First-World Problems

I'll be honest, I'm too lazy to vet this to see if it's true or not. I'll have to take EarlyMon's word for it that it's legit. I've kind of lost all faith in humanity now. I was about there anyways.

It's a brave new world....


Seriously though, it always strikes me how the younger generations view the internet, (well fb and twitter in particular) as an extension of regular old conversations with their friends.

You think there will be less emphasis on stuff like this as the signal to noise ratio increases because more and more people are making this kind of stuff public?

TBH I have no idea but just some thoughts kickin' round my head.


Also I agree with Frisco, we're every bit as bad and good as the next generation, and the one before us. (for the most part).

I think the thing that has changed in the equation is now the whole world is getting the up-close-and-personal view of anybody and everybody on these social networks.... and forums... such as... for Android.

Worthless kids. I can only imagine what kind of parents they have. But then again, I was raised on a farm in the middle of nowhere with no electricity... seriously. I did have a dog though. And a bunch of trees.

We always got necessities as presents - parents told us we couldn't afford much else. We were fine with that.

If my kid whined like those - it would be permanent restriction until 18, then leave.
You want a phone? Go get a job and get it yourself.

If you guys think it's just the language that's the problem here, I think thats sad.
I grew up with a bunch of friends that would never complain or speak badly of their parents. And we are not religious or anything like that.

I think there a a general lacking of respect for the elders...They don't buy you things because you don't really need them and you sometimes just have to trust their decision making.

kids need to be independent, but not believe that they know everything about the world.

Shinji01 said:

If you guys think it's just the language that's the problem here, I think thats sad.

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Language changes, however the way many kids are brought up in first-world countries I don't think has changed that much over the years.

I remember not liking my dad for being cheap. All the other kids had the nice expensive things like Sony radios, and I often had the cheap rubbish "Made in Hong Kong" stuff at Christmas. I wanted a new Raleigh Chopper bike in 1973(I was 10 at the time), they where quite expensive, instead I got some second-hand thing from the 1950s.

Shinji01 said:

I grew up with a bunch of friends that would never complain or speak badly of their parents. And we are not religious or anything like that.

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I now live in a place where there is almost total respect for one's elders, and most of them are not that religious. They basically get "Love your parents and love your teachers." drummed into them at school and at home.

I blame MTv. That sweet 16 garbage show ruined it. Kids feel entitled for some reason. My little sis is spoiled to a T, by me and the rest of the family! I mean spoiled! But the silver lining is what she said to me when she turned 16. I asked "is your dad going to get you a car? ", she politely replied "1. I don't want a new car, and 2 I don't care, as long as it can get me from point A and back so you guys don't have to keep driving me everywhere"

She seemed more worried and gas and car insurance than getting the car itself.

Needless to say, no car, no worries (she got a horse instead). She's crazy into horses and will most likely pursue a horse related degree (veterinarian or something)



Back to the point... EMO is cool nowadays. It's "cool" to be sad and dark and we'll, sheltered. Not fun growing up right now. Money is tight, greed is out of control, and realizing that you're not LeBron James and not going to make LeBron $$ is upsetting. Young ones have a hard time realizing that nerds do great things and can be plenty rich. They want to be supermodels and athletes.

/rant

mikedt said:

I now live in a place where there is almost total respect for one's elders, and most of them are not that religious. They basically get "Love your parents and love your teachers." drummed into them at school and at home.

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I'm Asian. It's not drummed into your head. It's beaten into your head at times. You do not diss the adults. Doing so brings pain on your brain. Literally.

A.Nonymous said:

I'm Asian. It's not drummed into your head. It's beaten into your head at times. You do not diss the adults. Doing so brings pain on your brain. Literally.

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+1, it also doesn't need to be an 'elder', just someone that's older and 'higher' in status/rank than you in the family hierarchy. An older cousin, brother or sister DEMANDS respect from you and you will get an earful or sometimes a beating for showing any form of disrespect.

Roze said:

+1, it also doesn't need to be an 'elder', just someone that's older and 'higher' in status/rank than you in the family hierarchy. An older cousin, brother or sister DEMANDS respect from you and you will get an earful or sometimes a beating for showing any form of disrespect.

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Yup. This is why I made sure I was born first so I have fewer issues.

I guess we can see who will be the next generation of 50% that receive government assistance. So glad I worked(still working) hard to make a better life for myself. How else will these people feed themselves without my $37,000 of federal income tax every year.

The only thing different with this generation is that they have social networking to publicize their thoughts. Other than that, it's just the same old stuff. There are always going to be some d-bags in each generation, and there are always going to be decent people in each generation. I haven't seen anything that really indicates the proportions have changed any.

Excuse my language, but holy sh!t.

This makes me want to crawl into a corner and cry about the generation I was born into.

jraskell said:

The only thing different with this generation is that they have social networking to publicize their thoughts. Other than that, it's just the same old stuff. There are always going to be some d-bags in each generation, and there are always going to be decent people in each generation. I haven't seen anything that really indicates the proportions have changed any.

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Yep, was just going to say, it's probably important to remember this isn't exactly some statistical study or representative cross section of a particular demographic. This is obviously the most extreme, picked precisely because they have these extremely distasteful tweets.

Doesn't make what they said any more right, but it's good to keep things in perspective I think.

jraskell said:

The only thing different with this generation is that they have social networking to publicize their thoughts. Other than that, it's just the same old stuff. There are always going to be some d-bags in each generation, and there are always going to be decent people in each generation. I haven't seen anything that really indicates the proportions have changed any.

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^^^^^^^
This.

When one sees these few douchbag Twitter posts aggregated into one place, it just looks bad...and...OMG! the sky is falling!!...Its not like the old days you know!!!!

