The 'laziest generation'?

[Dick Whitman]

Will our generation leave a lasting legacy or just millions of snarky tweets?

I definitely don't disagree with the columnist here, evidenced by my numerous complaints on here whenever a big news event is followed by stories about what people were saying on Twitter and Facebook.

I guess it's hypocritical because I post on here, and somewhat Luddite-ish of me, but I like social media less and less every day. Like the columnist here, I don't like what it has done to us.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/07/18/obeidallah.laziest.generation/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

 

[Mark2010]

I agree with the writer. Most of the stuff I have read on Facebook and Twitter is just nonsense. If I ever do find a cure for cancer, I'll also find a more appropriate place to announce it.

 

[poindexter]

Sportscenter has gotten ****ing ridiculous with the ****ing tweets. I completely don't give a **** about Obama or anybody else's tweets.

 

[poindexter]

I have another message board I post on. We have a running thread about the inane facebook posts. It's hilarious. Or sad.

 

[shockey]

AMEN. sadly, social networks are here to stay. i, too, take part , obviously, here and via facebook. there's no putting the ketchup back in the bottle and IMPOSSIBLE to resist, 'unless you enjoy feeling left in the dust.

but this is ABSOLUTELY the greatest example of 'progress' not being in favor of our children in terms of education and deveoping REAL, face-to-face social skills. and that sucks.

now, no doubt many, many, MANY advances in the history of man were greeted with similar concerns by 'elder' generations, from first radio to then television to the internet even without the social networking.

civilzation survived those 'advances,' and will 'survive' this one, too. but this latest one hast perfected fusing all previous ones into one place. and no doubt negatively impact the reading development of our children, heck, every thought process there is. there's never a need -- or hardly ever -- to actually figure things out for yourself. hit a button, get the answer. hit another button, make a faceless friend who can turn themselves into anyone.

the horrifying reality of all this reality is it sets us all up to be lied to and deceived and deprived of actual human contact more than EVER.

i feel like such an incredibly old fart expressing this. but none of this is a good thing, imho.

 

[Cubbiebum]

It started with AIM.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

This reminds me of that box Jim Carrey's Joker invented in the Batman movie. Turned everyone into slack-jawed vegetables. I fear that's where we're headed with all this.

BTW, I love the term "slacktivist".

 

[poindexter]

We went on vacation last week. My teenage daughter always brings her best friend. The girl is very nice, but damn it if every possible second we weren't on the lake she had that text machine in her hand. Even at in n out.

Kinda depressing.

 

[Dick Whitman]

We went on vacation last week. My teenage daughter always brings her best friend. The girl is very nice, but damn it if every possible second we weren't on the lake she had that text machine in her hand. Even at in n out.

Kinda depressing.

Is this her?

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

And not the laziest generation. Just The Dumbest.

 

[sgreenwell]

One hundred years ago, kids worked in factories. Fifty years ago, men 18 to 30 got drafted and women still primarily stayed at home and started a family instead of going to college. As we continue to advance technologically, I think we're going to eventually hit a point when most manual labor we do now is automated. What do we do then? Have we already hit a point where some people simply aren't needed by society to work?

 

[BTExpress]

there's never a need -- or hardly ever -- to actually figure things out for yourself.

That's quite true, although it's hardly unique to today.

I was reading a book about an American writer who hired a couple of natives to travel across Siberia by car. Their vehicle was unreliable as hell (not what you would want to take on a 6,000-mile trip). Broke down several times. Each time one of the natives would tinker under the hood, sometimes pick up some scrap metal they found on the side of the road, and get it running again.

Whom do you know --- whom does any of us know? --- that could do that? Or any repair. We just call a tow truck and let an expert figure it out.

Once upon a time people built their own homes. Who on earth knows how to do that?

 

[dirtybird]

Damn kids. Always with the texting and tweeting. Oh for the days where people did things like amazing things like settle the great plains and die of dysentery.

 

[steveu]

We went on vacation last week. My teenage daughter always brings her best friend. The girl is very nice, but damn it if every possible second we weren't on the lake she had that text machine in her hand. Even at in n out.

Kinda depressing.

Even more depressing... I don't have kids, but I've heard this story. Two best friends, back seat of the car, on their phones texting.

The girls are awfully quiet... then the person realized they were texting EACH OTHER. Sitting in the back of the car, right next to each other, yet they're on the phones. Most likely it was done so the people in the car couldn't hear what they were talking about, but good God...

 

[Stitch]

If we have posters complain about spending 20 minutes sending a clips package via email, you can't do anything to change their view.

 

[Dick Whitman]

One hundred years ago, kids worked in factories. Fifty years ago, men 18 to 30 got drafted and women still primarily stayed at home and started a family instead of going to college. As we continue to advance technologically, I think we're going to eventually hit a point when most manual labor we do now is automated. What do we do then? Have we already hit a point where some people simply aren't needed by society to work?

The Wall Street Journal had an excellent column about this a couple weeks ago, in response to the President's comment that we have structural problems in our job market because of automation replacing workers.

The short answer is no. More jobs for humans are still being created. They just require critical thinking skills more than manual labor.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

We went on vacation last week. My teenage daughter always brings her best friend. The girl is very nice, but damn it if every possible second we weren't on the lake she had that text machine in her hand. Even at in n out.

Kinda depressing.

Even more depressing... I don't have kids, but I've heard this story. Two best friends, back seat of the car, on their phones texting.

The girls are awfully quiet... then the person realized they were texting EACH OTHER. Sitting in the back of the car, right next to each other, yet they're on the phones. Most likely it was done so the people in the car couldn't hear what they were talking about, but good God...

What's the big deal? Children should be seen and not heard.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

Just The Dumbest.

Not sure there. While there are plenty of slack-jawed idiots to go around, there's also this impressive section of kids who seem to absorb information at a much faster rate than I could ever imagine when I was little.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

A kid in the neighborhood who my son goes to school with invited him over for a birthday party. My son is 5. The whole family went.

It was a gorgeous day. The kids did nothing but play video games the whole time we were there. They had to be dragged away to even have cake.

I don't think I've ever been so thrilled to see my son bored when they were playing video games. After two hours he came to me and said, "Daddy, I want to go home and play on my climber."

So we bowed out and my kids played outside for a couple hours. What a concept.