spookyskeptic
Smash Rookie
Link to original post: [drupal=2933]"Kids These Days!"[/drupal]
or "You Seem to Forget Who Will Be Choosing Your Long Term Care Facility, Mom;" or "Don't You Dare Ask Me to Fix Your Computer or Show You How to Use Your Phone, You Senile Old Fool."
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-m...tion/guess-who-is-the-dumbest-generation/887/
Now. I know that the article in question is from October and the book that inspired it is from March of last year, but there's more. There's this deep, unyielding hatred of people under 30 that seems to recur every generation. This time, however, it seems to be worse. Not only are we "Millennials" dumb, have short attention spans, have no work ethic, and no social skills; but the blue-rinse brigade will still have you believe that Generation X is still lazy, still living in their parents' basement/attic/"guest" room (even though they never have company anyway), doing drugs, and playing NHL '96 while riding their s/o's bareback.
Here's a disclaimer: I live with my parents and I'm a married 26 year old woman. We were casualities of that perfect storm of Katrina-related illnesses and the flagging economy. Yeah, we could've planned better, but my parents needed extra help around the house. Everybody wins. I don't have to pay rent and they don't have to cut the grass. Works out great. Of course, they have no grass and won't let me seed it.
That, then, brings me back to my point. I'm incapable of choosing a grass seed and planting it properly, because I'm a gardening n00b (though the spouse has extensive land-scaping experience). I read up. I read hundreds of reviews, how-tos, and personal anecdotes about grass. All on the internet. Yeah, I don't have a lawn and the experience that comes with it, but I have something just as good as that experience: Access to the collective knowledge and experience that the Internet provides and the skills to find the needed information. Old people can't do that, though the AARP will have you believe this generation of old people is different. It's not. They're still bald and still have the walking farts and wear nostalgia glasses, as a commenter on the linked article mentioned.
Supposedly, sitting here on the internet, sending thousands of text messages a month, and living solely for the pleasure that is "Pokemon Rumble" has me a moron. Really? Really? I have a skill set that my parents or grandparents could never have. I have access to knowledge and culture and art that other generations didn't have. Even if they did have it, they'd have used some slur and demonstrated the typical American xenophobia about it. God forbid I should be watching French people do funny things on YouTube or download films from Africa. Maybe I'm not reading antiquated, culturally irrelevant dreck like Dickens or Twain that are replete with the stench of bigotry and ignorance, but have my parents or yours seen any of the brilliant films or read some of the insightful, thought provoking blogs and periodicals from around the world?
Supposedly, we're not getting enough social interaction. Given the near-necessity for us to take on McJobs and deal with old people and other assorted idiots, can you blame us? I work in an automotive shop. The sheer volume of idiocy I deal with from the over-45 crowd is brain-dissolving. I have no choice but to hide and use the internet to seek out my intellectual equal. It's your fault, Baby Boomers. Every day, I see some 50 year old ******* come in with some computerized import and they can't do something as simple as turn off the light that tells them to get their oil changed. They get mad when they find out the precious Saab (GOOD RIDDANCE TO SAAB, BTW) takes a battery you can't buy anywhere but a GM dealer and, that even if we did have it (which we usually do, it's just easier to say we don't), we couldn't change it because we don't have the right equipment to keep your computer from going ape-**** in the absence of a battery. "It's a car, not a computer!" they invariably cry. I point out that there's no real difference now. That's why I hide. I'm a glutton for this stuff, too, you know. I'm going to school to be a mechanic and I know my computer skills will be a major boon and give me a competitive edge for jobs. You say your car doesn't run right after you get off the freeway? I can fix that. Let me just grab my laptop and I'll get to know your ECM better. "Huh? Is there going to be a virus on my car? You'd better not download a porno to my car!" First off, Professor Farnsworth, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard and it's called "pr0n," with a zero.
See, I used to work for cell phone customer care. Invariably, some old fool would get a phone that was worth more than their feeble little life and they'd call wanting to learn how to use it. I'd fix the problem and then spend another hour listening to them talk about their pet bird and help them figure out why their kids don't call (NEWSFLASH: YOU'RE BORING AND SMELL LIKE NEOSPORIN, PREP H, AND BENGAY). When our generation gets bored or lonely, we go on the internet. One of my new favorite people is this really awesome dude from India I've gotten to know thanks to my unhealthy, lame obsession with a certain browser game. He's a really straight cat. That's what we do. We don't go to the grocery store and socialize by the bread aisle. No, we hit Facespace or Mybook. We go to message boards and chat rooms and meet new people. I even met my husband on this social-skill-reducing techno-home-wrecker. Unlike most of the over-45, our marriage works and we resisted the urge to pop out babies to cope with our crappy lives and the voids in our relationship (which is what my parents and, I'll bet, your parents did).
I want pizza, now, **** it. Stupid "X-Files."
