Do you think that the people in general have lost all patience, lack of morals and what's right?

HolyCross

It's gotten to the point that I don't even want to go out and be around anyone. Face it, we are getting farther and farther in the hole and if we don't all start turning it around we are going to lose about half of a generation. I want to grab some of these young people by the collar and shake them around a little bit.

Bug

Sometimes I do think this and other times I see or hear about kind and giving people doing wonderful, selfless things for others. So...I don't know. I think there are both kinds of people out there. Unfortunately, I think it's more common to hear about the bad eggs.

I'm surprised more folks have not responded to your question. I'm sure there are other WhatNexters out there who would weigh in on this. I wonder if your question is one that got caught in the glitch that the web site was having. Maybe if you post it again you will get more responses.

legaljen1969

We seem to live in a time where patience is certainly no longer viewed as a "virtue" or even something that is necessary. We live in an instant society. Instant messaging, drive thru dining, order on the phone and pick up your order and then scoot. I think we have gotten to the point that we have so removed humanity from the equation of our daily lives that we have forgotten how to interact with others.

I can't tell you how many memes I see that say things like "Don't call me if it's something you can text" or "Eww people." I admit I have shared a few "Eww people" memes, but I don't really mean it. I wish I believed that COVID was the beginning of the isolation phenomenon, but I don't think it's even close. Sooner or later, we were bound to face the "unintended" consequences of our isolation and lack of human contact. With cell phones and social media (both of which definitely have some good points), we have become emboldened to make our opinions known in ways that we never would have had the guts to do in person years ago. It has made it far easier for the worst of humanity to flourish. My neighbor's daughters all have cell phones. The parents don't really monitor their usage. One of the daughters started having a lot of problems with bullying. She started cutting herself, and the parents were just at a loss. The bullying wasn't happening during school hours. It was mean texts in the middle of the night and on the weekends- text messaging that she was hiding from her parents. Dad responded "That's not bullying. Bullying is physical." I told them to take her cell phone for a couple of nights so she could sleep through the night and see what came through. The mom was horrified at what she discovered being texted to her child. Dad quickly woke up to the fact that bullying was no longer the kid who steals your lunch money. It's must more subtle and insidious now. "Back in my day" a bully would have had to have some chops to call in the middle of the night and risk waking parents up to be mean to someone. Someone's mama or daddy would have been on the war path.

We can't just blame "young people" for the failures. We have a lot of "free range" parents who don't watch over their kids. Parents who believe "letting them make their own mistakes" means not dishing out any discipline or consequences for poor choices.

Even elections now seem to go on "Who is a tiny step above being a bottom feeder? Who will cause the least damage?" instead of "Who do I believe is qualified to lead our country?" We used to elect leaders. Now we just try to elect the person who is the "lesser of two evils" according to our own point of view. It's truly sad that our bar has been set so low that our expectations are for "it's going to be a dismal failure no matter what, so let me just pick the one that I think I can survive for the next few years."

There are things I see that are wonderful about younger people, including a world view where it is far more possible for "everyone" to be "equal" or to at least have equal opportunities. Their hope that equality is a real thing is actually quite refreshing. It is inconceivable to them that not everyone would not have the same opportunities. Consider that most of these young people cannot even conceive of a time when interracial marriage was not a thing, when schools were segregated, when any of their peers would not have had the right to vote. Consider that for those who graduated high school this year, 9/11 will only ever be "history" for them. It didn't even happen in their lifetime. This year will be 19 years since 9/11. Most, if not all, of them were not even born when it happened. Yet, that "war" is still not over yet. We still have troops in some of those places.

In the past 40-50 years our world has seen policies put into place that devalue life at the beginning and the end. "Life" has even become a relative term. When does a person "become" a person? When do they cease to be a "person?" We live in a world that has devalued life at every stage. Until we start valuing life again- the ones we love, even the ones we don't love and the ones we disagree with, this world will remain a chaotic mess.

Our whole world has gone crazy. I agree some changes have to be made for sure. We have to make a big turnaround. It does feel like morality and a sense of "right and wrong" has vacated the earth. Unfortunately "right" and "wrong" are very subjective terms these days. What one person considers "right," another considers "wrong." And "agree to disagree" has gone out the window.

I know it sounds like pop philosophy, but I believe it more every day. We all must be the change we wish to see in the world. We can't wait for someone else to make the change. We can either model and be goodness or we can sit on the sidelines as the world crumbles.