# Observations On The Instant Gratification Generation.



## Grumpy Gator (Jun 14, 2015)

OK I'll admit up front that I'm a old curmudgeon. . When I was growing up life was a lot different. Our first phone had a dial and we had a special ring because we were on a party line. We called them Beatnicks not hippys. The tv was black and white no color.My first real job was pumping gas. Regular was 11.9 cents a gallon. Ethel {Hi-Test} was 14.9. Five bucks filled the tank.
If I had a question I had to ask my dad or  someone else in the family. If it wasn't in our 6" thick Merriam Webster dictionary you got told to go to the library and look it up.Of course when you got  the answer  you had to share it with the rest of the household when you got back.
Nowadays every body has a smart phone in there pocket. They got more computer in there hand then the desk top model I'm writing this with....I had some running around to do yesterday morning and saw some grade schoolers on their way to school and noticed that they were not talking to each other they were all looking at there smart phones and texting..... Got a question.. ask your phone.... And I mean just talk to it and it will do it all....No typing.... Talk to it.
It's no wonder to me that most of our young people spend their time on the web or in the "cloud". No need for personal interaction needed just click it and go. Hungry there is a app for that. Lost there is a app for that.Don't know your right foot from your left foot I'm sure there is a app for that. Now thats not necessarily a bad thing but it sure takes the human interaction out of the equation. So all thats left is a blank stare and a open mouth.
Case in point I just got back from Wallymart. I went in the store thru  the Garden section and found 1 young male cashier with no one in the check out line. So I said "Hi" and went to do my shopping.When I was done I went back to that check out line to find gridlock. As I was waiting my turn I noticed that no one was talking to each other. They were all fully involved with their electronic gadgets . By and by I get to the front of the line and look at the guy I said "Hi" to and said "Feast or Famine " .........And that's when it happened........The blank stare and the open mouth..........."Ah what's that mean Dude ?"........."Never mind Dude I'll text you later and explan it." and his reply was "Cool"
  So...........that's my observation for today..............More later......................................
********Shaking the Bush Boss**************Gator******************
	

		
			
		

		
	



	

		
			
		

		
	
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## savarin (Jun 14, 2015)

Yep, all through the western world.
I notice the highschoolers walking home past my house, everyone has ear buds in head down.
Absolutely no situational awareness.
I have a family of magpies who come for a feed most days, they sit in the small bush outside my house calling if they cant see me.
Often I hand feed them in the bush and they make a bit of a racket but none of the kids even look up except last week when I guess a 12 year old was walking home but not using any electronic distractions and noticed what I was doing.
He stopped, stared and said Wow, thats so cool and started talking about birds.
There is hope for some of them but I dont think there are many of them.


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## tomh (Jun 14, 2015)

grumpy   
Yep were headed for a gridlock.
So you pumped ethel to.  

Did you use the glass jars and bulk oil


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## Terrywerm (Jun 14, 2015)

Don't get me started, Gator.  I might not stop...


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## markknx (Jun 14, 2015)

How did Ethel like it?
Yes I have seen the Phone Gen. kids sitting in a restaurant, 4 at a table all with phones out and nobody talking to each other.  Maybe they were texting each other. But I have seen this more than once.  Great tool these phones are we should be the most educated people ever with the tools we have at hand. 20 years ago I would have had a hard time getting to where I am in learning to machine metal. the problem is it is to often used for dumb stuff like who won the hand me a trophy awards, or what Kim  and konyay are have for dinner. In other words for Dumbing down people.
Mark


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## markknx (Jun 14, 2015)

Oh Terry you don't have a clue about this stuff, what could you have to say here.  Terry don't read any farther. (Gator watch him take that bait)


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## mws (Jun 14, 2015)

I guess I'm a grump too.  There's NO smart phones in my house. In fact, I still use a 20 year old StarTac. It makes phone calls only. I won't even activate the voice mail on it.  I answer it! Imagine that.  D'ja ever notice NOBODY answers their GD phone anymore?!!

