Looking back over my more than 50 years on this planet (!) I would say as a whole wealth has become less well shared out. A few do very well out of life and the rest of us just about manage. This was not so pronounced in the past. Not sure if it is also linked to the drop in trade union membership over those 50 years as well. Computers and the Internet is of course the big change over this period, some of which has been good some bad along with mobile phones which almost seem to be an extension of young people now. They live part of their lives online and not in the physical presence. Again it is not necessarily bad, just different.
How have people / people values changed over the decades?
- Thread starter Heam44
- Start date
SNEEKERS
Well-known member
Older people never change, remember my dad saying that to me 50 year ago.
Frozen Horse
Well-known member
Agree with that. I don't think the anti-education movement originates with the working class.
I suspect that there's an elitist message that the working class neither need or want education. To put it crudely, it's a way of keeping them peasants.
jeff_potato
Well-known member
There has been a huge reduction in that facade of what is 'proper' and socially acceptable for them to show in public. It astonishes me when I watch Long Lost Family how so many babies were given away essentially because their maternal grandparents felt awkward about their kids having a baby outside of marriage.
Younger people may also possess a different sense of direction in themselves rather than feeling obliged to just settle into the same role that their relatives have with having a family, settling down, etc.
I noted in a newspaper yesterday that in Scotland, teenage pregnancies have plummeted and underage drinking too - that could possibly be a positive side effect of social media keeping people glued to their phones?
Younger people may also possess a different sense of direction in themselves rather than feeling obliged to just settle into the same role that their relatives have with having a family, settling down, etc.
I noted in a newspaper yesterday that in Scotland, teenage pregnancies have plummeted and underage drinking too - that could possibly be a positive side effect of social media keeping people glued to their phones?
Frozen Horse
Well-known member
I wonder when the figures were collected, and over what period.
Covid lockdown will have massively reduced both figures for a window of time; I'm not saying that accounts for the dip, but the time period is worth checking.
Also the rise in vaping amongst the young has coincided with a big drop in smoking and drug taking
I live around 400metres from where I was born in the 1970s.
I’d say neighbourly behaviour has all but gone. Morals are far lower with people happily doing what suits them, like parking anti social behaviour and drug dealing. Crime itself is more accepted than before, certain activities won’t even get a police visit now like car break ins.
Social media has created the keyboard warrior !
We seem to have more protein filled kray wannabees.
Even the national sport seems distant now, i used to see parky and Bernie slav in the supermarket my parents used. Juninho and Moreno went to a pub near my house.
It seemed to me when I was younger parents were far more likely to go have words with each other or give you dressing down if you’d done something wrong and another adult had a go at you. Nowadays I think you far more likely to have a full on slanging match if you are unhappy with a sibling no matter what they did.
I’d say neighbourly behaviour has all but gone. Morals are far lower with people happily doing what suits them, like parking anti social behaviour and drug dealing. Crime itself is more accepted than before, certain activities won’t even get a police visit now like car break ins.
Social media has created the keyboard warrior !
We seem to have more protein filled kray wannabees.
Even the national sport seems distant now, i used to see parky and Bernie slav in the supermarket my parents used. Juninho and Moreno went to a pub near my house.
It seemed to me when I was younger parents were far more likely to go have words with each other or give you dressing down if you’d done something wrong and another adult had a go at you. Nowadays I think you far more likely to have a full on slanging match if you are unhappy with a sibling no matter what they did.
Great post. And a real good reflection of what you see.
I think people live in silos and believe too much of what they read, rather than what they experience.
As I work with older people they often talk of the cane/ slipper not doing them any harm, but when I somewhat tongue in cheek suggest that I use the slipper on my children they are outraged. The generations before us shaped our paths, and often hate and look negatively at what has become without ever really seeking to understand it.
Il Preside
Active member
I have noticed that basic parenting is far worse than it once was
jam69
Well-known member
Unravel_Morrison
Well-known member
I dont think a lot has changed to be honest; its just the more stupid and less moral have more opportunities to show those character traits.
The trolls you meet online are just the same people you'd have had bullying you in school.
The people you knew who were thick and racist just have a bigger audience.
Good people are still good people.
The trolls you meet online are just the same people you'd have had bullying you in school.
The people you knew who were thick and racist just have a bigger audience.
Good people are still good people.
RedAsABeetroot
Well-known member
I feel we've lost the plot with further education. Far too many people are going to university and running up pointless debts.
University education should be paid for by the country and the number of courses available balanced by the country's needs not by what's cheap for universities to teach.
I'm also not sure if it's just me becoming forgetful, but my nephew and nice are both currently at uni and the term times seem far shorter than I remember.
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It was much easier when you could just beat your kids wasn't it?
Malaguena
Well-known member
Far less tolerance for other people's views now, and an inability to enter polite discussion without it turning nasty and personal
The "if you don't agree with me you're a racist / sexist / tory (delete as appropriate)" approach to debate, as evidenced on this board quite regularly
The "if you don't agree with me you're a racist / sexist / tory (delete as appropriate)" approach to debate, as evidenced on this board quite regularly
Frozen Horse
Well-known member
I agree with some of what you say about funding. I do work for a university, and one of my disappointments with the sector is that it cares more about business than standards.
