The world we live in
Discussion
Prizam said:
Or not as the case may be...
I simply cannot believe the single mindedness and tunnel vision people seem to have these days. Is an epidemic. It used to be older folk who would walk in to shops and then just stop dead in the middle of the isle that is too small... looking at "the shiny", completely bemused by the lights and music playing in shops.
Now everyone is always glued to there bloody phones, hobbling about like a drunk roomba, bumping in to things too afraid to look away from the shiny screen for fear that they might miss a new cat video. The same people that go to some kind of event, and then proceed to watch the air show / concert / race through there 4" phone screen. Why would you do that?
The same idiots whilst on the way to said event will stop at traffic lights, whip out there phone. Update Facebook - "Stopped at traffic lights, YOLO".
Today, on the motorway whilst filtering i could see in the distance two cars in L2 and L3, stopped holding up traffic with the windows down.
I thought, this could be interesting. Looks like some kind of incident and they are having a colorful language competition through the windows before pulling to the hard shoulder to sort it out.
Oh no, nothing like that. They had both stopped for a chat. On the motorway. In rush hour. Blocking L2 & L3. Completely oblivious to the complete and utter carnage they were causing behind them. People were beeping, trying to squeeze round them. But both women were smiling at each other, gassing away. They looked a little put out when i came filtering past between them and interrupted there conversation.
I live near several schools, and this kind of blinkered self righteous behavior is ripe with the school run mums. Between 8-9 and 3 - 4pm it is absolute carnage outside my house. (Very quiet the rest of the time thankfully). I often sit and watch them slowly crash in to each other. Usually at least one of them is looking down at their lap as they saunter across the road, on the wrong side, and in to the front of another mum.
And once they have crashed. what happens? Both cars stay exactly where they were, blocking the road whilst the mummy's get out... Already on their phones. and just amble around in circles looking lost wondering what to do next.
Has the whole f
king world lost the ability to see / feel and THINK about things outside of their 1 foot WiFi bubble?
(I am a 30 something IT manager techno geek, not an old man.)
Ditto..here here...agree.I simply cannot believe the single mindedness and tunnel vision people seem to have these days. Is an epidemic. It used to be older folk who would walk in to shops and then just stop dead in the middle of the isle that is too small... looking at "the shiny", completely bemused by the lights and music playing in shops.
Now everyone is always glued to there bloody phones, hobbling about like a drunk roomba, bumping in to things too afraid to look away from the shiny screen for fear that they might miss a new cat video. The same people that go to some kind of event, and then proceed to watch the air show / concert / race through there 4" phone screen. Why would you do that?
The same idiots whilst on the way to said event will stop at traffic lights, whip out there phone. Update Facebook - "Stopped at traffic lights, YOLO".
Today, on the motorway whilst filtering i could see in the distance two cars in L2 and L3, stopped holding up traffic with the windows down.
I thought, this could be interesting. Looks like some kind of incident and they are having a colorful language competition through the windows before pulling to the hard shoulder to sort it out.
Oh no, nothing like that. They had both stopped for a chat. On the motorway. In rush hour. Blocking L2 & L3. Completely oblivious to the complete and utter carnage they were causing behind them. People were beeping, trying to squeeze round them. But both women were smiling at each other, gassing away. They looked a little put out when i came filtering past between them and interrupted there conversation.
I live near several schools, and this kind of blinkered self righteous behavior is ripe with the school run mums. Between 8-9 and 3 - 4pm it is absolute carnage outside my house. (Very quiet the rest of the time thankfully). I often sit and watch them slowly crash in to each other. Usually at least one of them is looking down at their lap as they saunter across the road, on the wrong side, and in to the front of another mum.
And once they have crashed. what happens? Both cars stay exactly where they were, blocking the road whilst the mummy's get out... Already on their phones. and just amble around in circles looking lost wondering what to do next.
Has the whole f
king world lost the ability to see / feel and THINK about things outside of their 1 foot WiFi bubble?(I am a 30 something IT manager techno geek, not an old man.)
SEE YA said:
The thing, I have noticed the most going is good manners a please and thank you so hard for people to say.
'It's all sod you jack' I am fine.
These things all start in the home.
Nail & head. From talking to teachers it seems many parents have absolved all responsibility for behaviour & expect schools to do it. Unless I'm mistaken teachers are there to educate. 'It's all sod you jack' I am fine.
These things all start in the home.
acme said:
SEE YA said:
The thing, I have noticed the most going is good manners a please and thank you so hard for people to say.
'It's all sod you jack' I am fine.
These things all start in the home.
Nail & head. From talking to teachers it seems many parents have absolved all responsibility for behaviour & expect schools to do it. Unless I'm mistaken teachers are there to educate. 'It's all sod you jack' I am fine.
These things all start in the home.
SEE YA said:
acme said:
SEE YA said:
The thing, I have noticed the most going is good manners a please and thank you so hard for people to say.
