Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You can always turn it off. Unless I am on call, there are times my phone sits upstairs on do not disturb after I come home in the evening. My parents, grandparents, and aunt are set to where they always ring. Everyone else - no, you can wait until I feel like picking up the phone again.
Alot of times I forget to bring it along, or it is off and/or out of battery charge. This doesn't even take into account I do not know how to use or access about 90% of the phone's capabilities, and if I did and used them, my plan cost would skyrocket. Friends of mine are presently being compromised with safety/security by downloading too many apps and along with doing credit card/banking with the phone or tablet. A friend recently had one of her accounts completely cleaned out, the bank made good on it, but a disturbing experience nonetheless.
I am getting older. Well, not that old, but still in my mid 50's and things seem different, but are they? I remember "the good old days" before computers, social media, hype and more, BUT there might be more than meets the eye here. What do I have left? 20? 30? 40? (doubtful) years left and they are not like my 30's and 40's as far s quality, that I know. Anyway, I am complaining about young people with their smartphones and the fact they can't seem to concentrate, but wait. Is it because I am getting closer to death? Do I want to think it is worse because it will make it easier on ME? Will it be easier because I feel things have gotten worse? I don't know if things have actually gotten worse. Actually, things are SUPER easy these days. Why do I want to look at the future in a negative manner? I think it is because I am older and don't have as many years left as a 20 year old. Am I right?
This seems thoughtful to me.
There has never been a better time as far as I'm concerned. I try to go, go, go, and leave very little unturned right now, while I can. My pending death, and/or quality of life issues is one of the driving forces for me to do all I can right now. I'm not too concerned about what times were better/worse.
Agree a lot of the stress comes from a relentless bombardment of information.
I've basically stopped all notifications coming from news applications on my phone. I read the NY Times. I'll listen to local talk radio and occasionally Rush Limbaugh. I've essentially stopped watching/reading the most partisan stuff - I don't care about the latest in "Russia, Russia, Russia" or "Mueller, Mueller, Mueller." I don't need to know about a bunch of kids being abducted and killed three states over.
Ultimately, if it didn't happen in my local area or some place I have a vested interest in, the bad news probably does not impact me anyway.
With age comes an accumulation of life experiences (good and bad), the means for hindsight, and hopefully, some wisdom.
As a result, many are more acutely aware of the negative changes to society and their lives. Even if there are new positive additions, this does not lessen the longing for what was loss.
For many, any loss of what they valued is difficult. And what is considered more valued by one may be viewed as less valued by another.
Memories and the feelings they conjure are powerful things - especially those drawn from childhood and our youth. Even some with what would objectively be considered wretched childhoods, can still draw upon a few "happy" memories of the good ole days for comfort.
I think the perception that "times are getting worse" has to do with the incredible amount of information we are bombarded with on a daily basis nowadays, and the news fear mongering and doom and gloom attitude.
Before the internet and 24 hour news channels, if you didn't read about it in the local paper, hear it from a friend or see it on the 5 o'clock news, you didn't know it happened. You were limited to the information that could be dispersed in your local community, skewing your perception of the rest of the world. Basically there's a world outside of Mayberry (the town you live in), people just didn't think about it before because they weren't "aware" of what happened outside of it.
Someone once made the analogy of "It's like getting a job in the ER and thinking people are all of a sudden more accident prone". Not true, it's just more front and center and you're more aware of it now.
People are also so quick to forget history. I hear it all the time, people act like "all this stuff that's happening is new and scary and it's never happened before". Uhh, what? Although I'm only 23 years old, history is one of my favorite subjects to read and learn about, and I see the same things being replayed over and over and over again. Can't tell you how many times I've watched old news broadcasts from the 50's, 60's and 70's and thought "Wow, this is the same type of crap that's happening today, just with different people and in different places." Never have truer words been spoken than "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."
