Tomorrow came

[Johnz]

I've been thinking about this for a while and the song Tomorrow Came kinda reignited that thought again.

The older I get the more I can see how selfish we have been (and still are) as a generation. I can also see that the next generations are going to be very different. While part of me thinks that that may not be such a bad thing, I also fear that we have created a generation which appears even more easily manipulated than our good selves. In short, I worry about the future from time to time.

Am I just paranoid or does anyone else see it the same way? Is this something that is greater than ourselves which will run its course or can it be fixed? Would love to hear some thoughts, especially from those of you with kids.

[Heno]

out of our control. you can only try and subtly open the kids eyes to whats around them and help them see through some of the crap. we don't even understand the way they consume content at this stage.

biggest issue here is that that a lot of american programming has been exported to us and their filled with sublet messages that are reinforced by compulsive viewing.

and they are more easily manipulated because the methods of manipulation have become so much more advanced. with the internet now instant gratification is a given. and so they can hop for site to site, show to show, video to video, reddit and all the rest and just consume, consume, consume.

so we are on the same page....

[Shush]

Previous generations have always worried about the next generation, doing so is a  key part of being middle aged !!

The last Victorian generation were in despair during the 1920s age of Jazz and glimpses  of stocking etc .  Some people thought it was the end of civilized society with 1970s punk.

That said, this generation must surely be effected by how the tinternet has dominated modern life. I fear for the long term health of this generation, spending so much time in doors, going out less, talking to their friends on P/Cs and mobiles instead . Also, what they can find. Any teenage lad can get access to hard corn porn with a few clicks. I do wonder how it will effect their relationships when they grow up. The other thing that concerns me is the new tern of phrase, N.E.A.T. I think this will just widen the gap between those with, and those without. 

[Heno]

desensitisation due to over exposure to porn and the pressure this exerts on kids, particularly girls, is excessive. if they don't match up to the internet image that is made up and doctored out of all context then they risk not being able to hang on to the fella. if they don't perform certain things then they are under pressure. if the young bloke has spent his time watching porn then likelihood is that they will have difficulty being stimulated by real contact.


this has to be a concern for every parent out there

[Shush]

I saw a  C4 documentary recently illustrating exactly that. There was a young chap at University who was addicted to porn, and could not maintain a real relationship. Real sex was not as exciting to him as what he was used to watching.  It is a worry really. I am sure I heard some stats that most, or a large proportion of teenage lads were regularly watching the hard stuff.

[rick a.]

I agree porn isn't good for kids but it has always been around in some form or another. Ever read the original 1001 nights? whew!
I think the biggest threat to the future is the complete takeover of the world by the mega corporations. Especially their influence over government policy. I have 2 kids in their 20's and they seem oblivious to what is happening. I rant and rave like I have most of my life but few people seem to really care.If you take away the kids electronics they don't know what to do with themselves. It's been mentioned before here but what kid wants to go for a walk in the woods?

One day it's going to hit them over the head and there will be nothing anyone can do about it. I feel the only thing I can do is to make sure my kids experience nature and travel and hope they will eventually shed their dependance on high tech gadgets. Only time will tell.....

[Viv Savage]

Thread seems fine: Anna, I think your post was just too long - cut into smaller installments!

For those of you wondering what the hell this is about - Anna was having problems replying to this thread! Strap in guys and gals looks like shes winding up for a novel - I suggest tea and biscuits and a comfy cushion!

[Anna Woman von NRW]

(Part 1!!!!)

Hey Johnz, Interesting stuff and I also spend time thinking/worrying about this .......

From the point of view of my UK generation (born 1970) I think we were what will become known in time as the Lucky Ones. The post war hardships were over, things were on the up and we could confidently expect to be better off than our parents (although that did turn out to be a lie). Switch to 2013 and the outlook for my 15 year son is a lot ******* bleaker. It's a whole new dynamic. To quote Roland of Gilead - "The World's Moved On". And it has moved fast.

Ryan lives in a different environment than I did at his age. At 15 I had barely seen a computer whereas he has been using them since a toddler and when I look at my mates 3 year old using an ipad as naturally as if it was another hand all I can see is acceleration. Their frames of reference are far removed from ours and I think you have to try and see things from their viewpoint not our own at their age if that makes sense?