  My three boys (9, 11 & 13) are all in Boy Scouts, they know how to shake a man's hand, engage in adult conversation and can use a slide rule. They're also pretty good on a PC but that's not something they need to be on all day. No sir, they have outboard motors to rebuild, boats to aluma-braze, dirt bikes to ride, RC planes to build,...  and their Mom is making sure they can read and write cursive.  It takes a lot of time raising 'em like this but I don't have any texts to answer or apps to interfere with my duties. We get a lot of compliments on their "social skills" from all who meet them. Seems like a worthy trade off to me.   Their peers think they're a little weird at first... until they learn that they can actually DO and KNOW NEAT STUFF! 

Oh, and we only get a few local cable channels and the three major networks.  I do miss the history and science channels but...


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## savarin (Jun 15, 2015)

I can remember when television was heralded as the great educator, it will revolutionise the world.
It did, dumbed it down to the lowest level with stupid reality shows whose only reason for being is to perpetuate the creed of greed.
Dont get me wrong, I use technology, my house was networked for 6 computers but I dont use a smart phone (not smart enough?) and I still call apps programs.
Have you noticed how smart phones have taken the place of planning?
No one make plans in advance any more they just call and hope it can be sorted instantly.


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## brav65 (Jun 15, 2015)

I could not agree more Gator.  As I sat and watched my son at basketball practice on Saturday I almost had an aneurism watching 9 of 11 boys be disrespectful to the coach, screwing around and making fun of other players.  I must have stood up 10 times to go out on the court and tell the boys to cut the crap.  Near the end of practice I overheard a father tell his wife there were only two boys paying attention and not disrespecting the coach.  Turns out it was my son and theirs.  When the practice was over all the boys but two picked up their phones, I bet you can guess which two did not have phones.


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## Grumpy Gator (Jun 15, 2015)

Brother Terry,
You are the reason this group was started.By all means speak up.
Consider it
 to be a catharsis .
 After all as a charter member of this group you owe it to us to share your observations.
 You kicked the ball in my yard and I ran with it. So I'm kicking it back over the fence to you...........
 It's your turn.
*******Shaking the Bush over here Boss*******************G***************************


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## Ed of all trades (Jun 15, 2015)

To me the phones and all that are the symptom, not the cause. When I grew up if a neighbor needed help you didn't think about it you helped them.  You didn't ask how much $$$ and when they offered you often as not said no, just glad to help.  Today they look hard the other way and pretend they didn't see you.  Everything is about self.  We are fast becoming the selfish states of america, we are no longer united,only self is important.  There are still holdouts but they are not as many as there was just a few years ago.  Ed


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## Whyemier (Jun 15, 2015)

Yep, all that above and pro'bly more if I cared to think about it. Nope don't want to!


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## RJSakowski (Jun 15, 2015)

Ed of all trades said:


> To me the phones and all that are the symptom, not the cause. When I grew up if a neighbor needed help you didn't think about it you helped them.  You didn't ask how much $$$ and when they offered you often as not said no, just glad to help.  Today they look hard the other way and pretend they didn't see you.  Everything is about self.  We are fast becoming the selfish states of america, we are no longer united,only self is important.  There are still holdouts but they are not as many as there was just a few years ago.  Ed



I am fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood where neighbors still help each other.  When I have given help in the past and the beneficiary insisted on paying, I told him to pass it on. But I know where you're coming from, Ed. I spent most of my life in or around farming communities and seventy years ago, neighbors gathered together to plant and harvest.  After WW II, machinery that enabled a farmer to go it alone was becoming widely available and the community effort was lost.  Even more so in the urban and suburban areas.

What really bothers me is the virtual world we are more and more living in. We are losing the ability to provide the material goods we need for our very existence.  We will soon have to learn how to eat virtual food. When our country's GDP depends upon the rise and fall of the likes of Facebook, we have a real problem brewing.


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## savarin (Jun 15, 2015)

We lost the plot when we started "Outsourcing" everything we could.