I'll use Russia as an example. We've been in a peeing match with Russia since after WWII, fighting proxy wars all over the middle east and the world, avoiding directly attacking one another out of fear of starting WW3. Doesn't anybody remember the nuclear arms race? The Cuban missile crisis? The Berlin Wall? The list goes on and on, with each country trying to outdo one another and prove who's got the bigger cojones.
Does Russia have spies over hear trying to influence American decisions? Of course! But it's nothing new, just like we have ours over there and throughout the world. Pretending like it's never happened before and like it's somehow now "new and scary" is frankly laughable.
Also can't forget about the rose colored glasses of nostalgia skewing your perception, as we tend to overlook lots of the bad and emphasize the good. Kind of like taking all the timeless "classic" movies and saying "Movies were so much better back in the day compared to now". Yes, there were lots of great movies made back then, but there were MANY more that were mediocre or utter crap and have been lost to time, just like today.
IMO it's all about perception.
Great post. ITA, I think a lot of "the past was better" sentiments can be attributed to selective memory and "ignorance is bliss". And even if it was better for some people, it certainly was not for many marginalized groups and individuals who were not necessarily accorded some of those same privileges or opportunities.
I also agree that some things are good and some are bad. I confess that I miss the days when there wasn't such a high level of noise everywhere - boom cars, devices dinging constantly with every manner of sound alerts, people talking on cell phones or consuming entertainment in public w/o headphones. OTOH, I'm grateful for the reduced amount of cigarette smoke I am exposed to and I love having the Internet at my fingertips.
My armchair psychologist theory is that dealing with constant change gets mentally taxing after a number of years, and once exhaustion sets in, or a sense that the world is passing you by and doesn't care, people start to cling to the past. Especially if the change is not something that is perceived as a positive that makes life easier and improved.
I don’t wear rose coloured glasses, some things were good and some weren’t. I don’t support the “ good old days” kind of thinking. It depends on age,gender,economics,geography, life circumstances, race ,awareness,education, etc. my childhood was yin and yang, some good,some joyous, and some ugly realities I could not escape.
Times are not worse, we are just more aware of the negatives due to 24 hour news cycles.
Another issue is back in the day we didn’t have 24 hours a day television news networks constantly repeating bad news stories to keep filling air time. We got our TV news in in the morning before work or school, in the late afternoon before prime time programming, and again at 10 central standard time. The bulk of our news came from the morning news paper. Read it and throw it away. In place of the paper we have constant news access via our smart phones or tablets. Constantly seeing such bad news is depressing for those not raised with such news saturation. Having grown up in an era before smart phones means we’re more open to personal interaction and so were more in tuned to seeing so many people tuning out when out in public. No matter what they’re doing, they have their phone to their face. It’s like walking dead. I even caught a guy using his phone to “FaceTime” while urinating in the restroom. It’s why i won’t borrow someone’s phone nor lend out my phone to someone.
You can always turn it off. Unless I am on call, there are times my phone sits upstairs on do not disturb after I come home in the evening. My parents, grandparents, and aunt are set to where they always ring. Everyone else - no, you can wait until I feel like picking up the phone again.
Among family and friends, I am notoriously hard to reach *immediately.* I prefer it that way and don't allow anyone to shame me for it, not even employers.
If your need was that great, either it should have been planned out [by them] better or someone else could have fulfilled it. I am not on-call to anyone with a fleeting desire to talk and/or meet up. You don't get to cancel at the last minute because something better popped up. I am not able to help at the last minute because you planned poorly. I am perfectly okay with "missing out" on some excursion because you couldn't get hold of me. People know that my cell is a way to communicate but not an instant-access line. I've had people show up at my house *angry* that I didn't answer because I was out in the yard. "Why is your phone not on you- that's the WHOLE POINT of a cell phone?!" No- that's *your* point, not mine.
When others visit and hear the phone ring, they get anxious when I don't answer it. They'll rip my cell from the charger and run out with my phone so I can answer it. No. I'm good. I'll get to it later.
Geez - live a little. :P
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