Anyway, tl/dr: Hitler and old people bad; the Vandals and young people good.
or "You Seem to Forget Who Will Be Choosing Your Long Term Care Facility, Mom;" or "Don't You Dare Ask Me to Fix Your Computer or Show You How to Use Your Phone, You Senile Old Fool."
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-m...tion/guess-who-is-the-dumbest-generation/887/
Now. I know that the article in question is from October and the book that inspired it is from March of last year, but there's more. There's this deep, unyielding hatred of people under 30 that seems to recur every generation. This time, however, it seems to be worse. Not only are we "Millennials" dumb, have short attention spans, have no work ethic, and no social skills; but the blue-rinse brigade will still have you believe that Generation X is still lazy, still living in their parents' basement/attic/"guest" room (even though they never have company anyway), doing drugs, and playing NHL '96 while riding their s/o's bareback.
Here's a disclaimer: I live with my parents and I'm a married 26 year old woman. We were casualities of that perfect storm of Katrina-related illnesses and the flagging economy. Yeah, we could've planned better, but my parents needed extra help around the house. Everybody wins. I don't have to pay rent and they don't have to cut the grass. Works out great. Of course, they have no grass and won't let me seed it.
That, then, brings me back to my point. I'm incapable of choosing a grass seed and planting it properly, because I'm a gardening n00b (though the spouse has extensive land-scaping experience). I read up. I read hundreds of reviews, how-tos, and personal anecdotes about grass. All on the internet. Yeah, I don't have a lawn and the experience that comes with it, but I have something just as good as that experience: Access to the collective knowledge and experience that the Internet provides and the skills to find the needed information. Old people can't do that, though the AARP will have you believe this generation of old people is different. It's not. They're still bald and still have the walking farts and wear nostalgia glasses, as a commenter on the linked article mentioned.
Supposedly, sitting here on the internet, sending thousands of text messages a month, and living solely for the pleasure that is "Pokemon Rumble" has me a moron. Really? Really? I have a skill set that my parents or grandparents could never have. I have access to knowledge and culture and art that other generations didn't have. Even if they did have it, they'd have used some slur and demonstrated the typical American xenophobia about it. God forbid I should be watching French people do funny things on YouTube or download films from Africa. Maybe I'm not reading antiquated, culturally irrelevant dreck like Dickens or Twain that are replete with the stench of bigotry and ignorance, but have my parents or yours seen any of the brilliant films or read some of the insightful, thought provoking blogs and periodicals from around the world?
Supposedly, we're not getting enough social interaction. Given the near-necessity for us to take on McJobs and deal with old people and other assorted idiots, can you blame us? I work in an automotive shop. The sheer volume of idiocy I deal with from the over-45 crowd is brain-dissolving. I have no choice but to hide and use the internet to seek out my intellectual equal. It's your fault, Baby Boomers. Every day, I see some 50 year old ******* come in with some computerized import and they can't do something as simple as turn off the light that tells them to get their oil changed. They get mad when they find out the precious Saab (GOOD RIDDANCE TO SAAB, BTW) takes a battery you can't buy anywhere but a GM dealer and, that even if we did have it (which we usually do, it's just easier to say we don't), we couldn't change it because we don't have the right equipment to keep your computer from going ape-**** in the absence of a battery. "It's a car, not a computer!" they invariably cry. I point out that there's no real difference now. That's why I hide. I'm a glutton for this stuff, too, you know. I'm going to school to be a mechanic and I know my computer skills will be a major boon and give me a competitive edge for jobs. You say your car doesn't run right after you get off the freeway? I can fix that. Let me just grab my laptop and I'll get to know your ECM better. "Huh? Is there going to be a virus on my car? You'd better not download a porno to my car!" First off, Professor Farnsworth, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard and it's called "pr0n," with a zero.
See, I used to work for cell phone customer care. Invariably, some old fool would get a phone that was worth more than their feeble little life and they'd call wanting to learn how to use it. I'd fix the problem and then spend another hour listening to them talk about their pet bird and help them figure out why their kids don't call (NEWSFLASH: YOU'RE BORING AND SMELL LIKE NEOSPORIN, PREP H, AND BENGAY). When our generation gets bored or lonely, we go on the internet. One of my new favorite people is this really awesome dude from India I've gotten to know thanks to my unhealthy, lame obsession with a certain browser game. He's a really straight cat. That's what we do. We don't go to the grocery store and socialize by the bread aisle. No, we hit Facespace or Mybook. We go to message boards and chat rooms and meet new people. I even met my husband on this social-skill-reducing techno-home-wrecker. Unlike most of the over-45, our marriage works and we resisted the urge to pop out babies to cope with our crappy lives and the voids in our relationship (which is what my parents and, I'll bet, your parents did).
I want pizza, now, **** it. Stupid "X-Files."
Anyway, tl/dr: Hitler and old people bad; the Vandals and young people good.
