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Seriously.

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by Remixer, Dec 27, 2011.

  1. pan6467

    pan6467 a triangle in a circular world.

    I would say it is society as a whole. The media from as far back as when I was a kid made you feel worthless if you didn't have the newest toys/electronics.

    Hell, in the 70's your parents were in the stone ages if you didn't have a color tv, cable, the "greasies" (as some shampoos called dirty hair), Jordache jeans and Star Wars toys.

    In the 80's you had to be in the 'hood or poor not to have an Atari/Commodore 64/VCR/"ghetto blaster" and dress like the kids on tv or weren't rich like the Brat Pack kids who supposedly were the models of my generation of tween, oh and you needed your "Sony" Walkman and you better have your Coleco and Mattel hand held football games.

    In the 90's, all you vhs tapes were being phased out for DVDs, your cassettes were already done for CDs, you needed a true "PC" because the Commodore was outdated, a Gensis/NES/etc you needed the SUV and kids playing soccer or you were a bad parent.

    In the 00's you needed a cell phone, lose the landline, fast internet (DSL), get rid of the cable and get satellite, shop at Wal*Mart, XBox or an equivalent gaming system.

    This decade an I phone/BB with all the $5 a month apps, a Kindle, internet gaming systems high speed cable internet, wifi, laptop, Blu Ray with 3D tv and your car better have a DVD/Blu ray player in the backseat for the kids to keep them occupied and mind numb.

    It's been the same every decade since the end of WW2. Racing to keep up with the neighbors and trying to be the first to have the "next best thing". It's not the parenting as much as it is a societal issue. If your parents strove to get you the best, then chances are you will do as they did with your kids.

    To blame it on the kids and say they are "spoiled" or to blame the parents is a start but one can not nor should not overlook the media and the commercialism in our society. I "hated" my parents when they wouldn't give me a Walkman and then I remember getting the hell teased out of me for it not being a "Sony". I "hated" my parents because they made me work for my first car and "ghetto blaster". Kids are going to "hate" their parents and say stupid shit around/online to their peers. My generation did and every teen I have ever seen has also.
     
  2. Bodkin van Horn

    Bodkin van Horn One of the Four Horsewomyn of the Fempocalypse

    I spent some time supporting my local occupy rally. Did you? Entitled people squander the rights that wouldn't exist if not for the sacrifice of other people. Entitled people complain about labor movements during their Christmas break PTO. No entitled person spends the night in 30 degree weather without any shelter because they want a gadget.

    Fucking kids these days. I tell ya. When I was a kid, we were all well-behaved angels who never failed to place things in the proper perspective even though, by definition, we lacked the requisite life experience to place things in the proper perspective. Why, we even shit solid gold, humming, throbbing appreciation for the hard work and sacrifices our parents made. All. Of. The. Time. Solid gold. Pow. Nowadays, kids don't even shit subprime mortgage backed securities of appreciation, forget about gold.

    One of the first things I thought of reading the twitter entries above was of people working for, say, ING or Goldman Sachs, whining about not getting their bonuses. Then I thought about people who make $250,000+ a year whining about the prospect of their taxes going up ever so slightly and THEN I thought, "THESE kids must be THEIR kids" because no kid I've ever met whose parents make less than six figures would ever even begin to expect to get a fucking car for christmas. As for iPads and iPhones, well, I'd be disappointed too if I had my heart set on one and I didn't get one. If I were sixteen, I might even have the unrealistic expectation of one. If I were sixteen, I would also likely share my disappointment about it on twitter. Twitter wasn't around when I was sixteen and neither were iPads and iPhones. Nevertheless, I still found things to complain about, though my complaints were often confined to people in my immediate vicinity.

    On a slightly related note, do people (who don't have kids especially) realize that kids are just kind of naturally immature? It's a byproduct of being a child. Frequently, via a process called 'growing up' children eventually reach a point where they are not immature. Until they reach this point, they actually still act kind of immature. And so when a kid does something immature, it shouldn't be all that amazing, especially when all you chicken cluckers (I mean that in the most friendly, good-natured way possible) were once immature children yourselves.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  3. aquafox

    aquafox Getting Tilted

    Location:
    Ibapah, UT
    uhhh. wow. no comment. :eek:
     
  4. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    I would say that a profound difference is that in the 70s - 90s (obviously truer the further back), advertising for kids was fairly limited. You had TV commercials on Sat AM and maybe some limited comic/mag ads. Today there are dozens of channels on TV targeted primarily at kids, multiple satellite radio channels, websites, etc, even video games are built with ads in them. I think most of us who grew up then also spent far less time in front of electronic devices that could convey that advertising. Now it seemingly permeates most waking hours of the day between TV, Facebook, twitter, video games, etc.
     
  5. Bodkin van Horn

    Bodkin van Horn One of the Four Horsewomyn of the Fempocalypse

    Assuming the images in the op are from Americans between 16 and 20 years old, they represent about 0.0002% of the people in that demographic group (according to the 2010 census). That's 2 in a million. They were likely found by purposeful search, which means that they aren't even a representative sample. Anyone who sees the OP as evidence of anything general is fooling themselves. Or is uncritically inferring based on their own small-sample-based preconceived notions.
     
