Has U. S. society/culture deteriorated beyond repair?

[KariRandall]

I grew up in Downy, California, a suburban community half Anglo and half Latino known for having a movie theater directly across the street from the high school! My life partner and I were there on Saturday morning top help my mom move some things when we noticed there was not a single teen out in the yard mowing a lawn washing windows, or trimming shrubs. This was a very major change from ten years ago when all us teens were drafted into yard work on Saturday mornings if we wanted spending money for a Saturday night date.

It really made me wonder. Do today's teens just have it handed to them? Could this be the reason a third of teen are overweight? Could we actually have something to blame on America's parents? Is this part of why America has fallen in the eyes of the world. Are American parents setting a bad example. I suspect so.

 

[MoufOfKhaos]

Of all the things you picked for the downfall of Americana... not mowing the lawn in the winter?

 

[pat grimshaw]

Yes, it all started after the Second World War under the influence of this guy (below) then these babies created the selfish "Me Generation" and now the parents do nothing. It's one of the many 'diseases of Affluence' which is also crippling the UK and my country too.

http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/biography-benjamin-spock/583.aspx

 

[SLOPPYSECONDS]

it neva start first place

usa like lot lands is but barbaric copys of eons

see if a great halls of univeristys figa out simple

there go

thankyou

but no worry everythang goona be alright
@ dat okay then @
here teddy bear

 

[AlmondMilk]

Well I'd doubt it would be snowing in southern California. Even in central California, there wasn't any snow when I stayed there. Perhaps the teens were mowing their lawns and stuff on the other side of town? I'm sure you didn't drive up and down every single street to come to this conclusion

 

[MoufOfKhaos]

Doesn't snow in GA often either, but we still put the mowers away in October unless we're paid landscapers.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

They're probably having sex with their dads.

 

[ChickenGuy]

The part of all this that concerns me most is what you see happening in stores when the latest Apple/Microsoft hi-tech gadget, whatever it may be, hits the market.

You will see teenagers/twentysomethings camping out on the streets two days beforehand, standing in the pouring rain if need be, ALL so that they can be the first to spend $500 or whatever (the price doesn't matter) on what THEY ARE TOLD that they NEED.

And that's a very critical point - I honestly don't think what the gadget does is the most important thing to them - it is that THEY ARE SEEN with one and that they will be excluded amongst their friends if they DON'T have one. And, of course, that they must get this gadget IMMEDIATELY. NOW.

The same idea with certain fashion labels dictating what general style of clothing you must wear.

So, to answer the OP, I don't think that it's parents so much that are the root cause of this, but that children from a very young age are targeted by mega-corporations and very subtlely told in an almost subconscious way what they should be buying and wearing.

It's a trend I see more obviously with each passing decade.

 

[Latimer]

Downy = Downey?

 

[M4P]

It isn't beyond repair but I don't think America has hit it's bottom, yet. It will take a generation or two to get back to greatness. Gov't cannot repair this

 

[bankside]

The part of all this that concerns me most is what you see happening in stores when the latest Apple/Microsoft hi-tech gadget, whatever it may be, hits the market.

You will see teenagers/twentysomethings camping out on the streets two days beforehand, standing in the pouring rain if need be, ALL so that they can be the first to spend $500 or whatever (the price doesn't matter) on what THEY ARE TOLD that they NEED.

And that's a very critical point - I honestly don't think what the gadget does is the most important thing to them - it is that THEY ARE SEEN with one and that they will be excluded amongst their friends if they DON'T have one. And, of course, that they must get this gadget IMMEDIATELY. NOW.

The same idea with certain fashion labels dictating what general style of clothing you must wear.

So, to answer the OP, I don't think that it's parents so much that are the root cause of this, but that children from a very young age are targeted by mega-corporations and very subtlely told in an almost subconscious way what they should be buying and wearing.

It's a trend I see more obviously with each passing decade.

More than most I am resistant to the dictates of fashion and indeed I have a streak of contrarian instinct that makes it difficult to follow the crowd.

I would easily stay put if all the lemmings were stampeding towards the cli- what's that expression again? It's on the tip of my tongue. Ahh yes, stampeding towards the cliff.

…but I would have to exercise a little self-discipline to remember that following the lemmings out of a burning building is in fact a good idea.

And my verdict is following the lemmings into the Apple store is a good idea. Of any piece of technology I've ever bought, the iPhone takes the cake for value. Every $£€¥ well spent.

