The Coffee House

[Cortian]

@Gary A. Not sure about people getting dumber, though it's not hard to think that given today's society. Maybe it's more of a lack of what we used to call "Horse Sense", and "Personal Responsibility".

No, some studies suggest people, world-wide, are actually getting dumber. E.g.: Are we getting more stupid? Researchers claim our intelligence is diminishing as we no longer need it to survive

There are, of course, other studies that claim the opposite. All any of us can do is study the arguments, look at the evidence before our eyes, and choose what to believe.

I observe that decades of certain social theories being advanced, and society making changes to accommodate those theories, has given us a society that is a lot less civil and a lot more violent than the one in which I was raised. As an individual who subscribes to the belief that when you're in a hole the best thing to do is stop digging, I have to assume there's a reason we do not.

Increasing stupidity seems as good an explanation as any.

It's either that or alien mind rays, chem trails or the like. (Cue X Files theme...)

 

[tirediron]

Increasing stupidity seems as good an explanation as any.

It's either that or alien mind rays, chem trails or the like. (Cue X Files theme...)

Gotta go with Smoke on this... people aren't getting stupider, they're losing common sense. While I can't vouch for the veracity of the report, it was on CBC indicating that while staff were trying to evacuate students to safety during the Florida shooting yesterday, several of them stopped to take "selfies". The defence rests!

 

[vintagesnaps]

It's mild today and I'm sitting here listening to the kids at recess at the school up the street. There's a certain amount of squealing today, which might be due to the cold weather all of a sudden getting warmer and they got let out! lol

But I was just reading an article talking about schools using a pouch someone designed to hold phones and they have to keep them in there. Said they didn't know what to do with their hands at first, but adjusted to it, and there's more noise etc. because kids are talking and socializing/playing (which is part of kids' development). And I thought, how young do kids in that district in the article have phones for pete's sake?? Maybe schools should issue phones like they do laptops, that can only send/receive texts or calls to and from school, parents, and 911, that's all they need (if even that, while they're at school). Then parents can manage their personal cells like they do computer time. If they do, which many won't, but responsible parents will. Just like in the past most parents managed their kids' play time and their homework time etc.

Whether it's computers or phones, or in the past gaming or Walkmans or TV, it needs to be managed. I don't think people are dumber, but I think they're more distracted and don't have their minds on what they're doing or aren't noticing what's happening around them. There's a limit to it or should be (and some adults could use some self control on it themselves.)

I started hearing whistles, and I'm not sure what game they're playing on the playground, but it seems to be a game where they run around, squeal, squeal louder, then there's a whistle, then it gets quiet. Then it starts over... they are going in soon aren't they?? lol

 

[vintagesnaps]

The Daily Mail is a tabloid. Out of the UK. They don't do research. They're clickbait.

They now have a TV show, which from commercials I've seen locally seems to be mostly celebrity gossip. I looked it up and forget now which celebrity out of the UK is the owner (or part owner) of that tabloid, but that I think explains why it's getting widespread now in the US. It's a tabloid, but it's not at the end of the grocery aisle with headlines about two headed martian babies, it's sneaking in online hoping people won't realize what it is.

 

[Cortian]

The Daily Mail is a tabloid.

Yes, but the article is based upon a study done by researchers at Stanford University. There've been other studies done on the subject that came to similar conclusions. And it's been reported in other tabloids, such as this one: People Getting People Getting Dumber? Human Intelligence Has Declined Since Victorian Era, Research Suggests

 

[Gary A.]

Gary disagrees with you on many points, largely because of the generalizations ... sorta hard to get to specifics in a chat room.

It's very hard to get specific in a venue such as this.

I actually briefly considered adding cites for my many points. But I've been in enough of these on-line discussions to know better by now

But, there is many more school type shooting here by students than anywhere else in the world. And there are more mass shootings here by individuals than anywhere else in the world. By a big margin.

Thing is: School shootings aren't the only kinds of violence perpetrated on the populations of the world. They're the ones we see, because what's billed as "news" in this country covers them. In excruciating detail. Complete with Dramatic Music. Repeatedly.