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## kvt (Jun 15, 2015)

Yea, it took years for my wife to get me to get a phone that did more than just make a call.  Still do not do much on it but make calls,  and finally took some pics to put on this site.  I pumped gass,  all the grades,  we also did fill ups for the big rigs,  Oil came in a big drum, they also had Oil in bottles Washed cars etc.   Every time you filed a car you washed the windows and checked the oil.   Even did the tires if they asked.   Now day you cant even get one of the people that works there to give you a paper towel so you can check you oil.   Much less have stuff so that you can wash your own windows.   Tray to talk to one of them,  (although I do not do it much, as hard to hear them) and like said above you get a blank stare like where did you come from.   Asked where something is that you use to get all the time, and they moved it on you, and you get a half hour waite while they try and figure out what you are talking about even though you gave them the name that was on the little sticker on the isle.   I remember when they put a price on a can, bottle etc, and it stayed that price till it sold,   They did not change the price every day or when they felt like it.   The new stuff always went to the back of the shelf, and the old in front.   Now your are lucky to get someone that will even fill a shelf without being told to do it.   And neighbors,  They helped you and you helped them.  The older people got help from all  the people around them.   I mow my yard and the old man next door needs his mowed,  you mowed it as well.    Now they want more than use to make in a week just to mow and edge the yard,   Don't even want to get into computers and the fact that even with them kids do not seem to retain what they see, read, etc on them   They figure they can look it up again, why remember it.

  Ok,  I guess if fit in this group also.


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## Terrywerm (Jun 15, 2015)

Oh, trust me, I am not afraid to speak up, but my response might get a little long. Gator, you can relate to what I am thinking about, since you also used to drive a truck.

For the benefit of the  uninitiated:  For many years there existed a brotherhood of sorts in the trucking industry. In the last twenty years or so it has all but disappeared.
- If another driver was broke down on the side of the road, you would stop and lend a hand. It didn't have to be a truck driver, either, it could be any motorist. Not anymore, thanks to electronic logs books. You cannot fudge the extra 20 or 30 minutes anymore.
- When another truck passed you, you would flash the headlights when it was safe for him to come back over in the right lane, and in turn he would flash his tail or marker lights to say 'thank you'. Some still do this, but new drivers are told not to do it by the driving schools and by the legal staff of their employers because doing so might incur some liability.
- When you stopped for fuel, after you were done pumping you would pull ahead one truck length so that somebody else could use the pump while you were inside paying for your fuel. Now these new drivers think the fuel island is a handy place to park while they go take a shower, tying up the pump for an hour or more.
- At the end of the day you would go into the restaurant, eat your dinner at the counter and chew the fat with a few of the other drivers, and you were happy to leave the waitress a tip, too. Most of the truck stops don't even have a restaurant anymore because everybody wants fast food and Subway sandwiches instead of a good meal.
- Night time was quiet time. If you had a reefer unit and could not shut it down, you would put it in 'run steady' mode so that you and the drivers around you could get a good night's sleep. Nobody has the courtesy to do that anymore, instead you have to listen to somebody's reefer start and stop every 20 minutes all night long.
- If you were in the mood for partying and had nowhere to be the next day, you parked in the back row of the lot, farthest away from the building. Now days people don't care how much they inconvenience anyone else.
- If you had a bag of garbage in your truck, you would get rid of it in a proper manner. Some of the guys out there now are too lazy to walk to a garbage can 20 feet away and just leave their trash on the pavement next to their truck. PIGS!
- If you were driving along and slowly catching up to another vehicle, you pulled out to pass only when there was no one overtaking you. Now days they cut everyone else off and plug up traffic for several miles.

There are many more things that I could touch on, but I will keep my response short for now. Maybe I will add more later.

Long story short, there are still a few of us old timers around that still adhere to the old traditions and still believe in being courteous to other motorists, but with each passing day there are fewer and fewer of us.

Guess I'm some sort of a dinosaur or something.

Okay fellas, the ball is comin' back at ya!


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## kvt (Jun 15, 2015)

Never drove a truck but mother and father both drove trucks delivering and picking up fuel for the Gas station.   In north Tx even if you were a car you flashed your lights so the truck could pull back in,  and they flashed the tails to thank you,  In SA,  you are lucky if they do not tray to run over you, with the exception of a few.  They are normally the older drivers.   They also do not pull over so you can pass like they use to,  Have been run off the road by a few drivers down in SA tx also,   If they accidently did that in days gone by they would stop and make sure everything is OK, and apologize.   Now even they guys behind you will not even slow down while you try and get back on the road.   I thought it was funny the other day,  Had a older guy on a motor cycle that actually used hand signals to ensure that you knew that he was slowing down and turning.  It was almost like miracles will never cease.   I do not even think they teach turn signals any more, everyone of the young things are on the phone so they can't be bothered to use a turn signal.   Or they just feel that they own the highway and you will get out of the way, that is why they have Insurance,  oh, no they don't care,  they don't have insurance and you get to pay all of your repaires etc.   

