Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

mesyn191 said:
The infrastructure hasn't changed at all (ie. stores and work places are still far away from most places where people live) and so having a car or a similar degree of range in transportation is a necessity and not a option. Its a matter of economics.
Click to expand...

Well to completely disagree with you the infrastructure has completely changed. Stores are dying... Amazon is ruling. Kids as always tend to work part time jobs that are well within the range of public transport (which has gotten much better, and in many larger cities makes more sense even for us old folk). When they get a bit older and into the real work force more and more people are working from home. If you work from home, buy 90% of your goods online, and have a grocery store a few blocks away. Why the fuck would you waste money on a car ?

I also disagree that its a matter of economics. I am in my 40s... did I get a brand new car when I was 16 ? Fuck no. Used jalopy sure. New cars aren't really any more expensive now then they where when I was a kid. Even if a kid was going to buy a new car or have one bought for them... its all well and good that 33k is the average price, but young kids getting new cars get economical hatchbacks as they always have.

On top of all that the internet is raising a lot of young environmentalists.

I have 4 kids with a pretty good range in age. My oldest boy wanted a car when he hit 16 and got himself a beater to work on. The second one did the same. The third boy is 23 now and doesn't drive, and has no intention of ever driving. He takes the Bus to work, they order plenty of stuff online... they walk a couple blocks down for groceries and take a cab back if they get more then they want to carry. He has absolutely no need for a car really. My youngest, my daughter is 14 and I also doubt she ever bothers driving. Off topic a bit...she is going to cost me a fortune in schooling for sure, this summer she has spent 3 weeks at the University doing summer medical courses. Her I want to be a doctor was cute at 10 I figured she would move on, my last hope was blood and stuff would gross her out. Instead she now loves showing people pics on her Iphone of the heart she helped dissect. Things are starting to ache already, my bank account is going to take a pounding... my point being I doubt she bothers with a car for a long time either.
 
ChadD. You live in the city? Cause where I (and a good portion of America's population live) public transport isn't a thing. A vehicle (new, used, whatever) is required to get anywhere further than your neighbor down the road.

I have to drive anywhere between 20 minutes to 2 hours (depending on where I get called to) for work.
 
Private_Ops said:
ChadD. You live in the city? Cause where I (and a good portion of America's population live) public transport isn't a thing. A vehicle (new, used, whatever) is required to get anywhere further than your neighbor down the road.

I have to drive anywhere between 20 minutes to 2 hours (depending on where I get called to) for work.
Click to expand...

I live in Canada... Winnipeg to be exact, we should hit 1 million people in the next year or two. Bus hits every major road in town, no one lives more then a few blocks from a major route. Buses come every 20 min... and no where in the city is more then 30 min away tops. The university and downtown are serviced by rapid transit bus routes that have bus only roads and are very fast. Diamond lanes (lanes no one but a bus can drive in during rush hour) are common on major roads to ensure good bus service.

Our larger cities are even better. Perhaps you guys need to prioritize where your govs are spending your money.
 
ChadD said:
Our larger cities are even better. Perhaps you guys need to prioritize where your govs are spending your money.
Click to expand...


Fat chance in that.

Where I live is considered rural. So public transport will never be a thing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ChadD
like this
Private_Ops said:
Fat chance in that.

Where I live is considered rural. So public transport will never be a thing.
Click to expand...

Fair enough... we have plenty of rural areas as well of course. I guess when we are talking about kids it really depends where they are located. I have some cousins that live a few hours out of town and their kids I am sure will be in a bigger rush to get wheels. :)

Also I know in Canada our population tends to be concentrated more in cities. In our province something like 80% of the provinces population lives in Winnipeg or within 20min of the city. A few of my cousins (I have tons of them) now that I think of it never bothered driving either.... but they moved to the city pretty much the day they turned 18.

I know I took for granted growing up being able to jump on the bus right outside my parents front door and be in any mall in the city 20 min later. You don't realize how good that is till you visit somewhere else. When I was younger I would get sent on business trips to the states and I noticed that American cities tend to be less friendly design wise to public transit. I mean I'm sure many cities have great systems... you just notice when your used to being able to go anywhere to anywhere in 30min or less. :)
 
Last edited:
ChadD said:
Well to completely disagree with you the infrastructure has completely changed.
Click to expand...
Nope. As long as most people live in suburbs or suburbanish areas while stores, food, gas, work, etc. is 20min+ away nothing has changed. Yes Amazon is killing some of the big chains but that doesn't mean that the rest of the stores, work places, etc. have vanished.

