I'm 19. It absolutely sucks that I have experienced losing multiple loved ones before and at this age. Please make a decent attempt at staying healthy for your family and friends. Even though you might not be able to see it, your kids value your life more than anything. Stop starring at me, thank you.
I also don't see texting while in a group to be a big deal. The shit that drives me up the wall is people talking on their cells while trying to hold conversations with others. I used to be a manager at Burger King, and I would have ass hats come in during my busy lunch rush, and try to order while on their phones. It is damn near fucking impossible to take your order accurately while you are holding an in depth conversation about what bar you are going to that night. Oh, and I used to love the eye rollings, and exasperated sighs I would get at MY rudeness for asking them to repeat things, or trying to get them to engage ME the person they expect decent service from. After about a month of this high douchebaggery, I started simply asking for the person behind cell phone addicts. It caught me shit from my bosses for a while until they realized the order line moved MUCH faster by me extending a courtesy to those who were respectful enough to hang up, or at least tell the person on the other end to hold on for a minute. However a couple of text over the course of an evening with friends...I don't really see that as rude. Especially since often my friends are corresponding with other friends of ours trying to get e.t.a's, giving directions, and shit of that nature. Maybe my tolerance for rudeness is just a little higher than some of the other people on this board.
I guess I'll add my $.02 to this whole shinding. I'm 24 and haven't read every word of this post, but I have a big boy's job, and have lived by my own means for about 4 years now. 1) Let us make our own mistakes and learn from them. If we don't get real world consequences then there is no learning going on upstairs. 2) Stop paying for our shit and giving us money once we reach a decent age. If you keep supporting us financially, we become spoiled little shits and take the world for granted. In the end we turn out to be POS's that can't provide for ourselves. Fiscal responsibilities. 3) Stay in shape and exercise. Old people are always in better spirits when you are healthy. As far as the cell phone thing, it's a matter of respect plain and simple. Don't fucking do it when you should be doing something else, like listening to someone else talk. It's respect. If you have no interest in the conversation, just leave it, don't go texting during the middle of it. Think about how the world was before 5 years ago when texting came to be, how urgent was it to call someone during the middle of a conversation? Never. Rant: Texting is a fucking joke and is a shitty, horrible way that the world has gone. Kids, and yes I'm calling you kids, should learn to talk to a person face to face, or at least calling, and not over a goddamn little keyboard. Makes me sick.
Don't bring up the subject of mobile phones unless you want to witness the most useless, pedantic, repetitive mobile phone etiquette conversation ever. You're going to be dead soon, anyway. Do something else with what little time you have left. Or don't. Whatever. You had your shot.
Older people who hate technology usually fear for their own obsolete abilities. It's a matter of thinking that they're still valuable to society and what not. Apparently it happened to every generation but the microchip really sped the whole process up.
We don't hate technology. A lot of us love it, and we're getting to the generation that started all this shit you young people take for granted in the first place. What we hate is disrespectful and dismissive behaviour and attitude. It's chicken and egg to a degree, because a lot of old people do this on the supposition that that's what they'll get back, which pre-empts it and makes it a self-fulfilling event. Those cranky farts deserve to shuffle off. However, if I am being respectful and attentive to you; return the favour. Don't generalise me and I won't generalise you.
I think it's hilarious that the old people can't stay out of the young people thread. Not talking to everyone here, but of course there's going to be some stupid stuff posted in here by young 'uns who don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Why not just leave it be? After all, the stupidity speaks for itself, right? It's like a joke that you have to be over 30 to get. Staying on topic: If you teach your kids a lesson, you better make sure it's one you actually follow. Otherwise, no matter how true it may be, it rings just a bit hollow. "What's that, grandpa? I should be nicer to everyone? Maybe I'd believe it if you hadn't just said I was going to be unloved forever." I've got some problems.
This is actually a salient point. I am more and more guilty of this every year that goes by. I was allowed my dumb ass thoughts; why can't the "yutes" be allowed theirs? Hell, maybe I'll learn something by just holding my thoughts and letting them finish. One point to the prepubescent with the high-pitched voices.