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.
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.