I call people 'mate' a lot (mainly because I am bad with names), so would irritate Matwoolf a lot. Like others I dislike social media. I dislike the fact that as a result a lot of people seem to have become self-obsessed and self-absorbed. But worse is the fact that this spills out into other areas of life and now everyone truly believes that their time and convenience is more important than that of everyone else around them. They will lie, cheat, push-in, run for that one vacant seat on the tube, block the junction rather than wait at the lights, leave their trolley across the supermarket isle, stand across the pavement having an impromptu conversation. We have become a society of narcissists.
I'm torn on this. I dislike the prevalent sense of entitlement; but I also dislike the way that a firm you work for owns you. It owns 5/7 ths of your time, it owns what you wear, your haircut, how you act, what you say in your free time etc. It all seems so ludicrously outdated.
Swamp Dog! You've had a head replacement! For a second, I thought somebody else was completely on your wavelength, and was thinking exactly like you. I'm done slapping my head now....
Insanely high living costs. My parents could afford a house and two cars in the 80s. Salaries and living costs don't meet and people consume less and less. The welfare state is falling apart. This in my neck of the woods. People who are fine with two people talking on the bus/train, but are bothered by a cellphone call. People who complain everyone's staring at their phones instead of into nothingness or reading a book that is not in a digital Kindle format when commuting. Finns didn't talk to strangers before smartphones and they won't now.
The issue here is not that they're on a phone, but that they shout and want the whole world to know it. YES, I'M ON THE BUS NOW. YES, JUST GOING DOWN THE ROAD. HELLO? YES, JUST GONE UNDER A BRIDGE. YES, ON THE BUS. HELLO?
Living costs. I would say that this isn't a problem with recent customs; this is a hangover from the selfish baby-boomer generation. They bought homes, then second homes, then buy-to-lets thus restricting housing supply; they took out unsustainable pension schemes leaving the bill for the next generation of tax-payers; they gorged on finite resources leaving the inevitable price hikes and remedial action to their children. Dam you baby-boomers! Unfortunately the term baby-boomer does not confer my irritation adequately.
They get miffed that you so outrageously hinder their attempts to eavesdrop by preventing them from hearing the other half of the conversation. Maybe they'd prefer it if you put the call on speaker? It's funny how many even here dislike social media and voice that dislike on an internet forum, a form of social media. @SwampDog, more than once I've seen and heard folks complain about someone speaking on the phone even when they weren't shouting, even when they were talking quietly. Come to think of it, the phone is irrelevant; people who talk loudly when they don't need to, are annoying even when their friend is sitting next to them on the bus, i.e. it has nothing to do with phones, yet folks usually seem to get pissy only when it's a phone call.
I've just bought an iPod Shuffle so I can drown out the sound of people shouting into their iPhones on long bus journeys. Apple really DOES know what it's doing!
As a boomer myself, I agree with you. The bigger problem is that we taught these same profligate habits to our children and they to theirs, so we all think kicking the fiscal can down the road is a sustainable strategy. It isn't, and while I probably won't be here to see it, it would be interesting to find out what generation is left without a chair when the music stops.
You should never live in Prague, Czech Republic then. Here it seems to be the cultural frigging norm to stand plonk in your way and actually for the person to have the guts to glare at you if you try to push past. This goes for trams, metros, when you're trying to leave a building, just walking down the street. I've come to terms with many Czech habits but this - this I just find rude. Irritates the hell out of me. And then they might run right into you and have the guts to glare rather than say sorry - usually they say nothing at all. I've noticed so many times now - even little kids. Little toddlers and young children - they'd run right past you, nearly bumping into you by running or with their scooter or whatever, or shoot right across the path you're taking right in front of you - literally to the point where you have to stop dead still or you'd collide with the poor kid. And the parents say nothing. They don't tell the kid to watch out, to be careful, to mind the person coming in your way, to make way and give the person some room, to go play somewhere else where there's not people actually trying to walk down the footpath. They do nothing, say nothing, and the kid goes on their merry way. If kids are raised this way, well is it any wonder the adults are irritatingly stupid when it comes to blocking people's paths?
Yeah, loud and obnoxious people are loud and obnoxious. Despite cell phones being largely a 21st century thing, I don't personally see a diff between phone-chatters and physically present chatters. Maybe phones mean there are more loud and obnoxious people out there?
White 4 by 4s definitely air rifle material. Also, I don't know about loud people on trains so much, on their phones. It all gets reversed, confused when it is your wife on that phone, and some IT pig oaf in a suit takes offence to her sparkly lickle voice from Oxbridge. I always meet her off the train, find the guy...and really look at him.
Yes, exactly. People just blurt out whatever is on their minds, especially the overly negative, ranting about dogs and children like this is a modern problem. Don't you people know how to follow directions?
