Note that I said A contributor. I don't think this is the only or even the most prominent cause for the marked lack of respect shown by today's 1st World Country youth to their elders and especially their parents.
I was on the bus the other day and I overheard a group of older men and women grumbling about how their children and "the kids today" don't respect them or listen to them. And they all said it wasn't so when they were younger. I wanted to join the conversation with a hypothesis that came to me then.
The hypothesis was this:
The exponential development of and current social dependency on technologies that have been developed during the lifetimes of the current "up and coming" generations influences and contributes to a lack of subordination or reverence in said generation, today's youth. Technological knowledge is almost a birthright now of any child born in a first world country. It used to be that skills and knowledge required to build a career and make a living or even just live well was passed down from the generation above from parents to children or masters to apprentices. Now older people tend to know less about these technologies that rule today's American economy, making kids feel like they know more than or as well as adults, undermining respect that used to be given automatically to those older or more experienced.
Irwin challenged me saying that really it all began to fall apart when T.V.s became a household item, and grew worse once people started having multiple televisions in a home. People used to be closer connected to their family unit, spending time with them at meal times or even gathering around the television to watch the news and discuss it. Now there are many channels and many shows, and people schedule their lives around them. A father in one room watching the football game and a kid in the other room watching whatever crappy reality show came out this season. There's no more real family bonding time thanks to this particular household technology.
I agree. I think this is another major contributor. There's a disconnect fostered by yet another technology.
I also think, however, that with the rise from tertiary to secondary and now to the primary sector of economic activity, people's fates are less intertwined with that of their families to begin with. And while that in itself may not have caused the same vast disconnect, it certainly allowed for it.
Ok, so much for that. I'll now turn the floor over to the people who'd like to challenge or add to it. I enjoyed all the responses I got to my rant on fairy and folktales. Perhaps I should continue this open forum discussion board style while I'm in San Francisco being a good productive little member of society.
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3 comments:
Mmmm....And I don't think it's just television. It's sort of a cultural revolution. We want our kids to learn everything there is about life. No longer do we focus, and put all of our eggs in one basket...kids these days have insanely large schedules. Soccer practices, between dance recitals, between studying and homework. In addition, we expect them to excel at all of them, telling them practice makes perfect . In the moments when kids do get a break, they'd rather spend it hanging out with friends rather than their task manager parents. So instead we spend less time being with our families, and more time keeping them company while we are being productive. And it's not just children, it is parents as well. It used to be that after you come home, your work is finished. There isn't much else to do, except worry about taking care of your family. Now in our insanely competitive society, parents often take their work home as well. And whether that's just stressing about what we are going to do tomorrow, or sitting in front of a laptop for hours on end, the end result is this: We rarely spend alone time with our children. Bonding moments are so few and far between that often they are the highlights of the month, rather than of the week.
Technology in general has limited the need for elder people in all regards: history/storytelling, education, experience. Life in general moves faster now, elder people move slower. And G*d knows we've had WW2 bashed into our heads enough times. One might also argue that the net allows younger people (who use it much more) to discover identities/cultures and make them their own, ones that aren't shared by the elders they know.
~*S*~
Respect must be earned. Age alone doesn't guarantee it, competency, decency and other good qualities are required. People who complain about lack of respect may well be losers who don't deserve it. I see plenty of adults get respect and adoration of their kids and strangers alike, but they earn that respect by being smart, diligent, righteous and good.
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