Why is today's youth so fickle ?

Your remark about kids being smarter today than they were in the 60s doesn't hold any water. It's not that they have too much stuff to process, they simply pay no heed to matters of any relevance.

Fact: More time is spent using the internet to watch "funny videos" of people making clowns of themselves (essentially "webjunk", MTV had a show of the same name collecting the worst examples) than on anything else.

Please read the link in my earlier post regarding e-activism :O)

Brit those days the need for Public Demonstrations and marches were important for them to be heard by athorities. Now Media play an important role.. all they need to do is voice their protest through blogs and internet groups.

Still there are many groups of youngsters in our country who protest for anything and everything...they do protest for something happened in a different Continent, which has no direct or indirect effect on them or their Country.....will it really help?

Just because they are not out on the street shouting slogans.... doesn’t mean that they dont care about these issues happening in this world. Today's youth are more aware of the evils in this world..thx to internet. They are more informed than their previous generations.

If they don’t care, we would have never known what had happened in Iran post election... when media was banned there. We saw lot of things in you tube and read from Iranian bloggers. They are really trying to make a difference through e-activism.

One more reason today's youngsters don’t have so much free as their parents had…

Actually its a little known fact that nobody ever actually burned a bra. Draft cards yes, bras no. And you can burn a draft card or a bra on youtube.

What I think you need to look at is how many more people around the world are aware of what's happening in Iraq or Iran then were aware of what was happening in Vietnam? I think the answer is Billions more. And awareness is half the battle.

I'm thinking of an "artist" who's idea of art was to starve a dog in public till it died. A group was created on Facebook and the backlash from so many people finding out about it was that the dog was saved and this guy no longer has a career and has been charged with animal cruelty.

Demonstrations now are too connected with groups like Green Peace, Peta & the G8 protesters, whom, if you've ever seen interviews with them are sadly unaware of the facts of what they are protesting and seem to do it more for fun then for effect.

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HE WHO DARES WINS

You cannot burn your bra on facebook and there is nothing more effective than getting your arse off the seat and getting out there in person and using your vocal chords..

Anyway, I will just ask you to perhaps read the following :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/6049066/Social-media-and-the-internet-do-not-spread-democracy..html

We can then argue on twitter :O)

Well I will admit that I don't know much about Twitter. But look at YouTube and advocacy groups on Facebook, they do have an effect, both have been very effective at garnering support and making people aware.

please give me a couple of examples ofwhere twitter has had a similar effect to marching or demonstrating..

Patel - Having facilities is not a problem...

HAving facilities and not improving on them for the future generations is...

Oldies didn have luxuries... they invented and we the Kids are using them....

we should be able to keep something for next gen to come... else we have wasted our lives... :(

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Man created religion ..not GOD... get over it guys...- FS

I really don't agree that kids aren't as smart today. If anything I think most kids are MORE informed about politics and world events then the those from the 60's. They can't not be, with 24 hour news channels and the internet. If it seems that they aren't as smart I believe it's because they are getting TOO much information to process.

As for pop culture and fads being a problem, what do you think being a Hippie was in the first place? The whole flower power movement was simply 1960's & 70's pop culture.

Frankly the way you all are talking about how kids today learn about and protest events, ie: Twitter, TV, Facebook, etc is surprisingly similar to how Protesters from the 60's parents talked about them. Just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean its not effective.

I tell you, its because the kids have it all too easy these days. Served on a platter. They don't have to use their brains anymore. As is the case in developed countries, where citizens have everything laid out for them. I believe that challenges make people think better and make better people out of you

..those kids really know the facts...;)

Source:

- A study Conducted by FriedUnicorn - Vol I (September,1999)

Thanks.. Now we know why indians are dark.. It must be because its an African country in Asia..

Parents'role counts a lot. While a school is only an extension of our children's basic formation (and not the other way around), parents played the vital role in the next generation's mentality and values. But how much can we do parents with a more competitive technological advances sensitive enough to twist our young kids' impartial minds?

