Tweets, Tatoos, and the Future

[imoldernu]

The Justine Sacco story...
Ex-PR exec Justine Sacco apologizes for AIDS in Africa tweet - CNN.com
... made me think about the future of young people in this fast moving world. Above all, so happy not to be guiding children and young adults into the future.

Simple one time... even thirty second lapses have the potential to affect lives forever. At our age, we have enough life experience to have a lingering caution... conscience if you will, about what we do. Not that we don't or won't make mistakes, but we understand that actions have consequences.

For the most part, if you are over age 40, you probably grew up with slower moving changes in culture and morality, and a degree of privacy that no longer exists.

On the other hand, the current standards may already be the long term norm. Tatoos, nose, lip and ear rings may be more common than not... Sex mores have already changed, and the rare interracial and same sex relationships of the past, hardly raise eyebrows today. Language that would have meant lava soap or a red bottom, is now common in prime time and in normal conversation. Scurrilous political slurs, gossip, lies and rumor mongering are the fuel for the commercial media... and it is up to the individual to sort it out.

So, as with all opinions... different strokes for different folks... Is the new norm just a phase, like rock and roll, or the Beatles... or the Justin Beiber generation... and something that will just fade into the march of history? Or... is this a case of technology getting ahead of morality and cultural balance, where unintended lapses may affect young lives forever?

How do/would you handle the education of young people... with an eye to their future?

 

[Walt34]

How do/would you handle the education of young people... with an eye to their future?

Well, if I'd had a daughter she'd have been placed in a convent when she was 12. Or maybe 10. And I'm not even Catholic.

Other than that the younger generation with rare exceptions will see to it that the world is doomed.

 

[martyp]

Coarseness and conservatism have come and gone on a generational time scale. We happen to have a confluence of coarseness and technology at this time. I guess the question is whether the technology will maintain the current culture longer than usual. Can we imagine that tech would promote tolerance and conservative behavior? The anonymity
of tech seems to suggest not. And there seems to be a natural tendency toward voyeurism in the population at large. However, today's tech environment allows us to filter what we want to see so we can choose to live in whatever cultural bubble we want to and peek outside from time to time.

 

[Amethyst]

I work with very smart people in their 20's and we have interesting conversations, since I am careful not to come off as "judging." A lady about 24 years old showed me a Web site where college girls "rate" co-ed guys according to their looks and "skills." The ratings are very frank, and not always flattering! This lady was rather taken aback when I commented that the web site would have been rather useful in my day!

Amethyst

 

[Walt34]

I work with very smart people in their 20's and we have interesting conversations, since I am careful not to come off as "judging." A lady about 24 years old showed me a Web site where college girls "rate" co-ed guys according to their looks and "skills." The ratings are very frank, and not always flattering! This lady was rather taken aback when I commented that the web site would have been rather useful in my day!

Amethyst

Did she show you the site the guys use to rate the gals?

 

[Arifriekinel]

My first thought when opening this post was of this webcomic:
New Technology | Bonkers World

 

[Amethyst]

Oh, that site's been around since stone tablets and bearskins (and certainly existed, in some form, when I was in college). This one truly was news to me!

A.

Did she show you the site the guys use to rate the gals?

 

[sailor]

You are at least few thousand years late complaining about younger folks
The Conflict of Generations in Ancient Greece and Rome - Google Books
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 04.05.24

 

[Redbugdave]

I guess people can make mistakes, but now that the printed word is gospel you have to be extra careful.

One question...what about freedom of speech?

 

[Chuckanut]

I don't know which is sadder: An intelligent, young person making such a comment using highly public social media, or, how our 'gotcha' society can completely wipe out years of good deeds and achievement due to one foolish comment.

 

[Walt34]

... how our 'gotcha' society can completely wipe out years of good deeds and achievement due to one foolish comment.

It's always been that way. Haven't you ever heard that it only takes one "awsh*t" to wipe out a thousand "attaboys"?

 

[rodi]

I guess people can make mistakes, but now that the printed word is gospel you have to be extra careful.

One question...what about freedom of speech?