'It's all sod you jack' I am fine.
These things all start in the home.
Nail & head. From talking to teachers it seems many parents have absolved all responsibility for behaviour & expect schools to do it. Unless I'm mistaken teachers are there to educate. 'It's all sod you jack' I am fine.
These things all start in the home.
Just depends where you live. I know the world you talk about as I have work there occasionally. Luckily I return to a completely different world where people are kind and friendly, and where people will do anything to help their neighbours... and I have never seen a local with a phone in their hand. Just tourists.
Prizam said:
Now everyone is always glued to there bloody phones, hobbling about like a drunk roomba, bumping in to things too afraid to look away from the shiny screen for fear that they might miss a new cat video.
You think that is bad here, spend a day in Hong Kong. The UK is positively phoneophobic by comparison.GetCarter said:
Just depends where you live. I know the world you talk about as I have work there occasionally. Luckily I return to a completely different world where people are kind and friendly, and where people will do anything to help their neighbours... and I have never seen a local with a phone in their hand. Just tourists.
Please tell me where this is? I mean this genuinely. acme said:
GetCarter said:
Just depends where you live. I know the world you talk about as I have work there occasionally. Luckily I return to a completely different world where people are kind and friendly, and where people will do anything to help their neighbours... and I have never seen a local with a phone in their hand. Just tourists.
Please tell me where this is? I mean this genuinely. 
acme said:
GetCarter said:
Just depends where you live. I know the world you talk about as I have work there occasionally. Luckily I return to a completely different world where people are kind and friendly, and where people will do anything to help their neighbours... and I have never seen a local with a phone in their hand. Just tourists.
Please tell me where this is? I mean this genuinely. N
GetCarter lives in the Scottish Highlands.Same in SW France, we escaped years ago, never looked back
Iva Barchetta said:
acme said:
GetCarter said:
Just depends where you live. I know the world you talk about as I have work there occasionally. Luckily I return to a completely different world where people are kind and friendly, and where people will do anything to help their neighbours... and I have never seen a local with a phone in their hand. Just tourists.
Please tell me where this is? I mean this genuinely. 
If you're only in your thirties you're probably too young to really judge whether or not the world has got worse. Twenty years ago you would have been a child and, assuming you had a decent enough childhood, everything was rosy in your immediate existence and you had no awareness of anything beyond it.
People being glued to social networking devices is a new phenomenon and maybe some people need to put them down more often than they do. Online bullying is certainly a significant modern problem. People feel safe behaving like idiots online when they never would in person. On the other hand, people being more in communication with others around the world and having immediate access to world news is beneficial to society. It makes society, on the whole, more tolerant and more accepting of different races, cultures and beliefs. We're not cut off from the problems people have in other parts of the world and we have a greater understanding that we're all just people trying to get by in life and we all deserve to do it in peace.
We live in a less prejudiced society than we used to. Successful campaigns against issues such as racism and sexism have achieved that, though there is still a way to go. On the other hand, a lot of people use political correctness as a way of preening their own egos. For example, angry feminist types like Catriona Stewart in the Scottish Herald, militant cyclists and anti car types. They claim to be campaigning for a better society and they thrive on pretending to be victims but, in reality, they enjoy conflict and the little victories they get when they succeed in winding people up. They damage the image of important campaigns for equality, road safety and protection of the environment because they make themselves the faces of those campaigns while behaving disrespectfully towards others.
There have always been idiots and there always will be. What changes is how their idiocy manifests itself in society and how much notice society on the whole takes of them. In the same way suffragettes who committed acts of terrorism get more credit for what they did a hundred years ago than those who worked more peacefully for women's rights do, the more militant campaigners get listened to now. Arguably the hysterical "Think of the children," so called politically correct types get their own way too much considering that they don't actually form anything more than a minority in society.
If you think the UK is bad now then you are in for a shock in the coming years.
I spent some time in Beijing recently and they are on another level of permanent social media integration. Every single person under the age of 30 is a fully assimilated iPhone zombie. It will be the same here in the next 10 years.
I spent some time in Beijing recently and they are on another level of permanent social media integration. Every single person under the age of 30 is a fully assimilated iPhone zombie. It will be the same here in the next 10 years.
Neilsfirst said:
Pvapour said:
Same in SW France, we escaped years ago, never looked back
In SW France too and must say as soon as you go into a town the same moronic behaviour is evident. Might not be so technology centric but still have people living in their own little bubble. 
wherever there's a certain amount of folks you'll get the same ignorant behaviour i think, i guess its a form of self protection for them.
we live as removed from these groups as GG though (very very rural) and never visit large towns or cities, though I have to say that Bordeaux seems to be the exception to the rule, we have never visited a city so relaxed and friendly, its truly bizzarre, Christmas there at their market is a truly incredible experience and thats from someone who steers clear of any form of congregation
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