How i wish we can time-travel back to a more sane generation.

Glitterfy.com - Glitter Graphics

I can't dissagree with that.

Saying that i do thing the older generation or parental one do have an influence in what happens, not saying they can change the course though.

~Parental influence for dummies~

50's - 80's "You will do this you will do that etc"

90's onwards "go ahead kid, have fun".

We... well some of us rebel against our parents wishes to the day we die, obviously some people are extreemly lucky in the relationship they had/have with their parents. So many people will teach their kids about life and disipline them based on what happened to them, Their parents were hard liner, so they decide "I will never hit my Kids" result... Spoilt brats that feel no need to rebel against any society because they can do what they want anyway.

I think it is older people who tend to march for a cause more simply because they have grown up a bit. They have gone past their hard done by or spoilt childhood, out on their own, able for the first time to a form a fully independant (obviously media influences are there) opinion about the world they have seen, and can react as an adult however they feel.

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all part of human mind's evolution influenced by technology, environment, mixed cultures, etc. thereby hugely affecting the new generation.

It is quite impossible for us to 100% tame/influence our children and the children of our children on the ways of the past due to the above reasons. Furthermore, the new generations are given more rights.. children's rights, etc. etc and the youth/new generations capitalized so much on this. Heard your kids saying.... "ma, pa... this is the thing of the past".

This is called CHANGE which we.. some can hardly accept.

Glitterfy.com - Glitter Graphics

My problem with the media is that like someone said, it's business men. I won't have one single person like that representing my freedom of thought and opinion. Alot of these Icons are created by media, they did the same thing back in your days too though for crying out loud.

You think elvis made it so big because he had a nice voice? or because he was swinging his hips on a tv show one night.

Media will always be a dominant force in the young generation, and it always has been. They only reason people freak out at the current media is because people are generally more free to state their opinions. Fact.

But to the point, i don't really thing todays youth is fickle, i think that todays fickle youth just gain the attention, while the ones trying to make a difference are submerged by reports like *britains youth are fat* "American youths no good at school". If you are called a moron for long enough... You will eventually become one.

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EDITED: None of my business.

Source:

- A study Conducted by FriedUnicorn - Vol I (September,1999)

I say this after noticing that Exotic Girl and her posts have generated more interest amongst QLers than many of the news related items put together :O(

In reply to the OP - I wouldn't say,youth of today is fickle...I think they are struggling to cope up with too much of everything.Social activism, as we know it, will become more and more outdated and will be replaced by a new form of information activism. Effective or not- Only time will tell. I don't hope to see the youth of today doing what we did during our college days. ;)

Source:

- A study Conducted by FriedUnicorn - Vol I (September,1999)

OK from Youths point of view.. and this time with a serious note...

People todays generation; work culture and life style doesn let us do anything which shall distract from regular sloggy life.....

People think Election day is a Holiday. The educated class..

Independence day is a day you see your family n stuff....

POint is... people who where young 35 - 40 yrs ago had ample time to give something back to the society they live in.

NOt we..

every minute is planned... scheduled... over packed and events over lap.

Strikes against anything we see wrong is waste of time... nothing more than tht....

Corruption is a problem - The way to over come is ... Pay more.. and get the Bloody JOb done... no time to waste on changing the system.....

Its wrong.. but thts the dirty truth :(

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Man created religion ..not GOD... get over it guys...- FS

Sorry , my bad.

Your second point is very valid.. I recall the last G8 meeting where protesters were portrayed as anarchists and hoodlums..

Sad state of afairs. :(

yes, I encourage my kids to participate and make their voices heard wherever possible. One can only change things from within the system.

I would disagree with your assumption that WE are a majority. I personaly tend to think that we are a dwindling minority ... but hey, that's just me.... ;O)

Do I echo some banned user's sentiments? I can assure yout this is my first account :)

Nothing that fancy I'm afraid.

