Tech creates a bubble for kids

Jun 20, 2006 09:00

By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY ( Read more... )

generations, technology, society

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enamored June 21 2006, 01:11:53 UTC
This just seems like another way to justify why adults consider children/teens rude and disrespectful. Teen society has changed drastically over the past 100 years or so, and it always has seemed to me that one generation always looks down on younger generations for one thing or another.

I'm 18, I havent ever taken a college anthro/sociology course, so my opinion might mean nothing, but I think all of those instances mentioned (changing in public, listening to an ipod while working, showing up at a college interview like that) are really disrespectful and unclassy and not anything I would do... and I am addicted to my ipod/cell phone/computer like most people my age, so I dont see the correlation between our 'technocratic' society and certain cases of young adults behaving rudely.

I'm sure my parents did things that were considered rude and rebellious towards their elders when they were younger, the definition of "rude" has changed but that's not a new concept.

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i_like_paint June 21 2006, 14:23:41 UTC
I'm also 18 and haven't taken college anthro/sociology... but I completely agree.

None of the things listed above were "okay" for me. Honestly, in such cases, I think the problem lies more in individuals than in the general whole.

"She said, 'You're going to have to work twice as hard now to garner respect,' " says Krell, who will be a freshman in film studies at New York University this fall.

He says he's not sure how much respect he lost with his blue hair, but he acknowledges, "I probably didn't gain much, either."Why is that? Why should you have to work twice as hard just because you look different? Personally, I don't understand the problem with having unnatural hair colors and the like. I feel that the closed-mindedness of automatically disrespecting someone because of their hair color/tattoos/piercings is an indication of a huge fault in the generations before us and their inability to accept/be comfortable around "different" people ( ... )

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Wet Hair icedink June 21 2006, 14:45:52 UTC
Wait! Maybe it's me living in a city where almost anything goes, but what on earth is wrong with wet hair?

The hair will dry with time -- why does wet equal sloppy?

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Re: Wet Hair i_like_paint June 21 2006, 16:27:26 UTC
That's true... I was thinking about that when I wrote my comment. The initial thought I had in my head was of someone I've seen personally with wet hair who looks zoned out every morning and really messy. But that probably doesn't have anything to do with the hair, just the person in general, haha.

Thanks for pointing that out. You're right.

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Re: Wet Hair _boneflower_ June 21 2006, 22:35:46 UTC
On this subject: I have a nose piercing, visible shoulder tattoo, several more ear piercings than usual, and dreadlocks. I do find, from time to time, that I am given less attention than my co-workers in the professional environment. I make it work for two reasons ( ... )

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Re: Wet Hair _boneflower_ June 21 2006, 22:40:22 UTC
Addendum: I wouldn't show up to an interview at Vassar in a miniskirt and flip-flops, for the record. Again, I find people are gratified to discover that I can, from time to time, dress very professionaly despite my quirks. In fact, they seem extra-receptive specifically because I don't look like the type of person who would take dressing professionally seriously.

I wear jeans and a t-shirt to work because my co-workers do. For my interview, I wore a suit, and it was noticed. For our theatre's formal events, I wear formal dress, and it is noticed.

Maybe I'm just really old-fashioned, but having a unique appearance is totally seperate from making an effort to dress nicely to show respect for someone who is giving me their time, such as an interviewer.

And I'm in the 'internet generation'. Which is why I'm even saying this. I firmly believe that my upbringing has as much to do with this as my exposure to technology. Perhaps parents have as much to do with the attitudes in the article as the internet.

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Re: Wet Hair i_like_paint June 22 2006, 06:24:03 UTC
I agree.

Personal style and individuality can still be expressed with respect. The ability to balance the two actually demonstrates better taste, in my opinion.

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Re: Wet Hair i_like_paint June 22 2006, 06:19:11 UTC
I also find the appearance/bad attitude combination offensive. Such people tend to voice that they are "different" and "standing for something", but really, the message is entirely lost in their disrespect for everyone and they turn out the same or worse than the people they are trying to avoid.

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Re: Wet Hair enamored June 22 2006, 19:58:13 UTC
I meet many people who look 'like me' (meaning funky) who do not share this attitude. I find the combination of unusual appearance and bad attitude really offensive, since instead of projecting individuality, it seems aimed solely to project disrespect - as in, would they even be doing if it didn't tick people off?

I really like what you said here, I think that people assume that kids who look "funky" as you put it would not have the same attitude as you, because they consider them rebellious rather than unique/individual.

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Re: Wet Hair curiositykt June 22 2006, 09:26:18 UTC
I completely agree.. I never dry my hair because it looks awful if I do, I try to give it enough time to dry before I get somewhere, but it doesn't always.. but I don't see the issue provided that it is taken care of in some way. I see plenty of kids who rarely wash their hair at all..

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Re: Wet Hair loserwhorecunt June 23 2006, 02:05:56 UTC
taboo. everysocirty has them. there a bunch of irrelivent dogmatic bull-shit - one more thing to create order an control among thre masses. if you look at taboos throughout history though, there is one underlying similarity connection such obscure laws like "wet hair" it has to do with sanitation and trying to prevent the uncertainty of a preceived "dirt, germ, malhygiene" from occuring. the thing is, dirt is a concept we create ---- a "concept". "dirty" doesn't actually exsist.

if you are curios to further research what i'm reffering to, check out "Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo"
by Mary Douglas

"Our idea of dirt is compounded of two things, care for hygiene and respect for conventions..."

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Re: Wet Hair loserwhorecunt June 23 2006, 02:07:07 UTC
taboo. everysocirty has them. there a bunch of irrelivent dogmatic bull-shit - one more thing to create order an control among thre masses. if you look at taboos throughout history though, there is one underlying similarity connecting such obscure laws like "wet hair" has to do with sanitation and trying to prevent the uncertainty of a preceived "dirt, germ, malhygiene" from occuring. the thing is, dirt is a concept we create ---- a "concept". "dirty" doesn't actually exsist.

if you are curious to further research what i'm refering to, check out "Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo"
by Mary Douglas

"Our idea of dirt is compounded of two things, care for hygiene and respect for conventions..."

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---- loserwhorecunt June 23 2006, 01:55:00 UTC
you don't have to take a class to be smart, you just gotta be observant. more power to you.

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