As far as the woman in the article linked in the OP...

She isn't being sent to jail or anything for her tweet - she's exercised her freedom of speech without legal consequence. The first amendment is safe and intact.

Capitalism is why she was let go from her job. (Similar to Duck Dynasty bru-ha-ha). A company can look at the PR and bottom line and make employment decisions. If she was "employed at will" - her employer can fire her for any reason... and in this case, the reason they chose was bad public relations from her comment that could easily be perceived as racist.

Do you think employers should be restricted in who they hire/fire? Even if it has potential negative bottom line impacts?

 

[Koolau]

For reasons in addition to some of the issues mentioned by imoldernu, we sent our kids to parochial school for grades K-8 and even moved school districts (at significant cost) for an excellent HS. While none of our kids is even past 30 yet, I look back and have concluded that our limited ability to affect their education was the best single move we made in setting them on independent AND ordered paths. Clearly, none of our kids is exactly (or even close in some areas) to what we might have hoped for. Still, they seem to have good heads on their shoulders and are making their own way with little of the overt silliness that will haunt some of their peers in years to come. Ask us in 30 more years how it all turned out. If we're still around, we hope we will still be as proud and pleased as we are now - so, YMMV.

 

[Redbugdave]

As far as the woman in the article linked in the OP...

She isn't being sent to jail or anything for her tweet - she's exercised her freedom of speech without legal consequence. The first amendment is safe and intact.

Capitalism is why she was let go from her job. (Similar to Duck Dynasty bru-ha-ha). A company can look at the PR and bottom line and make employment decisions. If she was "employed at will" - her employer can fire her for any reason... and in this case, the reason they chose was bad public relations from her comment that could easily be perceived as racist.

Do you think employers should be restricted in who they hire/fire? Even if it has potential negative bottom line impacts?

Those are good points. I have to agree. And I think it would affect the employer bottom line. Messing around with social media is like playing with fire. Even an excuse like being intoxicated would not hold up.

By the way...I did away with my Facebook account two years ago. I felt it was getting too intrusive.

 

[haha]

By the way...I did away with my Facebook account two years ago. I felt it was getting too intrusive.

Not only that, it is stupid and shallow with nothing of any importance ever being said. Plus I had decided that one more "Awesome!" was going to be the last, and so it was.

You do lose some connectivity, there are plenty people for whom a one on one email is too hard.

Ha

 

[Redbugdave]

And about tattoos...

When I go to the store...Walmart or wherever...I am appalled at the tattoos I see all around me. It looks like the carnival has come to town. I am in my 50s. It used to be about the only ones that had tattoos were guys in the military and ex-cons. I am ex-military and none on me, either. Now, about everyone has them. What's up with that? There's no way I could walk around looking like a billboard with skulls, dragons, and odd looking oriental shapes all over my skin. If I had a business, none of my employees would have tattoos showing...I would have a dress code. I think our culture has changed and I have stayed crustily the same. I don't feel the need to try to be different by advertising stuff all over my body. I'll bet Dermatologists will be making a killing in the future on tattoo removals. I just don't get the tattoo thing.

Facebook IS shallow and the real motive is data mining.
http://inthelimelight.net/why-i-quit-facebook-forever/

 

[steelyman]

I agree on the tattoos. No use for them and I don't think that makes me crusty... just sensible.

I have a similar opinion of body piercings. There is a scene in Pulp Fiction with Travolta and Rosanna Arquette that I can't quote but find hilarious. (she's not actually in the scene but they're dealing drugs and talking about piercings).

 

[Arifriekinel]

I don't have any tattoos, but I'm a big fan, I find them beautiful. My mom has a lot that I really like. If I weren't too cowardly to face the needle I'd get some.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Haha I think FB is awesome.
Sorry, had to throw that in there.
I love keeping up with friends in far flung places, some of whom even have tattoos.
I hope the older I get, the more tolerant and kind I get about understanding the differences in the people around me. I read and study a lot on compassion in hopes that I won't get more judgmental.

 

[martyp]

And about tattoos...