  Ok,  I'm off someone else can take it over.


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## Grumpy Gator (Jun 15, 2015)

Yea back in the day I wore out a few trucks.I turned the clock on a long nose Pete with a 600hp cat turning a two stick 5 and 4.To say it got out of it's own way in a hurry would not be a lie. I got the tickets to prove it. Hauled a lot of veggies out of Brownsville and spent a lot of time on all those farm to market roads , come up on a slow driver and they moved over into the break down lane and you slide over a half a lane and pass them.
 It seams to me that courtesy is not a trait that gets passed down thru DNA.
And that in my opinion is a shame.
***************JADIP**********************************G**********************************


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## savarin (Jun 16, 2015)

Now were on a good one, courtesy.
Where has that gone?
Try reversing out of a parking bay in a carpark, no one gives way today and they speed through the lanes as well.
Who takes the supermarket trolley back nowadays? Lets just leave it here, that 10 yards is too far away and takes too much time.


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## Ed of all trades (Jun 17, 2015)

These are all different sides of the same illness, it is called selfishness.  What you are seeing is a country sliding into anarchy.  No government can really make people do right and the end of the road we are walking down doesn't have the good old USA standing tall.  Might not be a USA there at all. It has been said no army can defeat us but we can defeat ourselves.  Unless people change for the better, it was nice while it lasted.


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## kvt (Jun 17, 2015)

courtesy,  Polite people, Selfless acts, Politicians that were not crooks,  All of this has gown down the tubes if you will for the most part,   Even the old politicians have decided to follow the young ones and  now they are all crooks out for themselves.    you cannot even discipline your children any more, as that is child abuse.   Making them sit  or stand in the corner is child abuse because it could cause emotional distress.    Wait a min,   I think we are on to something.   They could not be disciplined at home or in school thus the young today have no respect for authority.     USed to the City, state, and Gov empoyees were the ones that always did thing by the book, followed the law, etc.   Now days people do, do things by example.   look at cops, city emplyees, etc,   They are all driving around speeding, refusing to use turn signals, etc etc.   So what do the citizens do,   They do the same thing  Monkey see monkey do.   Tell you how bad it is,   One way I use to go to get to work,   I kept having cops pass me,  No lights or anything,   Finally one day I followed one of them.   They were late for breakfast or something as they all pulled into Deney's and went in and sat down and here comes a bunch more of them.    When I followed them,   I know I should hot have, but I was doing almost 80 in a 60 to stay with them.  Just so they could go eat.   YOu see all kinds of City vehicles, cop cars, etc that never follow the speed limits, and drive properly.   Where did all the pride in our towns and cities go.    Our leaders are not polite, so the people are no longer polite,   and it just roles down hill.  

Rather than fixing problems they just pass more laws to try and make you do something, when there were already laws the cover that.   THen the judges use opinion rather than the law.   Oh and we cannot be mean and make the prisoners work and do things,   now we have to spend money and give them a College education,   when the people that are paying or their time in prison are just trying to make enough to pay the bills and a little more.  

 Oh,  I can go on all day,  but it is someone else's turn to chime in.


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## gotogojo (Jul 8, 2015)

tomh said:


> grumpy
> Yep were headed for a gridlock.
> So you pumped ethel to.
> 
> Did you use the glass jars and bulk oil


where I pumped gas the oil in the glass bottles came from oil in the canned oil sold  when emty was drained in to a barrel then bottled and sold again one drip at a time gotogojo


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## Andre (Jul 9, 2015)

I do agree some younger adults need to separate technology from life sometimes. Nothing is more pointless than having a conversation with someone while they are texting someone else, although there are exceptions. Technology is great for looking something up quick, and texting is great and depending on your phone plan cheaper than calling. I'm texting a friend who for this week is 550 miles away at a shooting instructional camp. Every day I get updated on that days scores. It's not very polite to call someone in a quiet air rifle range. With Android I can do nearly everything my computer can do, and do it away from WIFI where my computer would be useless, all with a device that fits in my pocket. For some short trips I don't even take my laptop with me.


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