 

[seven2go]

I grew up in Downy, California, a suburban community half Anglo and half Latino known for having a movie theater directly across the street from the high school! My life partner and I were there on Saturday morning top help my mom move some things when we noticed there was not a single teen out in the yard mowing a lawn washing windows, or trimming shrubs. This was a very major change from ten years ago when all us teens were drafted into yard work on Saturday mornings if we wanted spending money for a Saturday night date.

It really made me wonder. Do today's teens just have it handed to them? Could this be the reason a third of teen are overweight? Could we actually have something to blame on America's parents? Is this part of why America has fallen in the eyes of the world. Are American parents setting a bad example. I suspect so.

Sadly........yes to all.......

 

[refujiunderground]

you're talking about now when us society been fucked up since the moment the europeans came in contact with the native americans centuries ago. hell, you're busy crying about kids being lazy nowadays. well, that's what happens when there's technology around. oh well.

 

[pat grimshaw]

… us society …

U.S. society? There wasn't any back in those days

 

[refujiunderground]

U.S. society? There wasn't any back in those days

well, the foundation of this country pretty much shaped how this country is today so.. this country basically has always been on some hypocritical shit since day one. we want a perfect society yet we're acting like we're not human beings. the difference between back then and now is that back then, everybody pretended like they gave a fuck to the point where they were being phony. nowadays, everybody doesn't give a fuck anymore which is good for me because i can't imagine dressing up in a dress shirt, dress pants while i'm chilling at home watching a black and white tv. hell no. blame the 1960s for making people realize that they were human beings and not robots. with that said, i would rather live now then deal with the 1950s especially since i'm black. i know i wouldn't be on some peaceful shit especially if folks called me the n-word, chasing me with waterhoses and dogs. NO.

 

[bankside]

Respectfully disagree. I see iPhones as bloatware.

Mmm. If I had some kind of ultra efficient phone running ubuntu or something, I would have to add all that bloat manually just to make the damn thing useful and make it feel at home.

The iPhone came with all the bloat pre-installed because they value my needs as a customer and know I don't have time for that kind of futzing around to have to do it all myself..

And no, this is not my tongue in my cheek; have you seen all the geeks drooling over how to install x y or z "feature" and customising with this skin or that shell? Those are all words for "geek bloat." All those people computing without bloat can blow their "makefiles" out their arses.

So a big No thanks to that... Apple just covers everything in apple-y marshmallow and it's delicious right out of the box...

 

[refujiunderground]

but let's keep it real for a second. are we going to act like we would trade places and go back to 1992 when there was no iphones, ipods, computers like we have them now? i know i wouldn't. yeah, the 90s was a good time but you are crazy if you think i would go back in a time machine to experience life back then like i would now. fuck that, i love my computer too much.

hell, even the people back then we're screwed up. times are MUCH better now. hell, being gay back then was much harder than it is now.

 

[yummylongsword]

Keep in mind that while the so called "Me Generation" may not be out mowing lawns every weekend, they work unprecedentedly hard in terms of education. Most teens, between the advanced work loads and extra-curriculars they need to get into good colleges, simply don't have time to get a job. I know my senior year I spent 7 hours at school, three or four hours at some activity after school, and then two to three hours on my homework every day. The weekends were for sleeping, completing the few chores that I still had to do, and doing more school work.

Now not all teens are taking such advanced course loads, but the hard workers that would otherwise be out mowing lawns and getting jobs are the ones that instead work hard in school, because it's far more important to do so than to get work experience. In the past, work experience was just as valuable as education and you could get a decent job with just a high-school degree. Nowadays, anyone without at least an undergrad degree is destined to a life of minimum wage employment.

So no, American culture is not in a decline just because adults are pissy about teenagers. The adults are the ones that set up the system that forces teens to work more hours at their schoolwork than their parents do at jobs, and the adults are the ones that have dug this country into such a pit of debt. I'd like to see what they all say in 20 years when they depend on today's teens to take care of their useless asses.

 

[blackbeltninja]

First mistake: you're assuming the US had culture to begin with.



-d-

 

[fetaby]

First mistake: you're assuming the US had culture to begin with.



-d-

Yes, because as everyone knows SA is the epicenter of culture...



But to answer the thread? I lol'd when you said it was merely 10 years ago and the teens were out mowing the lawn...

Culture is usually expressed generationally, sure. But don't you think your parents said the same thing about your generation? And their parents said the same thing about them...

OMG, get offa ma lawnz.