It is the youth who wit their vigour, energy and naivety drive change in society. I am just saddened that today there is so much apathy towards key causes / issues.

Britex, "Free Spirits"? Your not one of them ghouls who dig up the recently buried dead relatives of people who work in animal research labs are you?

Took the US as an example because of a fundamental reason. It is the US, and mainly the US, that invented "pop culture". The triumph of American pop culture was indicative of the devotion that went into it. Britain contributed to it as well, especially when rock & roll, a subsegment of the pop culture phenomenon is concerned. There was undeniable quality, cultural significance and innovation in it. What is today's iteration of this pop culture?

Even if we consider rap/hip-hop, it went from something fundamental, a sort of African American punk, a cry from the gutter, it levelled off as tough guy street poetry. and today, today it is an absolute disgrace!

Why did I take the US as a major example? Because as the Dead Kennedys once said, "shit runs downhill". I am sorry I have to be explicit, but anything that's hot today in the US, has at least a 50% chance of being replicated in other cultures tomorrow. I didn't use the US as an explicit example to scorn it, because the situation is frankly no better elsewhere. Bollywood...why did it take a Brit to make a meaningful Indian picture and stun the world with it? Because Bollywood is too busy pitching ridiculous romantic fantasies. When "Devdas" came out, it was supposedly a triumph of the Bollywood impossible love story. I haven't seen a movie less relevant and more turgid in my entire existence. Somebody is out there lapping up this junk! Just like the garbage that is drowning Americans. All of it has a common thread to it. LIES. Feed the populace some hyperboles of the jet set and classy living. To me, this is plain insulting, watching people get mushy over things that shouldn't even be an issue, or propagating ideas that money and wealth and status can be attained with no effort whatsoever. It's more important to act like you're someone or have something than to actually have it!

Social skills, once upon a time you had to have a certain character, you had to have some eloquence, today people ask, on TV, when they interview kids, "How many Facebook friends do you have?" Sorry kids, facebook friends don't mean you have friends, and being popular on the internet doesn't mean you can land a job, seal a deal, in all honesty, it means nothing in real life. Another chunk of time and effort blatantly wasted on vain pursuits.

I will agree with you, there are exceptional people in any society and there will always be, but looking at the mainstream, one can easily conclude that any such folks in the future will have to go against the grain even more than their predecessors did.

Yes, both countries are functioning, but we were focusing more on the apathetic aspect of today's youth.

Your chain mails do nothing until they drag you out on the street. Internet activism and internet heroism. That don't mean a damn thing! That's today's logic, you have a grievance, "start a facebook group". Then everyone you know, send them an invitation...for what? So they can advertise their "awareness"? Ya know, once upon a time people would sew patches on vests. Once upon a time wearing a white scarf with black squares meant something. You stood for something and you went through the effort to show it. Today it's fashion! High street fashion too!

For shame!

I will state it again, today's youth is apathetic, complacent, and above that, in dire need of both culture and morals, and good taste as well.

Crap - nice... :)

Don blame the Youth...

we don walk... we forward chain mails.... :)

Doesn tht wrk ???

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Man created religion ..not GOD... get over it guys...- FS

kids today are exponentially dumber than the youth of the 60's/70's. Just look at "what's hot". And I blame the media, who flock like flies to turd on every little dumb tech-gimmick. Who report endlessly about inane sensationalist garbage (especially in the US, out of 70 channels on basic cable, three can be deemed not regularly insulting to the average person's intelligence),who cares about Anna Nicole Smith really? Well apparently most people do! And no don't tell me kids today are growing up with technology and they are inherently more skilled. If they were so skilled, maybe we'd see a reflection of the world's growing population mirrored in the amount of higher learning degrees being granted. Not so, not by a long shot!

