You know what makes me laugh?
reading this post…
…in a Monty Python esque voice in my head (and expecting a sketch script to be forthcoming)
for completeness Youtube video: 4x Yorkshire men
My mum was pregnant with me during the 62-63 winter and I’ve heard all the stories of living in a rural locale. As said above ice on the inside of windows, burst pipes, losing electricity and gas supplies and burning anything that came to hand.
But you get a picture of people helping each other.
Coming to work over the last few days has been interesting. The biggest hazard I’ve seen are people in 4*4s (especially BMW and AUDI Chelsea tractors) thinking 4 wheel drive means you can drive like a nutter.
Ah, forgot about the paraffin heaters. My aunt had a couple in thier farm house. Otherwise just a back boiler in kitchen that ran on coke or anthracite.
Yes, also remember going shopping to village post office with a sledge. Local farmers eventually got the roads sort of open . The snow didn’t seem to stop the milkman though. Also the buses seem to keep going on the main road a mile away.
That included, wherever possible, shovelling the snow off pavement outside your own house (& your neighbour’s if they couldn’t manage it). One of the “advantages” of coal fires was to sprinkle the ashes on the pavement to help the grip. Happy days! 
In 1963 I was living in Byker in Newcastle and apparently, all we had was a two-bar electric fire for the entire house and thick blankets. My father was a serving police officer and he always told me that the buses never stopped running, bobbies were out on the beat and shops were always open.
Down my way (south coast) last night, there was no snow (some had previously laid and frozen but no new flurries), all roads were open after being gritted and the worst bit was the wind which was bearable even with a t-shirt on. During the day, I saw schools and colleges with signs up saying ‘closed due to the weather’.
What weather? It was a tad chilly, yes but snow? A teensy-weensy bit during the day, FGS!
I went to my local Sainsbury’s last night and found a lot of empty shelves where people had clearly been panic-buying. I couldn’t believe it.
We certainly do have a snowflake generation and I ain’t talking about the weather!
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The problem is the weather people make it sound like the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse are coming to town every time there is a ‘weather event’ now and people go into end of the world mode. Unless you are right out in the sticks you won’t be stuck in your house for more than 2-3 days at most.
The irony is that many modern families will buy loads of bread and when it gains a bit of growth, it’ll go in the bin. Which is more shameful. Our kids have watched us pull bits off a slice and just use it normally.
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We had a camp this weekend cancelled because the catering staff didn’t want to come. Looking outside right now I think they are a bunch of snowflakes.
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Yeah, but best will in the world, it’s the people in charge making the decisions, and they’re almost all your generation!
(I can get away with saying that, being an oft-accused millennial… Everything else is apparently my fault, so I’m passing the buck on this one)
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I don’t disagree but I think you’ll find that the type making decisions are the pension-protectors.
IMHO, some people just need to mtfu and crack on!
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No. This is a cop out arguement.
While I agree there has been a distinct lack of decent leadership, it’s been 1 of several reasons, others include, poor parenting techniques, political correctness and overhyped HSE.
And none of it is being addressed. And it’s continuing. The failed leadership, the failedmparenting techniques, the failed education system, the fascism of political correctness, the manipulation by the media and the overhyped HSE. And if you can accept that there’s a problem you can be part of the solution, instead of just agreeing that it’s a generational problem, but proclaiming it’s the previous generations “fault”.
Who’s to blame for the next generation? Your generation?
Once again, it’s failure to burden the problem and just pass the blame.
Social media is the hidden killer. It’s tearing apart the fabric of society.
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Any proof or evidence that anything has actually failed, or is it just that you don’t like what it now is?
Societies and people evolve and react to change. Always have done.
“Hidden killer”? Ridiculous hyperbole.
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Maybe not so hidden - when they make a law to stop you using your mobile device when crossing a road, then yes, it could be a killer!
Digital addiction - you can now be rewarded for not using your mobile 'phone!! The mind boggles. 
The trend of modern society - how many likes on Faceache, inability to converse, etc - it really is frightening.
While I like to think I’m eloquent, this point has already been made by someone with greater writing talent than I:
http://thefuturebuzz.com/2014/10/24/complaining-about-cell-phone-usage-makes-you-sound-ridiculous/
These things have only existed a few years, people are still adjusting to them. Inevitably, it’s going to change things. Being resistant to change - while it is very in keeping with the air cadets - is a total waste of time. Either accept things are changing and change with them, or shuffle off to your retirement home where you can carry on living in the 50s.
