are people getting dumber about old stuff, or am I just becoming obsolete?

Remember the Lilly Tomlin line when she would dial a number and ask “..is the party to whom I am speaking?” When I worked in an office I used this several times on young people who I guessed had never heard that line and often I would get a few seconds of dead air, then an indignant “..yeah!!!” Kids….

 

I often think they're getting dumber, but I think we're getting dumber with each generation largely.
I think what realy annoys me is the lack of curiousity about things, and what makes it tick.
I built my first sbc years ago, bought some books and asked some questions, was a nice little motor worked well. I was proud.
I would hazard a guess thats how I've learned most things.
Carpentry, plumbing, many things,
That desire to learn things seems to have died, from what I see.
Unless of course it's electronic and has a keyboard.

 

I do 50's & 60's theme magic. One of my routines is to change the color of 45 rpm records. I hold them up and ask if anyone knows what they are. Then I ask if there's anyone without gray hair that knows what they are. But this is just a matter of something lost in history.

George Carlin once said, if you think the average man is dumb, realize that he's in the middle and half of everyone else you meet is even dumber................ Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

We need a lot more people like you !

 

Dumber than what??? Dumber than I was at 18... I don't think so. I was pretty thick back then and may not have improved much.

Luckily for me the older and wiser people that had been through the mill took the time to teach me or help me to learn. I didn't know shit about old Fords when I was 18. I asked a bunch of stupid questions in my time. I try to remember what it was like back then for me. The only way that I know to thank those old guys that held my hand and gave wisdom and guidance is to try to do the same for the kids that come behind me. Besides I might have a computer question that they can help me with.

 

Hold on, I hear an echo !! Yep ! We all sound like our fathers !!!!!

 

Pull up to a drive through window sometime and ask to get your order to go....

 

I'm going to go over later and put my neighbors vacuum cleaner together for her,comes in about 50 pieces, my wife and I are trying to teach her two daughters to use their mind, but all they want to do is play games on the computer, If i take it out of the box and take out some tools, they may take an interest though, I hope so.

 

You clearly miss the point, he is not saying that modern technology is a bad thing. Technology is a great thing, it's a marvel that is advancing our way of life.
Hell the advances in medicine are helping me in my job to save lives. BUT............
I still study older ways of doing things, learn how to use equipment that is no longer in use.
Why?
One day, one day it is possible that I may need to use that old technology and at least I will have a good idea how to operate it.
What's that got to do with anything you ask?
Its an example, the younger generations should still be learning to use an encyclopedia, a rotary phone to at least understand older technology.
One day they may have to use it, look at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A city cast back to the dark ages in a country that 'That sort of thing could never happen in'.
How valuable would it have been for the younger people to know basics like how to make fire? How to keep food for a while? How to live without electricity? How to read a map because the GPS battery is flat?

As for someone not understanding how a wind up watch works? I can under stand that, it bothers me because its still a reasonably common thing.
But believing that winding it charges the battery...............
That is a lack of common sense, she should have known something was up and she was being taken for a ride even if the true answer never came to her.

I stand by what I said, I learned from my mother and father.
I can build a house, plumb it, wire it, paint it, wall paper, most everything it takes.
I can build a car,
I can grow a garden,
I can balance my bank accounts,
I can hitch up a horse,
I can plow a field and harvest a crop of wheat,

This is all because of my parents and grand parents teaching me, not only was I taught the physical actions and the knowledge to do these things I was also taught common sense and how to apply it so I wouldn't think that a wind up watch charges battery's.

Its a sad, sad world and only getting worse.

Doc.

 

Wow. How many of you that are complaining about kids getting dumber took calculus by 7th grade? How many of you could program a modern computer by the time you were 12? How many of you could use a mouse and keyboard before you could write? My four year old can spell his name on a computer already, but he can't write it yet.

On the other hand, I know some of you could probably live with no power, running water, supermarkets or other modern conveniences, but I bet most couldn't. Sure, the kids aren't as connected to mechanical things that us older folks are, but that doesn't make them dumb, just not connected. I'm going to teach my kids how to rebuild a carb, but that's for fun, not for living any more.

 

+1
Letting kids simply explore things that interest them has almost become a thing of the past. Yes, there's absolutely a need for academics getting the basics, but all to often I've seen kids (used to teach) that had all sense of wonder driven out of them by 4th grade. I don't profess to know all the reasons why that happened for those kids, but certainly doing what I can with my own kids (and dragging their friends along in the process) is reason enough for me to keep on keeping on.

 

I had an interesting revelation Tuesday night. I'm a laid off electrical engineer and decided that instead of funneling booze down my gullet 7 nights a week, I ought to start doing something that exercised the noggin and started taking some night classes (engine rebuilding and welding). So we're sitting in class tuesday night discussing how to use a micrometer (something I've never had to do, so I was paying attention just to get a basic overview of how to read the thing). At least, I was paying attention up until the point where we started discussing the decimal system (not the dewey decimal system, but one tenth is .1; one hundredth is .01, ad infititum) and high school graduates were confused about it. I realize that I'm looking at this as a college graduate in a technical profession with a math minor; but fuck... I think they taught me this before I got to Algebra (so before 7th grade).

Another example, I took my Plymouth up to the local bar the night I got her back on the street. Naturally, some of the patrons wanted to come out and take a look at her. One particular individual (who was older than me) took a particular interest in my lack of an air filter (I have an oil bath that surrounds the intake of the carb). Whenever I'd pop in and he'd be present, he'd keep quizzing me about why it worked (dust particles tend to have a particular charge and the oil has an opposite charge and thus they attract). A rather simple concept that eluded him for almost a month.

