Do teenagers become greater idiots with each generation?

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

As a teen of today I take offense in this thread.



However I will admit that most of my "peers" are blithering idiots.

THE first step of not being an idiot teenager is to be willing to admit to being an idiot teenager.

[RedBaron]

My generation is idiotic, but hopefully we won't leave the next generation with an insane deficit to pay off, or hand them a country that is falling apart...

[nynor]

its been falling apart since FDR. the process is simply accelerating....

[exc911ence]

Dependence on technology is making us all idiots. Unfortunately for the young people of today, they never got a chance to learn how to survive without it.

[m21sniper]

In a few generations we'll all be replaced by robots, and i'm sure they'll be quite responsible.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by Tervuren

THE first step of not being an idiot teenager is to be willing to admit to being an idiot teenager.

Admitting to being a teenager is symptomatic of being an idiot teenager.

[piscator]

I have to agree with Porsche-o-Phile. I've met quite a few competent, moral, ambitious young people who seem coerced or mislead into a 'cookie-cutter' success track by media messages and institutional forces -- the most damning being our current educational systems.

Porsche-O-Phile wrote:

Another factor is just how much MONEY is involved with so-called "college education" today. It's a multi-billion dollar industry and don't think for one second that this doesn't have something to do with it... You need to get your "ticket punched" just to get a job selling shoes or whatever it seems these days. That's part of the problem. The other (related) problem is there's no shortage of degree factories willing to step up and "fill the demand" for such pieces of paper, handing them out to anyone who is willing to write a big enough check - skill (or lack thereof) be damned.

It really irritates the hell out of me when I see people today holding the same degrees I have that can't spell, can't communicate properly, can't articulate their ideas, can't perform basic mental math, can't apply principles like the Scientific Method or deductive logic and generally can't think critically - to say nothing of their inability to ACT professionally and conduct themselves like educated aspiring professionals.

I busted my ass for my degrees. I sacrificed an awful lot for them and to have schlubs today walking around with the same pieces of paper effectively devaluing the effort I put into getting MINE really incenses me.

A Bachelor's Degree today is what a High School diploma used to be. A Master's Degree is what a Bachelor's Degree used to be, and a Doctorate is what a Master's Degree used to be, with post-doctoral work representing the high end of academia. And with this shift, many billions of dollars change hands. You can't tell me this (1) isn't deliberate and (2) doesn't have something (more like "everything") to do with it...

Follow the money.

When I managed a large printing company we gave job applicants standardized 'mini-SAT' tests to assess skill levels pertinent to the specific position. The tests were straightforward assessments of math, writing, reading comprehension and critical reasoning ability.

Over ten years, the number of applicants with college degrees increased to nearly 100% -- oddly, the number of applicants able to pass our standardized tests decreased about 50% !! Same professionally developed test used over the entire ten year period.

Thinking the test was flawed or anachronistic, I asked our managers and key employees to take it -- just to help us evaluate our hiring process. Most of this group DID NOT have college degrees and All passed. The un-avoidable conclusion was that these individuals with a SOLID high school education of an earlier vintage were equipped with better basic academic skills than our recent college-trained applicants.

Which is not to say, that these applicants were necessarily unintelligent -- but they did not have the academic skills that their pedigrees might suggest.

Lastly, I can't help but mention that our 'high-tech' manufacturing facility was a fantastic place for creative thinkers developing new processes and techniques. And an incredible training ground for young talent at every educational level.

My company (and every one of it's U.S. competitors) has been swept away by the tide of foriegn "competition". That's life, I guess.

Ironically, as my industry and most others in a nearby city have closed down, the number of "school facilities" of a similar size (80,000 sq ft +) has grown exponentially. On a recent drive, I counted eight (8) HUGE non-college "educational facilities" under construction in the same neighborhoods that once contained some of America's finest manufacturers and machinery companies. Every one had the names of prominent politicians posted out front.

It's beyond my comprehension what they're planning to "build" there, but like Porsche-O-Phile, I'm inclined to wonder what you'd find if you -- "FOLLOW THE MONEY"!

piscator

[widebody911]

Just when you think people can't get any dumber...

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2009/06/bagelheads_no_we_arent_talking.php

[nynor]

who looks at that and thinks it is a good idea? seriously....

[onlycafe]

nincompoops, ninnies, nitwits, and numbskulls, thats just the ones that start with n.

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by gprsh924

Just stop. You are helping to prove their point.

+1.
No need to taint the honest opinions.

btw you need to improve on ur writing skills if you want something more than a CC.

[cl8ton]

I saw this earlier today and it disturbed me
Did they get azzholes implanted on their foreheads?

Originally Posted by widebody911

Just when you think people can't get any dumber...

[Porsche-O-Phile]

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by nynor

its been falling apart since FDR. the process is simply accelerating....

Simplistic and out of place. Go back to PARF.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by DanielDudley

Simplistic and out of place. Go back to PARF.

Not entirely incorrect however...

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Last Saturday I used my son's shower (my visiting daughter was using mine). I get in and the shower head is spraying water everywhere, it's cracked. I ask my son how long its been like that and he say "forever", as in five or more years since I replaced it. Water is running down the wall of the shower over the valves. I'm like "Dude, why didn't you tell me". He says "Well I can still take a shower". WTF, copious amounts of water are running down the wall and he doesn't say anything, for years? He's 20, not ten. So I get a new hand held shower head and tell him to put it in. He does and says it works fine. I check and all three fittings are leaking, (didn't put the washers in). I swear, kids today seem to do the bare minimum. Correction, the bare minimum is that it doesn't leak!

Welcome to my world. THat's my stepson (25), except that he'd have permanently broken something in the process and that's why it'd be leaking on top of not having all of the parts.

My stepdaughter(24) is completely different. She usually has jobs for years, got her bachelors degree in biology with an A or high B average. She's decided that the degree hasn't done enough for her, so she's trying to get into a Physicians Assistant program. She was on the waiting list the first time through, so she's doing some things to increase her odds of acceptance next time. She's in an EMT training program, and is looking for a PA to shadow. She's pretty much ultra responsible for her age. Apparently she took all of the responsibility, because my stepson has 0.

[nynor]

Originally Posted by DanielDudley

Simplistic and out of place. Go back to PARF.

ok, daddy.