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Are we raising a generation of nincompoops? (yikes!)
Boston Globe ^ | 9/27/10 | Beth J. Harpaz

Posted on 10/05/2010 2:50:28 AM PDT by Daisyjane69

Are we raising a generation of nincompoops? And do we have only ourselves to blame? Or are some of these things simply the result of kids growing up with push-button technology in an era when mechanical devices are gradually being replaced by electronics?

Susan Maushart, a mother of three, says her teenage daughter "literally does not know how to use a can opener. Most cans come with pull-tops these days. I see her reaching for a can that requires a can opener, and her shoulders slump and she goes for something else."

Teenagers are so accustomed to either throwing their clothes on the floor or hanging them on hooks that Maushart says her "kids actually struggle with the mechanics of a clothes hanger."

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: nextgeneration
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To: Erasmus

Speaking of dialing, I watched my daughters try to dial a rotary phone once. It was comical.


101 posted on 10/05/2010 8:53:51 AM PDT by stayathomemom (Beware of cat attacks while typing!)
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To: Calvin Locke

Think of all the poor folks who starved to death in their showers because the shampoo bottle instructions said:

1. Lather.
2. Rinse.
3. Repeat.


102 posted on 10/05/2010 8:54:11 AM PDT by Erasmus (Personal goal: Have a bigger carbon footprint than Tony Robbins.)
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To: Steely Tom

LOL...glad I could help...these can be pretty grim times to consider, but then you think about that stupid, inane, ridiculous movie, and it has to make you laugh even though it is spot-on!


103 posted on 10/05/2010 8:55:10 AM PDT by rlmorel (The voice of tyranny starts out smooth.)
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To: Condor51

It’s a “John Wayne”!!!!!


104 posted on 10/05/2010 8:56:22 AM PDT by rlmorel (The voice of tyranny starts out smooth.)
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To: TonyInOhio

LOL...I sure do hope so!


105 posted on 10/05/2010 8:57:51 AM PDT by rlmorel (The voice of tyranny starts out smooth.)
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To: SF_Redux

*we DID raise a nation of idiots, does that count?*

Nov 2008 proved that....


106 posted on 10/05/2010 8:59:06 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876 (Language, Borders, Culture, Full employment for those here legally)
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To: rlmorel
*My cat knows how to use a can-opener, but sadly (for him) lacks the opposable thumbs to actually do so.*

I had a cat that could open the screen door by sticking his claws in it and was learning how to open a doorknob on a regular door. He put his two paws on opposite sides of the knob and caused it to turn some.

I believe if he had lived longer, he would've eventually been able to open an unlocked door.

107 posted on 10/05/2010 9:02:57 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876 (Language, Borders, Culture, Full employment for those here legally)
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To: magslinger
You mean like this little guy...:)


108 posted on 10/05/2010 9:02:57 AM PDT by rlmorel (The voice of tyranny starts out smooth.)
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To: ArrogantBustard

God Bless those men.


109 posted on 10/05/2010 9:04:15 AM PDT by rlmorel (The voice of tyranny starts out smooth.)
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To: Tax-chick

Thank you.


110 posted on 10/05/2010 9:09:15 AM PDT by Old Badger (boy do opportunities abound everywhere for Real Conservatives!)
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To: Erasmus

I have a saying I like to use: “We are all “A$$holes”.

My theory goes as such: Many of us try to drive a car in a civilized, polite and heads-up manner. We largely succeed, but even the most astute and careful drivers amongst us eventually do SOMETHING that will piss off someone else. We drive appropriately 99% of the time, but...that one time you misjudge the speed of an oncoming car as you pull out, or begin to change lanes and don’t see that car in your blind spot. The person in the other car thinks you are a total jerk, even though you drive well 99% of the time. Then you multiply that by EVERYONE driving on the road who has that 1% lapse, and everyone ends up driving around thinking everyone else is an inconsiderate bastige!

But this is different, I suppose...I can screw up that one time, but I can drive well the rest of the time. Kind of like that old saw: “I will wake up sober tomorrow, but you will still be ugly and stupid...”

Stupid is forever!


111 posted on 10/05/2010 9:14:36 AM PDT by rlmorel (The voice of tyranny starts out smooth.)
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To: DuncanWaring

Probably sets off metal detectors.


112 posted on 10/05/2010 9:15:28 AM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: HIDEK6

I agree. Far too true.


113 posted on 10/05/2010 9:21:39 AM PDT by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
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To: kearnyirish2
*I’d think they’d be the second generation of that; this is on their parents, who had already given up on cooking from scratch (actually, their parents were probably the first wave where both parents had to work).*

You're right, I think it's the 2nd generation.

I remember my cousin in the mid-eighties saying that few of her college friends knew how to cook. Her boyfriend was very impressed that she was able to prepare a fairly simple meal.

114 posted on 10/05/2010 9:25:05 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876 (Language, Borders, Culture, Full employment for those here legally)
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To: rlmorel
Veering further off the thread....

I think about all the opportunities for collisions to occur during the rush hour.

Consider, say, fifty thousand vehicles trying to get to work in a given city, all at the same time, in stop and go traffic.

There are likely to be a dozen fenderbenders, and one or two worse collisions, during that rush hour.

Now consider all the opportunities for collisions that occurred among all motorists involved during that time. Any one driver must have had a hundred opportunities to cause a crash, and yet only a dozen or two, out of fifty thousand drivers, times at least a hundred opportunities per driver, actually caused a crash!

So, doing the math, that means a dozen collisions caused out of 50 000 * 100, or 12/5 000 000 opportunities, or 2.4 parts per million.

That's almost six sigma performance.

The wonder is not how many accidents happen, but how few.

115 posted on 10/05/2010 9:30:47 AM PDT by Erasmus (Personal goal: Have a bigger carbon footprint than Tony Robbins.)
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To: Erasmus

Agreed. I often think that if aliens were watching rush hour from outer space, they might have the same impression we have as we peer down at a busy ant hill...

Great analysis, btw, from a data geek...:)


116 posted on 10/05/2010 9:38:05 AM PDT by rlmorel (The voice of tyranny starts out smooth.)
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To: Wolfie
*Somebody make a note now to NOT water the crops with Brawndo.*

When I first saw Idiocracy, I thought, “Wow, some of these things are true now! In another 20 or 30 years we’ll be there!”

Then in Nov 2008, I thought, “We're much closer to Idiocracy
than I would've guessed.”

When Obamacare passed, I thought, “It's here. Right now.”

117 posted on 10/05/2010 10:19:35 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876 (Language, Borders, Culture, Full employment for those here legally)
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To: SkyPilot
Technology changes in every lifetime. Just because you didn't know how to use every item in a livery stable didn't mean you were a "momcompoop" in 1918.

Good point.

118 posted on 10/05/2010 10:21:27 AM PDT by ansel12
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To: TexasFreeper2009
The baby boomers destroyed the world, and we will all be paying for it for a loooooooooooong time.

Boomers are saving the world, you are only now living in the age of the boomer, America has been moving slowly right since they finally started coming of age in the late 1980s, Contrast the age group that runs America (age 46 to 64)today, with that age group of 1935 to 1975, when the worst damage was done to America.

Enjoy your restored gun rights.

119 posted on 10/05/2010 10:30:27 AM PDT by ansel12
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To: Calvin Locke

Gosh, do you really need instructions for heating up canned corn?


120 posted on 10/05/2010 11:37:44 AM PDT by caver (Obama: Home of the Whopper)
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