Of course there are numerous “enhancement factors” to life, business, “down” time, hobbies, etc, but the general direction was more about any possible negative factors of social media. Reacting to change, trends, technological improvements, is a given. It’s when those changes adversely affect our lives - must check (or add to) my latest status update - regardless of the circumstances (work, relaxing, driving…), then we have a problem.
Dopamine addiction?
Increase in young people’s suicide?
Increased mobile phone usage at the wheel and pure ignorance to the effects it has?
Yea. I stand by it.
You completely missed the point. And in doing so have proved mine.
Change isn’t always good. Change can be extremely bad. “Progression” depends on your perspective.
And to forget where you came from and the previous values of our ancestors is a big arrogant mistake.
It’s also incredibly arrogant to proclaim that your change is best and the only route and that the people who built and worked for you to enjoy such luxury and peaceful times don’t count for anything.
Especially when those elders are trying to teach and make a difference. Even if they are far younger than you think.
That’s the problem with these generations, they think they have it bad and they know hardship, when they don’t at all. That goes for myself aswell, But I can appreciate the hard work of previous generations.
The evidence is there if you look. You’re the young tech savvy one go find out.
Here’s an easy one to help you out:
Interesting looking at the picture of people on a train. Nobody ever spoke to anyone on a train or anywhere unless they are together. How many times has anyone on here, got a train, bus, sat in café on their own and immediately started a conversation? So hardly a good example.
The single biggest problem with mobile phones and especially smartphones is the expectation that you are contactable 24 hours a day wherever you are and then there are those who think they need to be constantly looking at their emails and social media all the time. God forbid you don’t respond almost immediately.
We are gradually losing proper down time. The SLT in our school have work phones and have to be contactable, even during school holidays, unless they are away. My phone sits well away from where I can look it at home and sits in my coat pocket at work. So at work I can just get on with my work and at home I do odd things like crosswords, puzzles, read books, watch TV, get out in the garden, the shed or garage or just go for a walk, sans phone. Our kids however are never more than an arms reach from their phones. Old fogey, perhaps, but the future really does look bleak, as although there are games on phones which our kids play, if they get a bleep they are looking to see what it is. We have tried to stop them having them by their beds, but they won’t do it and the first thing they do in the morning is look at it.
People don’t really have holidays anymore. Go on holiday and how many people look at emails etc and even in something like the ATC, how many feel compelled to look at emails, social media etc when they should be relaxing. Very many given the massive debates about mobile charges etc etc in foreign climes. I remember holidays when you went away for 2 weeks and came home to whatever you came home to. Now if you have more money than sense and lost all sense of proportion, you can have cameras to see what’s happening in the house, control heating and lighting and who knows what else. I remember one of my uncles’ died when we were on holiday and not finding out until we got home. The world didn’t end. Now you’d be likely to get a call or email while doing whatever you were doing, wherever you were doing it.
Not all change is good. Mobile phones are a really good example not only from the examples cited, but in terms of their short life, especially smartphones, where the companies build in obsolescence by making software changes so much so they don’t last much longer than the two year contract with free upgrade, if you don’t drop it and it breaks beforehand. How many of these old phones sit in drawers? Which is no different in many ways to computers. We have a landline and had our phone for 20 years, could you imagine a smartphone or computer lasting 20 years and working perfectly well, such that changing it is more about cosmetic change than anything else. We had a TV for 25 years, then they changed the way TV worked so we were forced to get a new one and since then we’ve had 3, because they have broken and the repair is more than the cost of a new one!! This is part of the throwaway culture madness. It seems quite obtuse that so much is made of dwindling natural resources, recycling etc, and yet our culture is a throwaway one and buy new every couple of years for no reason that as I mentioned for cosmetic reasons.
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Nothing wrong with a good old Nokia 5110!! Only 15 years old, had one new battery and v useful. You are able to speak to human beings and send basic texts…that is all…no internet no social media crap etc etc. Oh, and it’s pay as you go which mobile companies hate!!! It only gets let out if i am well away from home / work . Work used to supply mobiles assuming that i would be forever contactable. I used to leave it at work when finished for the day. The bosses used to moan, but they wouldn’t pay for the extra time spent doing thier business…shades of ‘going the extra mile will be rewarded’ blackmail…it never was and they used to merrily make staff redundant without any thanks.
It’s all about creating traceable worker ants for the socialist totalitarian 1984 style
society. Keep tabs on everyone, and for Big brother to watch you, limit your movements and manipulate you.
Excellently demonstrated by the Lego Movie. Can’t have anything negative or criticised because everything is awesome.