy turns bad (and I believe it will by the end of 2018/early 2019) and unemployment jumps from 4.2% to 7%, will they be able the economy shift? Every group has it a little bit easier when everyone can find a job.

 

Clarified.

(And as guilty as anyone, which I have been trying to remedy. First step was setting my Facebook seasonal photo albums privacy setting to "Only Me.")

 

No, they don't.

 

Wow. That is an outlier.

 

I've tried to keep from being judgemental about cell phones at concerts, but when I'm trying to see an act through a forest of arms hoisting phones and tablets, it's hard to not get annoyed. Having said that, it's easy to see how this is a generational thing. Take a look at this video:

My first thought was, "Gah! Feckin' kids! She's right there in front of you! Be in the moment." Then it occurred that this is the way kids enjoy things now. There's also the mitigating factor that the person who is being sung to is in hospice and this is their attempt at saving the moment.

Edited to add that it seems like it's the older people in the room who are experiencing this mostly through their screens.

 

I took my 8-year-old to a Sox game the other night and made the considered decision not to take photos or check in on any social media. I thought, "I go to these five or six times a year. Does the world really need to know we're here? Do I really need to announce to the world that my wife and 4-year-old daughter are home alone together tonight so that people can validate me being at the White Sox fucking Astros game?"

You just get into this mode where you feel like you have to take a photo of everything, or it didn't happen. It's addicting. I have two photos from MLB stadiums from when I was a kid. One at Comiskey and one at Wrigley. That's it. I treasure them both. I don't feel like the other experiences are somehow diminished.

 

At the end of that youtube, one of the next videos previewed is
Austin teen dies months after.....

 

If you can resist taking pictures or video of that, you have more willpower than I ever can hope for.