ChadD said:
Kids as always tend to work part time jobs that are well within the range of public transport
Click to expand...
This is blatantly false. Even in Canada but in particular in the US. I know tons of Canadians who bitch about a lack of acess to public transport or that their public transport is overcrowded and suffers from delays. Public transport might as well not exist in nearly all the US.

ChadD said:
more and more people are working from home.
Click to expand...
Telecommuting has been on the decline in the US since at least 2008. Not sure about Canada but they're not at all commonplace or normal in the US. Its more of a "nice if you can get it" sort of thing here.

ChadD said:
I also disagree that its a matter of economics.
Click to expand...
I already gave the numbers for wages and car costs too so you're going to have to show those numbers are somehow wrong otherwise you have no reasonable basis on which to disagree with me other than "cuz' I say so!". Cars have drastically increased in price vs wages and there have been articles talking about this fact for years now.

ChadD said:
On top of all that the internet is raising a lot of young environmentalists.
Click to expand...
That isn't the internet. That is them being rational and looking at the facts instead of wallowing in denial.
 
mesyn191 said:
I already gave the numbers for wages and car costs too so you're going to have to show those numbers are somehow wrong otherwise you have no reasonable basis on which to disagree with me other than "cuz' I say so!". Cars have drastically increased in price vs wages and there have been articles talking about this fact for years now.

That isn't the internet. That is them being rational and looking at the facts instead of wallowing in denial.
Click to expand...

Hey I'll agree public transit isn't = everywhere. (where I am in Winnipeg our suburbs do have very good bus routes... including rapid transit bus only roads that head right downtown or directly to the University) I am simply saying things are different then they where 20 years ago, of course some kids live in the middle of no where and there options are drive or move. I do believe in general though more kids today then 20 or 30 years ago have access to public transit and services that mean they don't have to travel as much.

As for cars... I'm not disputing your numbers. The average price of a car I'm sure is what you say it is. I am simply saying that few kids gets a brand new average priced car when they hit 16. Perhaps you did... but no one I knew got a mid range sedan or a brand new truck when they turned 16 25-30 years ago either. My first new car I bought when I was 20 and it was a low end cheapo chevy... no where near the average new car price tag at the time either.

Although I'm sure the truth of the matter is right in the middle of our positions. Likely a bit of don't need wheels as much as they used to, and can't really afford them anyway. lol For the ones that take a moral stand (I was joking when I blamed the net)... good on them, if they can get by on public transit its good for all.

At the end of the day... if its true that fewer young jack asses are out on the road, I feel safer. ;)
 
ChadD said:
. I am simply saying that few kids gets a brand new average priced car when they hit 16. Perhaps you did...
Click to expand...
Except used cars are also too expensive for many Millenials. I already mentioned that too. And it didn't used to be that way but it is now. And no I didn't get a new car as my first car. I paid for a beater that broke after a year and cost too much for me to fix even back then.

Too much of their income has to go to paying for stuff like rent and food for many Millenials to afford much on their own. That is why so many still live with their parents. If you watch the trend numbers that is only increasing and not going away either.
 
mesyn191 said:
Except used cars are also too expensive for many Millenials. I already mentioned that too. And it didn't used to be that way but it is now. And no I didn't get a new car as my first car. I paid for a beater that broke after a year and cost too much for me to fix even back then.

Too much of their income has to go to paying for stuff like rent and food for many Millenials to afford much on their own. That is why so many still live with their parents. If you watch the trend numbers that is only increasing and not going away either.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. Good point on the housing situation as well. Although I would say car prices haven't exploded in the same way as housing costs have. Housing I get... no one can afford a half decent house in the major cities anymore not just kids. I bought my first house 20 years back or so for around 60k cnd... I sold it 5 years later for around 120, and I saw the exact house listed for 210 a year or so ago. Where I am isn't even the worst. My oldest just bought a condo in Vancouver and paid just under 700k... I'm glad he was able to swing it he has done well for himself, but very few of the kids he grew up with own anything, and they still live here in Winnipeg where the same condo would have went for 200k or so. Vancouver and Toronto are insane... I guess in the US places like New York are likely worse.
 
ChadD said:
Good point on the housing situation as well.
Click to expand...
Yeah housing is worse than car prices though I think in Canada right now you're going through a fairly nasty bubble that seems to be getting ready to pop. Hope you do OK, it got a bit ugly here in the US after our last one popped. I'm sure I won't like it when the current boom/bubble here in the US pops either.