Unfortunately, electronic news leans heavily towards entertainment.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Apparently yesterday when the fire alarm went off at the school in Florida it was the second time that day. So, many of the kids seemed to think it was just the alarm wasn't working right or whatever and didn't realize at first what was happening. Maybe that's why they were playing with their phones taking selfies. I don't see that in the article linked, but anyway having done plenty of fire drills, if it's the second time it's gone off, I'm not surprised if kids were messing with their phones or horsing around and not taking it seriously at first.

I've had that happen, where we'd already had the fire drill, and there goes the alarm again, and eventually they come over the PA to tell us it's not working or it's being worked on so just disregard it. By that point you're not thinking it's anything to be concerned about.

 

[Gary A.]

As a pointless aside, it's interesting to note the differences in terminology imposed by an imaginary line around 49N... here, a degree-granting institution is a university (with the exception of military colleges), whereas a college (with rare exceptions) is a post-secondary institution that grants certificates.

Here, in general conversation, college and university are interchangeable.

I don't know if its everywhere...but the University of Connecticut has several different schools and colleges within it.

So I graduated from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, while my wife got her Master's from the Neag School of Education...School of Nursing, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, School of Engineering...etc etc etc

Gary believes that here, the difference between a college and a university is accreditation and the level of degree(s) the institution can deliver.

 

[Gary A.]

Increasing stupidity seems as good an explanation as any.

It's either that or alien mind rays, chem trails or the like. (Cue X Files theme...)

Gotta go with Smoke on this... people aren't getting stupider, they're losing common sense. While I can't vouch for the veracity of the report, it was on CBC indicating that while staff were trying to evacuate students to safety during the Florida shooting yesterday, several of them stopped to take "selfies". The defence rests!

Gary thinks the arguement would be best served with “... people are getting more ignorant”.

 

[Cortian]

Unfortunately, electronic news leans heavily towards entertainment.

I'd argue all "news" does, these days, Gary.

Back when I was a Very Young Man there was a local radio station over in Windsor going by the call sign "CKLW." Their "news" was a running joke in the area, because they presented it Very Dramatically, Complete With Dramatic Theme Music. Now they all do it.

After going though all three major U.S. broadcast networks' offerings (currently ABC), I'm starting to get to the point of not even finishing watching the Evening "News." I imagine I'll soon get to the point that I don't even turn it on.

 

[Gary A.]

PS- Gary only mentioned the mental portion of addressing this troubling problem. In addition to mental health, there must also be a gun control portion for a comprehensive approached to the problem.

 

[SquarePeg1]

Jeesh - a bunch of old timers bemoaning “kids today”...how cliche can we get?

 

[Gary A.]

Unfortunately, electronic news leans heavily towards entertainment.

I'd argue all "news" does, these days, Gary.

Back when I was a Very Young Man there was a local radio station over in Windsor going by the call sign "CKLW." Their "news" was a running joke in the area, because they presented it Very Dramatically, Complete With Dramatic Theme Music. Now they all do it.

After going though all three major U.S. broadcast networks' offerings (currently ABC), I'm starting to get to the point of not even finishing watching the Evening "News." I imagine I'll soon get to the point that I don't even turn it on.

Aaahhh, that is all electronic news. An hour of electronic news is pretty much equal to one page of a newspaper.

 

[SquarePeg1]

We can’t have a gun control debate in this forum as it always turns nasty and political. But the subscribers forum is open to any such discussion. Please feel free to take a gun control conversation to the subscribers forum. We need to keep the public discussion about this issue going.

thank you

 

[Cortian]

PS- Gary only mentioned the mental portion of addressing this troubling problem. In addition to mental health, there must also be a gun control portion for a comprehensive approached to the problem.

You would be amazed at the number of firearms laws there are already, Gary. You would probably be equally amazed at how badly they're enforced.

But, at this point, I'm going to bow out of this conversation. In fact this entire thread, as it's been my experience that incidents such as this most recent one, and the conversations that result tend to generate a lot of bad blood, and I came here to share and learn about photography.

So henceforth I'm going to confine my contributions, such as they are, to photography-related ones.

Y'all have a good rest of the day