That is soooo freaking funny. The best part is that my niece (she's 2) will probably be like that, because she got her first Acer Android Tablet this Christmas!

jraskell said:

The only thing different with this generation is that they have social networking to publicize their thoughts. Other than that, it's just the same old stuff. There are always going to be some d-bags in each generation, and there are always going to be decent people in each generation. I haven't seen anything that really indicates the proportions have changed any.

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I don't know if you guys do this anywhere else, but in Japan we have some guys that will search certain key words in twitter, find people who wrote something stupid (adimitting to underaged drinking, stealing, cheating, etc) go to their blogs, their photos, their workplace website etc until all information searchable has been revealed, and people start calling your work, your home, your boyfriend/ girl friend, school etc until you get fired, dumped, and kicked out of school.

Its sick, but it teaches you to be careful what you put out on the internet.

Kids just seriously need to be taught how to handle the Internet, and what things should just be kept private.

There will always be ungrateful, greedy idiots, they just don't need to share their lack of IQ with the whole world.

It would be interesting to know the ages of people in relation to their response to this.

I'm sensing two distinct themes:

1) Wow, these kids are being total douche-bags about these huge items
2) Kids were always like this, it's just that the terminology is "harsher" and more public

Personally, chalk me up in camp (1). I was born in 1972, and I do think the expectations were different, at least where I grew up. I'm from an middle class/upper middle class neighborhood in a mid-western city. When we didn't get what we wanted, it was things like a bike, skateboard, a moped or dirt-bike, (or being a nerd) a cool model, or a rocket... etc. At most, something in the $100 range.

It was a rare and privileged few who got a car for a birthday present, and they knew they were rare and privileged... They might have been *hoping* for a car, but they sure as hell didn't go all postal about it. An they usually got it as part of a "deal" with Dad in which they had to pay for the insurance and gas, etc.

The idea of kids feeling entitled to presents that are $500 and up, to the point where they are cursing their parents... Sickens me. If one of my peers tried that kind of shtuff, parents would have dropped the hammer... "Oh, your life is so rough, and I'm a lousy parent? Tell you what, you ungrateful little shit, your t.v.. stereo, phone, and Atari are going into the attic until you learn a little appreciation for what you have..."

Part of our holiday traditions also included giving at church, working the food kitchen or charity tag sale, by the way. We all had friends whose parents had lost jobs, and everyone had had tight years. We'd all had that conversation at one time or another that one Christmas or another was going to be tight for whatever reason, and that's just the way it was.

We also had one t.v., and when we watched it it was "family time." It was The Waltons, or Little House on the Prairie, for the whole family. If it was Dad and me, it was stuff like Columbo, or Hill Street Blues. Saturday morning it was westerns. My family was on the "less well to do" side of things, so our one t.v. was just fine. Some kids got a t.v. *in their own room* and that was a BIG deal...

And as for respecting our elders, things *were* different. We might cuss around each other, but around a grown-up? No freakin' way... It was "Sir" and "Ma'am." And saying you were going to kick your Dad's ass? Holy crap, that kind of disloyalty and dishonor meant you well and truly deserved the thrashing you were going to get when Dad heard about it. Kids that talked ill of their families, especially their parents, were punks and losers. Dad was a Provider, and Mom was a Nurturer, and you were a Learner, and we respected those roles, or at least understood them.

Mind you, I always heard how things were different for my parents' generation growing up, and they were. They grew up working a farm, up at all hours taking care of animals, doing hard labor, because it was *their* role. Did I want to grow up the way they had? Hell no. But if I had, I would have been a stronger person for it.

Things *do* change, and have changed. You're naive if you think that either "its always been this way" OR "This change is something completely new." The truth is in between, and it seems to me that if you don't acknowledge the nature of the changes our society has experienced over the years you risk losing... A lot of things. For one thing, a sense of place in the grand scope of society, our history, and our future. For another, a sense of perspective, and what you can deal with if you have to. When we had some power outages out here earlier this year, some people could roll with it, and some people couldn't roll so well.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that.

...Disrespectful little shits.

RottnJP said:

...Disrespectful little shits.

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And I think you summed it up quite well

I agree with what you said, I never really felt disappointed or anything growing up (90's kid) and I sure as hell never expected anything too grandiose like these kids. I wasn't a part of the "sir" or "ma'am", but if you backtalk, you got either a swat or a slap. Nothing extreme, but enough to teach you right. These kids really make me feel lousy... like "blaah" (vomit sound).

And I'm thinking, this isn't 'first-world problem' as much as it's "spoiled-asshat problem"

9to5cynic said:

And I think you summed it up quite well

I agree with what you said, I never really felt disappointed or anything growing up (90's kid) and I sure as hell never expected anything too grandiose like these kids. I wasn't a part of the "sir" or "ma'am", but if you backtalk, you got either a swat or a slap. Nothing extreme, but enough to teach you right. These kids really make me feel lousy... like "blaah" (vomit sound).

And I'm thinking, this isn't 'first-world problem' as much as it's "spoiled-asshat problem"

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I was born the year the Nintendo came out, so I'm a 90s kid too, and. I agree with you.

I had a dad that totally spoiled me, so maybe I never the frustrations that these kids had, and didn't have $500 gadgets to ask for back then, but i would never dare disrespect my parents.

We can have heated arguments, but that was me picking my fathers brain, and learning from him. That did not include any disrespect, complaining or swearing in front of or behind their backs.

In a way, I partly blame the parents for not teaching your kids to respect them.

What the hell. Are these kids serious, most of them are probably older then me and still acting like a bunch of 5 year olds.
WOWWWW

I have no words for this.