On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:08:10 +0100, "Arfa Daily"
wrote:


Actually, you are quite wrong. I still have much the same attitudes as I had
when I was a kid, as does my wife. We have always been 'mates' with our
kids, especially since they have grown up, and they treat us and talk to us
no differently than they talk to any of their friends, and likewise their
friends do too. Huge great bunches of us go on holiday together, and get
along without any problem. I don't have a problem embracing change, and do
not continuously harp back to the old days. You are right, the world moves
on and things change, some for the better, some for the worse. Much of
today's technology and attitudes are a huge improvement over what prevailed
when I was a kid, but by the same token, much is not. People are not, in
general, so well educated as they were, and much of that is down to poor
parenting, and parents who are only marginally less thick than their kids,
and marginally more thick than the teachers. Social attitudes have declined.
People have a lot less respect for each other now, or for authority. It's
not hard to be pleasant to one another, but even smiling at someone that you
pass in the street now, often gets you a strange and hostile look, as does
saying "hello".

There must be a reason for this - or probably many. However, having watched
the usage of Faceache quite closely via my kids', and also the young people
who work for us, I think that it, and similar sites, are a major contributor
to the antisocial, and often quite hostile behaviour, that seems prevalent
among some social groups now. The Faceache pages that sprung up after the
shooting incident last week, are a good example of this. I bet that a great
deal of the kids that contributed, would not have said the same things in a
face to face conversation. The anonymity that hiding behind a persona in
these sites gives to them, allows them to carry on with this behaviour
without fear of consequence, and some of the anarchistic tendencies that
grow out of it, inevitably spill out into 'real' life as well.

So no, my comments were not a 'grumpy old men' thing, but carefully
considered as a result of observations of real life usage of these sites by
a number of people.

Arfa

Also misunderstanding and conflict are a built in feature ! ;-)

http://www.wired.com/science/discove.../2006/02/70179

Andy C