I can't begrudge someone for not knowing about a manually wound watch, or how to use a rotaryphone if they've never been exposed to one. As an engineer, I've been exposed to many new things that I had no prior knowledge or comprehension of. What I can begrudge you for is not having the tools (especially after 12 years of HS) to look at something analytically and and at least wrap your head around the concept. There is no excuse for a High School Graduate to not understand basic math.

John

 

Stupid is timeless and universal.

 

I believe that if the government wasn't out to save us from ourselves kids might have a little common sense, how can you learn if you don't make a mistake now and then. If you are stupid enough to use a hair drier in the shower you need to be taken out of the gene pool. So take off your bicycle helmets and let the kids stand up in the back seat of the car, ridding in the back of a pickup can be fun too. I fell out of one once and know now not to drag my feet off the tailgate.

 

I've got to agree with the folks that are saying "you're obsolete" (and I am, too).

I can't hitch horses to the wagon, and I can't dial one of the pictured telephones (I don't even know what to call it, so I had to show a picture! But I do own one just like it!). I can tune a Model T, however. But, how many folks need to know how to do these things. Why do they need to know, or why should they be expected to know, how to wind a watch that has a mechanism that has been obsolete for over thirty years????

Quit harshing on the kids for the things that they shouldn't be expected to know!

 

Right on! My wife as a teacher is more disgusted with the parents she meets than the kids she teaches and she is RSP.

 

Reading this entire thread would be stupid, so I didn't.

By the way, I CAN hitch horses to a wagon correctly, also have done farrier work and carriage maintenance, and I can spell.

 

Well, last I looked, I was on the forum about hot rods. Those things that were loud, annoying and driven by bunch of rebel punks who were hated by old farts, because they drove too fast, spent all the time playing with those modern contraptions and listened to some wild music which was surely the work of the Devil himself. And look at the dances they were doing, and how provocative their girls were dressing...

Yeah. Now, those rebel punks have grown into old farts themselves. They started to call what once was rebellous and groundbreaking "traditional" and started to bash young punks because they have different hobbies, different music, drive different cars and have new ways to annoy those old farts.

And when today's young punks grow old enough, they start bashing another new generation, with their music, their cars and their ways to annoy old farts.

We'll, it already happened. Fox Mustangs are classics appreciating in value, there are people collecting vintage cell phones and Boney M is retro.

So all is well in the world, although most people are still dumb. And dumb people don't get thing outside of their generation - be it either way.

P.S.:
To someone who thought it's stupid for the battery to be charged by winding. There's lots of crank-charged stuff available nowadays. Like this radio:

So the thought of battery recharged by winding is not so out of touch.

 

So....my 14 year old just asked me to listen to a "real cool" song on his IPod. I said "no thanks"....turns out it was When the levee breaks by Led Zeppelin. I,m so proud.....

 

HaHa!

I keep annoying my 15 year old son by singing along to the "new" rock songs that he is trying to annoy me with. He usually has no idea that its classic rock from back in the day.

 

Actually, some of us DO make a living at it!

If memory serves correctly, the younger generation has "been going to the dogs" since Socrates.

Again, if memory serves correctly, it was Dreyfus who noted "the knowledge in the universe is a constant, the population is increasing".

The younger generation will be as educated as the older generation makes them. If the youngsters are ignorant, it is OUR fault, not theirs.

And yes, the word is ignorance, not stupidity. We are all born without knowledge (or ignorant). We gain knowledge as we gain experience.

As I grew up on a farm in a very rural community, I do know the difference of a double tree to a single tree (both are useful in farming with horses).

The kids of today have a wonderful opportunity, much more so than what we had. What they make of their opportunity depends on us, how we motivate them to learn. What we show them. How we do things.

And yes, I can make a carburetor do lots of things, but I still consider EFI to be the work of the devil. Remember that cell phones were not necessary until we had EFI

Ones knowledge base depends on ones life experiences.

Jon.

 

I'll take my previous post one step further (and step on a few more toes).

How many of you have served as a Little League coach, or a Boy Scout Merit Badge counselor, or a volunteer in a high school vocational program?

Consider this: you best do the best you can to educate the younger generation, because they are the ones who will be paying for YOUR social security!

Jon (age 64).

 

I pushed through a lot of these posts skimming the longer ones.

The part I see that is missing from both young folks and old folks is that in order to really know where you are going it is really helpful to know where we came from.

There are a lot of SMART folks who know this, and unfortunately many of these people will use their knowledge against those who lack this knowledge.

It is far better to be knowledgeable, whether young or old, whether it be the history of cars in our hobby or the history of our nation.

Knowledge is akin to power.

 

HA HA at least she was curious..you could have given the correct info on the watch to her and she would have learned something and been a little smarter?

 

Some things don't change a lot... When I was 7 or 8, I got the Monogram double '32 Ford kit for my B-day. I havn't been quite right since.

 

the real question here is why is a grown man wearing a mickey mouse watch

 

How about a thirteen year old getting a wrist watch for his birthday.....he opens the box, takes the watch out and says (get ready)......
"I can't use this, I don't know how to read it.
I need one with numbers".

Someday, he'll vote.
And scarier yet, he'll reproduce.
The gene pool gets more shallow with every generation.

 

well I just showed an 11 year old girl how to operate a screwdriver, so maby there's some hope left

 

the gene pool lifeguard is off duty enter at own risk lol

 

And it is the 13 year olds fault that nobody bothered to teach him how to read a clock?