When I go to the store...Walmart or wherever...I am appalled at the tattoos I see all around me. It looks like the carnival has come to town. I am in my 50s. It used to be about the only ones that had tattoos were guys in the military and ex-cons. I am ex-military and none on me, either. Now, about everyone has them. What's up with that? There's no way I could walk around looking like a billboard with skulls, dragons, and odd looking oriental shapes all over my skin. If I had a business, none of my employees would have tattoos showing...I would have a dress code. I think our culture has changed and I have stayed crustily the same. I don't feel the need to try to be different by advertising stuff all over my body. I'll bet Dermatologists will be making a killing in the future on tattoo removals. I just don't get the tattoo thing.
]

I agree with you on tattoos but I've concluded that we are past the point where they are an anomaly. If I were still w*rking I would, in most cases, not worry about tattoos on my employees. It could be an asset in many cases.

 

[imoldernu]

Haha I think FB is awesome.
Sorry, had to throw that in there.
I love keeping up with friends in far flung places, some of whom even have tattoos.
I hope the older I get, the more tolerant and kind I get about understanding the differences in the people around me. I read and study a lot on compassion in hopes that I won't get more judgmental.

As I get older, I enjoy watching the transition... and appreciate the different ages... and especially the still lingering ability to recall the times that most have not had the opportunity to experience.

Seeing the immense difference between my youth, and the ladies underwear ads in the Sears Catalog, and comparing it to Miley's Christmas Special... and the contrast between a cat's whisker radio and an IPad... and the 400.000 US combat casualties who died in WWII compared to the 6000 American Servicemen who have died in combat in the 40 years since the Vietnam war ended in 1973... Changes that were unimaginable not so long ago.

I just see a huge transition... in so many parts of our lives. Not good or bad, but different, and although others have pointed out that change has always been with us, I wonder if it ever happened so quickly.

At one time, not so long ago, we looked at forward thinking people as prescient. Today our finest minds have trouble staying ahead of the technology they created.

I see judgement and observation as being different . The greatest joy that I have is being able to see history in the making. The social aspect is the most obvious. Not for me to say good or bad... but certainly different.

 

[bssc]

Haha I think FB is awesome.
Sorry, had to throw that in there.

Another vote for FB.

As for tattoos, I have nothing against them but can't think of anything I would want to be reminded of 20 years from now.

 

[Major Tom]

I'm in two minds about FB, even though I'm a regular user. I don't quite buy the argument that if we were really friends with someone we'd stay in touch with them via the more "traditional" means of telephone, e-mail, and actually seeing them in person for the simple reason that every new method of communication has had it's detractors, including the telegraph. I think of all the time my Mum would stay on the phone chatting with friends when I was growing up in the 70's. The telephone was by then, firmly established as an accepted method of communication though many disapproved of it in the early part of the 20th century when it was beginning to gain a foothold in our lives. There were those who thought the telegraph would be of great detriment to society when it was introduced in the 19th century.

Having said all that, FB does seem to keep me in touch with people I no longer care about but as a counterpoint, how many of you old 'uns, when you were younger, wrote letters to people as a way of ostensibly keeping in touch because you didn't really want to go to the bother of seeing them in person? Write a few paragraphs about what you've been doing lately, tell them it's been too long, you hope to see them again soon, and pop it in the mail with a sense of relief because that's your "social obligation" to them taken care of for another year. In that sense, letters were like e-mail or Facebook, but with paper and a pen.

As for tattoos, they are not for me at all. I cannot think of anything that I am certain I would still want to be imprinted on my skin several decades later. That is a serious amount of commitment we are talking about! There are some people I am fairly convinced are capable of making that kind of commitment. I know someone whose mother died when he was relatively young. He has her name tattooed on his chest. I think that is a fine tribute to someone whose memory he will always want to hold close. For some, tattoos are part of a lifestyle choice that seems to be an integral part of who they are. They make sense for those people. However, as far as lifetime commitment goes, I bet there are an awful lot of "tastefully placed butterflies", girlfriend's names, and names of crappy bands that will be regretted at some point in the future!