"These Days" Statements

[linguist]

Although I will have to disagree about how the English language is not declining. It is. Just sit in on a college Freshman Composition class and you will see. There were some people in my class last semester that still didn't know the difference between 'there', 'their',and 'they're'.

that's not language, that's grammar , which is an artificial, arbitrary construct which changes over time. look at english prior to the 1700s; it was much different. then robert lowth decided (based on his own personal preferences) that latin grammatical structure should be applied to english, a germanic language. he wrote a book defining this "grammar" and used his influence as a bishop of the anglican church to have it adopted by english schools. modern "grammar" was born, based on one man's personal preference.

This semester, when I was peer reviewing papers, people didn't know how to cite and then started telling me that my paper wasn't cited correctly. Fortunately, the professor backed me up on this one.

again, this has nothing to do with language. or grammar, or anything other than writing style. citation is also an artificial, arbitrary construct, and an enormously confusing one at that, given that there are so many different citation protocols. i think in any given year you'd be hard pressed to find many that know how to cite correctly under current citation protocols, since they change almost every year.

[Hyena Dandy]

Kids these days are rotten little buggers, but they were the same in our parents generation, and in their parents generation, and so forth. I believe children as a rule tend to be rotten, and always will be. The manner of their rottenness changes from generation to generation, but they tend to be rotten.






The English Language does change, as does any other language. My only problem isn't the change, but the eclecticness of the change, which I think may have to do something with the internet. Which is not, to say, the internet is horrible. It has its good points, and its bad points. The thing is, before, you used to sort of have to associate with the outer world. Now that you can choose to only associate with people who like a certain thing, or behave a certain way, that subgroup can appear to be the ONLY way people act to you.

The language isn't declining. Its more spreading out like a tree branch, and I'm having trouble touching all the ends.

[Plaidman]

I'm going to have to disagree with people being happier these days.

I know that being a heavy depressed person likely can't make that claim.

Just life wasn't as hectic back then. Now, alot of times both parents need a job, and sometimes two jobs to maybe make ends meet. No time for kids, as compared to forty-fifty years ago where only one person needed a job.

Thousands of years ago, where everyone had to work from sunup to sundown, they likely weren't as depressed because they never had time to even think about it. They were miserable, they were hungry, but...


Well. I guess a better word for it, is that every generation has a whole new slew of stress to worry about. Sure, with the internet you can learn so much, make plenty of friends, but it's been proven time and time again that the internet can bring just as much pain, from stalkers, people killing others, rapid sharing of various illegal porn from child porn, beastily, snuff), and with the urge of that, people make more, which of course brings much more pain and misery. Thankfully the spread of the net, has been used against those that make them by finding clues. (A story I read had the little girl digitaly removed from a scene, and asked if anyone recogized the room, several people said it was a hotel room at disney land. From there, they used the date of the film made, to track down all who were at that hotel during that time, track that down blah blah blah).

I don't know how to express what I say, and I'm pretty sure people think that I'm just blabbing and being wierd.

[the_std]

I'm going to have to disagree with people being happier these days.

Well. I guess a better word for it, is that every generation has a whole new slew of stress to worry about.

These two statements are pretty opposite. Your second quote completely agrees with my original postulation that things today are just different, not inherently worse, not inherently better. But what is proving that people are better off these days (not happier, as 'happier' is not a quantifiable measurement) is that the majority of the population, especially in North American, enjoys a much higher standard of living than they did even a hundred years ago. Modern conveniences have made us live longer, have made sure we're better fed, have made us more comfortable and have afforded us greater opportunities for extended learning possibilities. We're better off, even if we're no happier.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Please don't start this thread down the spanking route... It's about the generalities of whether things are better now than they were "back then".

Aww, so I can't get all dominatrix and start spanking random posters? No fair.

[Rageaholic]

What gets me about "these days" statements is that the people saying them act so high and mighty. Like I should never complain when my internet goes out because they didn't have internet when they were a kid! In fact, a lot of the time, they make the old days look a lot worse than these days, but somehow long for them just to see us ungrateful youngums survive without our technology.

[McDreidel09]

Aww, so I can't get all dominatrix and start spanking random posters? No fair.

OOOO Me first,Mistress!!

[Plaidman]

OOOO Me first,Mistress!!

She already promised me first.