However, I don't agree that numbers on courses are really determined by what is cheap to teach: by and large course availability is driven by demand rather than what is cheap to teach.
I think that we actually need more going to university, certainly in science, technology and engineering type degrees. However, the common perception that there are a lot of trash degrees out there is by and large wrong: relatively few actually study media at university, for example. In the most recent figures, those studying Media, journalism and communication students (sorry, not broken down any further), only accounted for 1.7% of students.
By and large, the only type of degree that doesn't usually lead to higher career earnings after loans, fees etc are performing arts degrees, and some social care degrees; students who study those are almost certainly doing it for more than financial reward.
coluka
Well-known member
From the innocence of youth………. We became conditioned into career advancement, property prices, material worth, luxury goods and personal greed disguised as personal wealth, we convinced ourselves if you work hard you can have the lot. You can but it comes at a price unless you are careful and ensure what really matters, your loved ones are shielded and grow with you.
Society through year upon year of tory governance conditioned us into the various 7 deadly sins as if they were a necessity.
Once you’ve got a terraced house you need a semi, once you’ve got that you need a detached to crow about, then a bigger one and the same happens with cars, material goods holidays all wanted bigger and better and you were conditioned to spend. Social media corrupts along the way. Poverty exists but so long as its not in my face I can live with it etc.
Then your kids grow and you have high hopes and dreams for better, but they form their own likes and dislikes, friendship groups, but in your social group there may be a godson or cousin that may discover drugs, dependency, addictions, whilst others go on the well trodden path you walked. As you age you see all the modern pitfalls but struggle to avoid witnessing it as you once did, its rife in every town centre, ASB, drugs, shops closing and boarded up, Opticians and charity shops everywhere, Dentists closing, Dr’s patients queueing out the door and down the street, rough sleepers on every corner, then you realise all those times you wanted to pay less tax, lower rates to help you contribute less toward society and more for your home, holidays and BMW on your driveway, you realise you played your part in creating the Britain we cherish today, because people, we got tory government after government, whilst many around us ignored the warning signs and many simply pretended it wasn’t there and looked the other way.
Welcome to The Land Of The Tories
is king
Society through year upon year of tory governance conditioned us into the various 7 deadly sins as if they were a necessity.
Once you’ve got a terraced house you need a semi, once you’ve got that you need a detached to crow about, then a bigger one and the same happens with cars, material goods holidays all wanted bigger and better and you were conditioned to spend. Social media corrupts along the way. Poverty exists but so long as its not in my face I can live with it etc.
Then your kids grow and you have high hopes and dreams for better, but they form their own likes and dislikes, friendship groups, but in your social group there may be a godson or cousin that may discover drugs, dependency, addictions, whilst others go on the well trodden path you walked. As you age you see all the modern pitfalls but struggle to avoid witnessing it as you once did, its rife in every town centre, ASB, drugs, shops closing and boarded up, Opticians and charity shops everywhere, Dentists closing, Dr’s patients queueing out the door and down the street, rough sleepers on every corner, then you realise all those times you wanted to pay less tax, lower rates to help you contribute less toward society and more for your home, holidays and BMW on your driveway, you realise you played your part in creating the Britain we cherish today, because people, we got tory government after government, whilst many around us ignored the warning signs and many simply pretended it wasn’t there and looked the other way.
Welcome to The Land Of The Tories
is king
HolgateCorner
Well-known member
All I hear at work (north east headquartered company) is that there is a massive shortage of graduates and skills with real difficulties recruiting across the board.
That does not fit with too many kids going to university and running up debts.
The problem is the cost of it, the universities are coining it in (in my opinion) and the accommodation cost is ridiculous. My daughter and son are going through the system just now and the accommodation alone is around 10k per year for each of them, both at northern universities. Me and the missus have to find that, the student loans are means tested. It has become a racket.
RedAsABeetroot
Well-known member
I'd agree and I probably didn't word my original post well enough. My point is we have high numbers going to university but still skills shortages. Funding and course numbers needs to be decided centrally ( or at least with a high degree of national strategy) rather than by demand.
RedAsABeetroot
Well-known member
I'm sorry but I feel it does. How can we have record numbers going to university but still have a skills shortage? Clearly we are not educating people in the correct/required subjects. This is why I'd rather see lower numbers going to university but for it to be state funded.
I'd also argue that a skills shortage isn't purely about university education. I work in engineering in the NE and I can see the skills shortage almost daily. That said I left university with a degree in engineering, but I'd argue this did little more than get me my first position within the Steel Industry. What developed my engineering skills more than anything was the training and knowledge I gained at British Steel. We have lost many of the major employers with their training schemes. In addition companies carry smaller workforces. When I started I can think of at least 8 people who'd get me involved in things, had time to explain things. Nowadays it doesn't feel like this is the case.
It's because a degree isn't a required skill. Skills are learned on the job but businesses are against training people because it can be costly. They prefer to hire experienced people which is why immigration is so popular because they can get the ultra desirable experienced and cheap combo.