You can't watch the news without junk like twitter being mentioned. Everyone's mouths are full of praise for these "web 2.0" tools and applications. Why? How? Any self-respecting IT person will tell you there is really nothing all that special about them. As far as I can remember, it was flickr that spearheaded the "revolution". Now flickr was a bona-fide proper web-service. You post your photos, people like them, reward you, you get feedback in your creative pursuit, encouragement...

Twitter on the other hand. Oh, TWITTER. The fact a "microblog" service is so popular only proves that today's youth have the attention span of a pigeon. 20 word formulations, usually highlighting apalling literacy levels, serve no purpose but to dumb down an already near-moronic generation. And the older, organized institutions that obviously know nothing of the technology, are quick to praise a new gadget that gets a lot of coverage and jump on the bandwagon. Never wondering what it really does, but it's hi-tech, cool, new, fab...kids dig it. Well kids dig Twilight, kids dig Paris Hilton...which leads us on to the second part of my point!

Take a close look at today's "icons". Paris Hiltons, Kim Kardashians, Octomoms, Johns & Kates... That's the USA for ya. That's what's on TV, that's what's in the paper. In a sane world where popularity is built on some tangible merit these "individuals" would not be mentioned. EVER. Socialites? That's a career now! A lucrative one too. And it doesn't take any refinement, any education, infact, those are merely hurdles! Hurdles to acting lewd, lurid, obscene... What about the "artists", sorry "artistes" of today? Even "gangsta-rap" is gone, replaced by sappy, corny, tears-on-my-pillow fake smut sung through a vocoder. Or else there's emo kids! Hooray! It's OK to be a loser, it's cool to be emotionally weak, even if you haven't got a damn thing to be sorry about! Well at least we can count on the sportsmen, you know, Mohammad Alis, George Bests. WRONG. Today we have David & Victoria Beckham. And I ain't going there. I might get an ulcer breakout.

You talk of hippies britexpat. Let's take a look at their opposite, the working class skinheads. Once upon a time this was a working-class movement, with only a small percentage of them affiliating with questionable political ideals. Today they are overwhelmingly fascists, and those that are or were not, have become CHAVS. No more docs and fred perry. Now it's burberry and stone island! Garbage in, garbage out.

How about literature? Maybe I'm wrong, but once upon a time people read French existentialism, stuff like Sartre and Camus. Well if not that it was some new age spiritualism, some "mind-expanding" theories, as ridiculous as they may have been, they surely weren't Twilight! Look at cinematography...Fast & Furious? FO' REALZ? LULZ!

Look at the way the English language is being brutalized. And somehow, this is cool! It's cool to not be able to spell or form a coherent, grammatically correct sentence! I will tell you I see that being done to Arabic as well, and that's even bigger a disaster if one understands the nature of the language and it's cultural importance to it's native speakers.

I don't necessarily enjoy being some kind of "prophet of doom", but the world, on a global scale, in all four corners, is experiencing a steady inversion of morals, where this leads, I don't really want to know.

Tat is partly it, but one key isue is that TV stations are controlled by businessmen who decide which sideneeds to be supported.. usually, its the government..

Well whats proven to be most effective for the gay community has been television. Shows like Will & Grace, pro-gay-marriage cartoons, etc, but really it depends what the issue is.

TV however is the best tool and always has been (the reason the protests in the 60's were effective was because they became televised) and unfortunately the only way from protests to become televised nowadays is through violence, which is not the point.

At Greenham Common women chained themselves to the fences..

What modern day methods do you support ?

The Mardi Gras?

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The Cookie Monster said it.

I also don't plagiarize...

People still do march for Gay rights? What do you think Gay Pride Parades are? Personally I think there's just more effective methods to get attention to a cause now.

They've been brainwashed by the media. That's what.

I think Malik has been on the Giant triple burger with extra mayo.

add me in ur best friend list and i will proof that i am ur best friend.

[email protected]

which love is batter

1-love with urself.

2-love with country

3-love with girl.

You're right..