    • Like Like x 3
  6. Plan9

    Plan9 Rock 'n Roll

    Location:
    Earth
    ...and you'd think a hipster like yourself would have noticed the skinny jeans-wearing fools camped outside the Apple store every time Jobs' life-changing fashion tech giant shit out the newest version of one of their disgustingly popular gizmos. Dorky rich white kids down the block.

    If that isn't upper middle class sacrifice, I don't know what is.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  7. Bodkin van Horn

    Bodkin van Horn One of the Four Horsewomyn of the Fempocalypse

    I think those folks usually have the option of tents, while the local OW protest round these parts didn't. Which, you know, yay America.
     
  8. roachboy

    roachboy Very Tilted

    you seem to have some inch-deep cynicism regarding the retail nexus, plan9. this is leading me to question your americanness.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  9. Plan9

    Plan9 Rock 'n Roll

    Location:
    Earth


    Whigga, please... I wrapped myself in earth tones and patched on the red-white-blue in the name of AMERICA! (Fuck Yeah!). I'm not the one you should be worried about. I'm pliable like copper wire. My dumbass stands at attention in the pouring rain because I believe in the idea of something.

    ...

    My issue with the collage in the OP is how they say what they say, not so much that they're greedy cuntfaces. As Smart People (TM) have pointed out, it's the same shit with every "entitled generation." Vicious cycle. My issue is that it's just rude to say "fuck you" to your parents via social media.

    Completely unnecessary.
     
    • Like Like x 4
  10. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    Uh, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network were both on the air during my adolescence, as was the all-powerful MTV, back when people still gave a shit about MTV. Plus, when I was in high school, there were whole blocks of television programming with shows designed to appeal to adolescents, like Buffy and Dawson's Creek. However, I will agree that advertising reaches farther now than it did then.

    After some thinking, I've come to the conclusion that many of you here are looking at your adolescence through rose-colored glasses. That egocentric self the kids in the OP are showing off? Guess what? We were all pretty egocentric as adolescents--it's a dominating feature in adolescent development. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that this "sense of entitlement" you guys all go on about actually stems from their egocentrism.

    "Oh, I was better than that!" Perhaps, but I have my doubts. You too secretly wished for the latest and greatest. These kids just have an outlet to advertise it. Additionally, remember what brain development tells us about the adolescent brain: these kids are more likely than you are to shoot their mouth off without thinking about the consequences of their actions.
     
    • Like Like x 3
  11. Cayvmann

    Cayvmann Very Tilted

    Eddie, is that you?
     
    • Like Like x 4
  12. So maybe when these kids were 4 or 5, handing out participation ribbons/medals/trophies for a season of lackluster soccer/T ball/basketball wasn't the best thing to do to prepare them for the real world, ya think?
     
    • Like Like x 4
  13. Bodkin van Horn

    Bodkin van Horn One of the Four Horsewomyn of the Fempocalypse

    I don't know that there's any entitlement inherent in shopping for gadgets. I don't think it qualifies as entitlement when people choose to spend their money how they see fit. And hating on hipsters is totally something only a hipster would do, but I ain't hating. :p


    Quick, someone post carefully curated screenshots of white furries on twitter tweeting about their attraction to stuffed animals. Then we can all take turns lamenting the cultural roots of how white people be loving to pork stuffed animals.
     
  14. Plan9

    Plan9 Rock 'n Roll

    Location:
    Earth
    You gonna fire up the Jetee signal light or should I?
     
    • Like Like x 3
  15. uncle phil

    uncle phil Moderator Emeritus (and sorely missed) Staff Member Donor

    Location:
    pasco county
    this is like "deja moo" all over again...
     
    • Like Like x 1
  16. Team Edward

    Team Edward New Member

    Uh, no. I don't associate with foot-stomping, 'gimme gimme' types.

    Those aren't children in the OP, those are young adults, people who are a year or two away from being full-fledged adults. Scary fucking thought right there.
     
  17. Bodkin van Horn

    Bodkin van Horn One of the Four Horsewomyn of the Fempocalypse

    Sure you don't, chunk style.

    Yep. Sixteen and seventeen year olds are definitely known for their selflessness, foresight and impeccable judgment. Why, they're nearly old enough to buy cigarettes!

    Back so soon, Eddie? Haven't changed much, I see.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  18. Cayvmann

    Cayvmann Very Tilted

    Dang kids, with their hair and their clothes. The whole world is going to Heck in a handbasket, I tells ya.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  19. Team Edward

    Team Edward New Member

    Well in many cultures 17 year olds are raising families, fighting for their countries and contributing to society. But in the America they're getting obese, lazy, soft and spoiled. With OWS we've just begun to see the effects of the entitlement generation. "Down with corporations...oh, wait, lemme check my iPhone for Facebook status updates...derrrr."
     
  20. roachboy

    roachboy Very Tilted

    eddie eddie eddie. how stupid do you think we are?