Dogs v babies is a conflict through time. 'Huh huh, so you've got a second dog and bought a camper van?' 'Yesh, and isn't he cute in his sweater?' 'Woff,' 'Listen sis, get real and get a baby. Look at you both, nearly twenty years old and barren. I need a nephew.'
I've noticed a rather pertinent and irritating 21 century custom, the "10 annoying things" and other such hate lists you'll find all over your Facebook and on internet forums everywhere. Anger used to be reserved for the satirists or the mobs, and like most other things has now been reduced to a safe little package for the consumers. "I hate the government for protecting the rich." "I hate the NSA for spying on us." "George Orwell was right." "Cool, let's go check out who's going to be the next Apprentice." In it's deadliest form, modern anger enables an otherwise good, liberal thinking humanitarian into hating anyone who does not think exactly like ze. These are the two modern forms of hate- indulgence and group think based on moral superiority. Now excuse me while I check my Facebook.
As a millennial....(I think's what we are called) I don’t really hold any will ill to the 21st century or any generation really. They all brought interesting times and great people. I mean I didn't grow up in the 70s or even the 80s but I love the past and learning about it. Just learning how people have changed and the culture and everything. All that stuff is great! But I don't really think my generation is that bad XD Okay granted a lot of the points are dead on. We are a little more self-absorbed, spend way too much time on social media (and that includes me and my friends) and....in fact a lot of you made me realize I do a lot of stuff you hate XD I can say without shame that.......I'm pretty guilty of a lot of the stuff you've all said and yeah I totally agree a lot of it is annoying be it the text talk of butchering the language, we are oversensitive, we are tech zommmmbiiiiiiiies blaaaaah. And of course someone will always complain about what younger people are watching or listening or reading. But for all our faults. This generation is great and the 21st century is great. This is the generation I met life long friends in, this is the generation where (hopefully) I'll actually be able to look back at someday, the generation I'll lose and love in, the generation I have and will continue to build my memories in. And heck for all the zombies the internet has made it has also connected us zombies to some amazing people who we can call friends and just look at the how much science has progressed. I never really understood hating your own generation or someone else's or disliking the 21st century. Now its certainly up for criticism as that's how we better ourselves by realizing problems. But problems solved or not you should be proud of the generation you're from and feel happy to live in the times you do. Cause at the end of the day you can't pick the century or generation (none of which are perfect) you were born in but you can damn sure try to live a fun full life in whichever one you were spat out.
Of course we need critical people and I’ve debated you twice on issues of a similar matter about generations and modern culture. But what can I say? I’m not a man that was ever cut out to hate things and like I said in post above…..we aren’t perfect and stuff about life in general is very annoying but I sincerely love the modern world and even love the past to. Its easy to become cynical and jaded but its important to try and not let that happen to yourself. Should you become wiser and more experienced? Oh of course! I just prefer to be accepting of what people like or just try to be more loving towards things. I like to make people smile and happy. My philosophy is probably a bit more on the idealistic side of things and could probably easily picked apart of being naive. I'm just a bit content people suppose I hate the idea of modern culture whether it be what they do or believe or create being garbage and that in the old days were better but on the flipside modern culture does have a lot of the problems everybody brought up here. Soooo at the end of the end.....my hope is that we can realize value of things that come out in the modern world but still teach and read the amazing works of those before us cause I really think there is great value in both..... And I rambled way to long ......sorry about that.....I talk wayyyy to much sometimes . But hey man maybe you're right.....I'll admit that you might be right. The current culture might be mostly garbage but ya know what? Its mine and tons of other peoples garbage. *And now this would be the part where I like walk away all cool or something* Just joking with the last bit.....but that's an awesome tune.
"The customer is always right." But more specifically, those who think that this horrible saying makes it okay to treat people who work in a service industry like their own personal doormats. Yes, you are paying to shop/eat/etc. at a business, but that does not make the employees who work there into your personal slaves. It is NOT okay to spend ten minutes bawling out a server and refusing to tip them because your steak was slightly overcooked. It is NOT okay to reduce the checkout girl to tears because the store raised the price of your favorite dish detergent. I've personally witnessed both incidents and I don't care how much money you are spending or how "loyal" a customer you are, that doesn't magically excuse you from being a decent human being to your fellow man. I'm not excusing service workers who are rude or lazy, and if I encounter them I will call them on it as soon as the next person, but blaming them for things out of their control or just being plain mean is downright indecent. I can only imagine this is an extension of the self-centered, narcissistic attitude prevalent in today's society. I don't know if it is necessarily a new trend that is happening now, but in my personal experience I see it a lot more than when I was younger, or maybe I'm just noticing it more. I worked in both the food service and retail industries before and during college, so I know first hand how badly those jobs can suck when you have to deal with terrible customers. (As an aside, the people who have to work at places with self-checkout stations hate them just as much as customers. When I worked at a place that had them there was a great deal of breakroom-fantasizing about taking a sledgehammer to them.)
