toldailytopic: Are kids today maturing at an earlier age than they should? If so, ex

Desert Reign

LIFETIME MEMBER
LIFETIME MEMBER
Here is a quote from a famous public figure:

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

In case you don't know who said it, I'll post a spoiler.
 

Buzzword

New member
Desert Reign said:
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

Socrates

So basically, older adults have ALWAYS thought the upcoming generations were going to hell in a handbasket.
 

Buzzword

New member
You really do not think kids are worse now than in years before?

Do you ever watch the news/youtube?

You realize previous generations didn't HAVE YouTube, right?

The only thing which has changed is the availability of information via the advance of technology.

The human condition has not changed one iota.
We're just more aware of its nuances than ever before.

Older generations were saying the apocalypse was upon us when children of different races were able to go to school together, date, or (Heaven help us!) get married.

Each generation defines itself by its own cultural and historical context.

"There is nothing new under the sun" when it comes to people.
 

Angel4Truth

New member
Hall of Fame
You realize previous generations didn't HAVE YouTube, right?

The only thing which has changed is the availability of information via the advance of technology.

The human condition has not changed one iota.
We're just more aware of its nuances than ever before.

Older generations were saying the apocalypse was upon us when children of different races were able to go to school together, date, or (Heaven help us!) get married.

Each generation defines itself by its own cultural and historical context.

"There is nothing new under the sun" when it comes to people.

Funny, i dont remember when i was in school packs of kids jumping other kids for their tennis shoes and girls robbing places and beating one another down because of a guy to the extent that it is today for sure.
 

Buzzword

New member
Funny, i dont remember when i was in school packs of kids jumping other kids for their tennis shoes and girls robbing places and beating one another down because of a guy to the extent that it is today for sure.

Your lack of awareness at the time does not in any way preclude the lack of such activities at the time.

How many thousands of beatings and rapes and murders have occurred in and around schools and neighborhoods across the country over the years without being reported, or simply reported to local police and (because the technology didn't exist to transmit over a wide area) were never spoken of again?

We'll never know.
Nowadays we EXPECT everything everywhere to be reported nationally, or available to be read internationally.
 

WandererInFog

New member
You realize previous generations didn't HAVE YouTube, right?

The only thing which has changed is the availability of information via the advance of technology.

Which has in turn made serious changes in culture and society.

The human condition has not changed one iota.
We're just more aware of its nuances than ever before.

That's simply not true. For example, prolonged usage of technologies like the internet actually result in the human brain functioning differently than spending that same amount of time reading. Over enough time the person who surfs the web and the person reads will no longer be able to process information in the same manner.
 

WandererInFog

New member
Spoiler:
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The above quotation was from Socrates.

No, it's paraphrase of a quote from Aristrophanes' comedic play The Clouds altered to sound more like how an adult of the mid 20th century adult would complain about the youth of the 1950s, which is when the quote in that form actually dates to.

The actual portion from the play reads:

I will, therefore, describe the ancient system of education, how it was ordered, when I flourished in the advocacy of justice, and temperance was the fashion. In the first place it was incumbent that no one should hear the voice of a boy uttering a syllable; and next, that those from the same quarter of the town should march in good order through the streets to the school of the harp-master, naked, and in a body, even if it were to snow as thick as meal. Then again, their master would teach them, not sitting cross-legged, to learn by rote a song, either “pallada persepolin deinan” or “teleporon ti boama” raising to a higher pitch the harmony which our fathers transmitted to us. But if any of them were to play the buffoon, or to turn any quavers, like these difficult turns the present artists make after the manner of Phrynis, he used to be thrashed, being beaten with many blows, as banishing the Muses. And it behooved the boys, while sitting in the school of the Gymnastic-master, to cover the thigh, so that they might exhibit nothing indecent to those outside; then again, after rising from the ground, to sweep the sand together, and to take care not to leave an impression of the person for their lovers. And no boy used in those days to anoint himself below the navel; so that their bodies wore the appearance of blooming health. Nor used he to go to his lover, having made up his voice in an effeminate tone, prostituting himself with his eyes. Nor used it to be allowed when one was dining to take the head of the radish, or to snatch from their seniors dill or parsley, or to eat fish, or to giggle, or to keep the legs crossed.​

The speech is actually given by the character named "Right" who is engaged in a debate with a parody of Socrates named "Wrong".
 

Angel4Truth

New member
Hall of Fame
Which has in turn made serious changes in culture and society.



That's simply not true. For example, prolonged usage of technologies like the internet actually result in the human brain functioning differently than spending that same amount of time reading. Over enough time the person who surfs the web and the person reads will no longer be able to process information in the same manner.

Well said.

Much better response than I would have given.
 

annabenedetti

like marbles on glass
Which has in turn made serious changes in culture and society.



That's simply not true. For example, prolonged usage of technologies like the internet actually result in the human brain functioning differently than spending that same amount of time reading. Over enough time the person who surfs the web and the person reads will no longer be able to process information in the same manner.

That was a very interesting article, although I'm not oblivious to the irony of reading it on the internet. :think:
There’s nothing wrong with absorbing information quickly and in bits and pieces. We’ve always skimmed newspapers more than we’ve read them, and we routinely run our eyes over books and magazines to get the gist of a piece of writing and decide whether it warrants more thorough reading. The ability to scan and browse is as important as the ability to read deeply and think attentively. The problem is that skimming is becoming our dominant mode of thought. Once a means to an end, a way to identify information for further study, it’s becoming an end in itself—our preferred method of both learning and analysis. Dazzled by the Net’s treasures, we are blind to the damage we may be doing to our intellectual lives and even our culture.

What we’re experiencing is, in a metaphorical sense, a reversal of the early trajectory of civilization: We are evolving from cultivators of personal knowledge into hunters and gatherers in the electronic data forest. In the process, we seem fated to sacrifice much of what makes our minds so interesting.
 

kmoney

New member
Hall of Fame
Thanks for the article, WIF. I've seen other pieces about how our memory is being weakened by the influx of information we have on the internet. I've also seen things say electronic reading in general isn't as good for us as non-electronic reading. I don't know if that's really about reading and retention though.

It's hard to stay away from an information dump like the internet but I can see myself in that article.
 
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