[Anna Woman von NRW]

(Part 2 !!!)

And because they have grown up with these digital things as part of their lives in some ways they are much more savvy than us and can see through the fakery and illusion very well. And it breeds an awful lot of cynicism towards the world in general and they get good at spotting bullshit, marketing and hype and indeed becoming de-sensitized but in a good way! Of course at 15 there is still a lot of experience to be gained. This paragraph applies equally to politics, media, society or whatever. It's not lack of interest or awareness -there is still plenty of that and I love it when Ryan goes off on a Citizen Smith rant- it's more a sense of lack of power and the pointlessness of engaging (think Russell Brands political view). It's this that I think is the real concern  I'm sure all generations judge and blame the one's before but I think the one coming has genuine grievances - we took the lot and we knew what we were doing -  and we're leaving it to them to clean up the mess. They will hold it against us

[Anna Woman von NRW]

(Part 3..... Phew!!!)

As for porn, well 15 year old boys have been going through boxes of Kleenex at the speed of light since time immemorial so given access to the worlds largest library of "art" it's not a great surprise that certain types of site get a large number of clicks. Familiarity breeds contempt as they say and perhaps over time there is a trend towards the more explicit and more extreme but at the same time I don't feel that had I seen hard core porn at 15 I would necessarily have turned into a fan. I couldn't have been that much older when I did see hard core videos. My suspicion is that there is the same percentage of people with a likelihood to develop a problem now as there ever was but that with the availability more of those people actually do.

Yes Tomorrow Came and no our children won't forgive us.

[Master Ray]

I see there's been a big celebration of 10 years of Facebook... not I guess I might come across as a huge hypocrite because as I've said before, I use FB, unlike so many posters here...

But, again, I can see it as a silly little tool that has brought me a few laughs and brought me into contact with old pals I'd lost touch with.  For that, I thank FB.  But the youngers nowadays... it's a much bigger part of their lives.  It's a far bigger point of contact than actually calling someone or meeting with them or even, God forbid, writing a letter or something... everything is distilled into that brief, impersonal message... and that is what seems to be becoming the norm.

I don't have children, but I have friends who have teenagers who tell me how they despair how their offspring cannot bear to have their eyes away from a little screen for ten straight minutes... and that ain't good.  Especially when they pride themselves on how many 'friends' they have (people they've never met and God knows who those people actually are), when their real friends should be the ones they are hanging out with on a regular basis and doing all the usual daft teenage stuff, like WE did.

As for the porn thing... well, when I was, say, 13 years old, my experience of porn was a tatty magazine passed on by a mate, the occasional glimpse of boobies on TV and if you were really lucky, someone has a grainy VHS porno tape that they'd nicked from their Dad or older brother... the 13 year old nowadays have access to the most extreme stuff... and might think that having sex is all about, well, ******* a girl as hard as you can up her ****... I'm sure you can fill in the blanks there.  That utterly sickens me.  It ain't really the fault of the boys, they're just learning from the best source they have to educate them... which is the internet.  Only today there was a court case where a 13 year old boy did that stuff to a younger girl because 'he wanted to know what it was like...'

This isn't a great world for kids nowadays and, when I see my beautiful little baby niece in a couple of days, I'm gonna give her a big cuddle and promise to do everything I can to keep her safe.

I seem to have rambled on a bit.  I do that sometimes when I get angry. 

[stompy13]

http://youtu.be/J7QwqZbJpZk

Interesting observations. Too tired to post a comment at the moment, but this song came to mind.

[Johnz]

Thanks for the replies!

Yes, maybe I am just getting old and maybe it's also because I've been living at the end of the world for the last 20 years. But I can't help but feel that something has changed that I can't quite put my finger on. I think Anna you made a good point when you mentioned young people feeling the 'pointlessness of engaging'. That to me seems stronger than in my youth but maybe it isn't. I also think that classic lines between left and right wing political attitudes are of far less important to the younger generations.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Or maybe it's neither.

I hope I'm wrong anyway!