By the way, i still do :O)

baby_karina, the youth are all fickle pickles.

plus lack of exercise combined with a poor diet leads to obesity which affects your mental state.....i know, i know...what i just said made no sense.

it must be late, i'm outta here.

Yeah, bcoz of diet...coz it does affect your mental state you know??! :))

People are too lazy or scared to get off their arses and show their emotions in public.

Lots of issues to march & protest against but it seems to be not that effective or applicable these days.......... :(

It was a great time, when we felt that anything was possible. It was a time of freedom and Free spirits.

It seems so long ago now :O(

i think it's to do with their diet.

Well said, particularly SAMAEL...

I will march.... :) given the right cause..i will!

Even if we live in the the 21st century, we shouldn't forget the "essentials"... it's an "easy" world out there... everybody seems to be busy with things...

I wish i was born in the 50's,60's & 70's where Life was simple yet good....& happy...........

Whatever they feel strongly about..

They could march:

For pulling the troops out of Afghnistan or

For Gay rights or

Against the erosion of civil liberties or

Against Animal testing for cosmetics..

Its their choice..

I once marched with Gays against Nazism :o)

One noticeable thing from te "authorities" is that as soon as protesters come on to the streets, they are labeled as agitators or anarchists by the pro government media.

Also, especially since 9/11, security has been used as an excuse to curb demonstrations.

Its quite sad to see for us oldies.:O(

They march the same speech without further reasonable explanation but doesn't have the dignity to stand up for it and by tomorrow you'll see these new set of people going back to their own cheating lives.

When Woodstock was a march for a cause, modern-day marches are just merely to be in-trend.

"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

May be it is because of Big Brother and Little sister every where.. Too many surveillance cams every where.

Plus what cause are left to March for?.. The Appartied is over, Gays have equal rights..

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HE WHO DARES WINS

Agree, SAMAEL.

britexpat, twittering or communicating/complaining on the internet does affect the politicians - it changes the minds of voters in a democratic society. The problem with that is in ensuring that comments are fair and justifiable and not simply emotional outbursts.

Btw, it's better too, not to disrupt busineses, etc. along the way marching up to 10 Downing Street or The White House. :0)

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The Cookie Monster said it.

I also don't plagiarize...

Ya. Hippies who's Daddies pay for them to NOT go to class at Uni (by buying a library) and who believe money is the root of all evil.

these days, you can raise your voice from a distance...anonymous emails, blogs or like what we are doing here in QL! isn't it much better? than those messy marches which sometimes ends up in a riot and a lot of ouch ouch....

"nObOdY dIes A vIrgIn, LIFE f***Ks uS aLL!"

I think it has more to do with the rather ridiculous and violent protests that have occurred in the last 20 years, like Seattle & Vancouver. Protesters are now considered whiney trust fund babies whose parents told them to get out of the house and do something. I can't take any "hippies" with Armani glasses seriously.

I agree, but twittering or communicating / complaining on the interne does not affect the politicians in the same way as marching up to 10 Downing Street or The White House.

These were the days when peoples voice their disagreements in a peaceful ways. Today its about flag burning morons.

it's because they care less now...there's a lot of new things for them to get entertained with.

more likely that you will hear them say "yeah...right...shoot me..." than get involved

fickle? tickle?

My Rig:

Intel Core i7 at 3.33Mhz

6GB Kingston RAM

1 TB Barracuda Seagate HDD

Nvidia 9800 GT 1GB GDDR3

32" Samsung Monitor

Too many cellulite telephones and i-capsules these days.

Actually look at the anti-War protest in london a few years ago, that was one of the largest in history, and it was mainly youngsters.

To be honest though, marching for causes is to raise public awareness of an unjust, a wrong doing or whatever, the internet can raise public awareness alot higher. Granted it doesn't have the effect of holding an airport hostage or blocking trafalgar square, but it is seen by many.

"it's a 21st century Digitil World

they don't know how to live but they have alot of toys" - kind of a Quote by a band

In the end times change, and it does to us.

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