ChadD said:
I guess in the US places like New York are likely worse.
Click to expand...
We're pretty much back to the 2006 bubble prices in most any coastal region in the US right now while individual wages and household income haven't gone up all that much at all since that time. I live in what amounts to the "middle of nowhere" in the US and my home value, on paper, has nearly doubled in 5yr even though I haven't done a single thing to improve the property or house in that time frame. Its obvious its going to pop again its just a matter of when that is tricky to figure out. These things always go on for longer than they should.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ChadD
like this
Our housing bubble may or may not pop ya. The gov just increased interest rates so hopefully it cools off and doesn't burst. In Winnipeg prices are up, not like in Vancouver and Toronto. There are plenty of factors of course. My son owns a construction company in Vancouver, there has been a lot of speculation and stuff on property and land out there. The BC gov put a bunch of new taxes and rules in to slow some of the foreign speculation. (which is sort of funny as he got his start, when his partners parents from HK helped them purchase land to develop) Anyway ya we'll see what happens. Hopefully both our govs don't screw things up to badly. It seems like the banks are up to some of their old tricks again though so fingers crossed. I paid a reasonable amount for where I am now, I don't think the value has shot up 2x as yours has bit I'm sure its up 50% or so from where I bought it 10 years back. I guess that is considered reasonable. In some areas of the city though I think the bump has been a lot higher... my second oldest son was looking for a house to buy after they got married in the spring and decided to rent for a few more years. (at least they didn't want to move in with me lol)

I know if I was 20 yrs old today it would be pretty damn depressing to hear banks talking about 30 year mortgages, and 8 year car loans. lol so ya I guess your points on cost are pretty on the money. ;)
 
I think it is destroying generations. Even oldsters are disappearing into their smartphones.
 
Anyone complaining about the next generation just suffers from a short memory and / or a case of being locked in your own skull.
 
I know that when I was a kid, carrying around and listening to a small 9 volt transistor radio everywhere I want, adults thought I was nuts. Every generation sees the younger as faulted, and the beginning of the end of humanity. However.....having witnessed the incredible stupidity of the general public recently, I see that my own generation (baby boom) is filled with morons as well, along with a lot of real geniuses that have changed our world. There's no way to stop stupid people from doing stupid things. More will walk into signs, into traffic, and on the tracks of oncoming trains while playing with some device or another, perhaps while fidget spinning. It's not the end of the world, only their dna line. There's plenty more morons where that one came from, to pick fruit, or blow people for lunch money. The world will go on.
 
Has TV destroyed a generation?
Has the telephone destroyed a generation?
Has the internet destroyed a generation?
Has Rock and Roll destroyed a generation?

Only one problem in the year 2007 when the iPhone released something else that is very important happened. The economy crashed and our researcher conveniently is unable to find any data that goes before the great depression. When the last similar generation was created. How convenient for her research conclusions. And such a disruption in the lives of millions of children would very likely also have many of the symptoms she attributes to phones.
 
rudy said:
Has TV destroyed a generation?
Has the telephone destroyed a generation?
Has the internet destroyed a generation?
Has Rock and Roll destroyed a generation?

Only one problem in the year 2007 when the iPhone released something else that is very important happened. The economy crashed and our researcher conveniently is unable to find any data that goes before the great depression. When the last similar generation was created. How convenient for her research conclusions. And such a disruption in the lives of millions of children would very likely also have many of the symptoms she attributes to phones.
Click to expand...
Out of all of that, smartphones are the worst kind of instant gratification, and one that can fit in your pocket no less, not to mention absorbing all of the above as well into one convenient device.
 
Red Falcon said:
Out of all of that, smartphones are the worst kind of instant gratification, and one that can fit in your pocket no less...
Click to expand...

Pretty sure masturbation ranks above smartphones in that regard.

Speaking of which, next time you're eating some corn flakes look up John Harvey Kellogg and his efforts to save children from themselves by pouring carbolic acid on their genitals. The 'think of the children' morality police are generally awful people in my experience, regardless of the issue they're involved with.
 
kinjo said:
Every single generation thinks that the generation that follows is morally bankrupt/weak/lazy.
Click to expand...
Generally I agree with this sentiment. However, when is the last time you saw a generation supporting ideals this messed up? People chemically blinding themselves because they identify with the blind, ignoring scientific genders, supporting economic policies straight out of a fairyland, etc, etc, etc. Even the hippies weren't this bad. At least they didn't have the support of the older generations which kept them in check. This current generation has the full support of the press and our leaders. What's going on right now is genuinely fucked up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top