From my experience, it's more of a case of America dumbing down the internet.

European regulations require me to agree with this post.

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The dumbing down of America is a cultural thing.  For the most part, we don't value education and place it on a pedestal like other countries that rank above us.  We take it for granted that someone else is going to do the critical thinking for us and we are more concerned with shiny objects and celebrities.  Most kids are only in school because they are forced to be there.  To parents, the school is little more than day care.

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I agree with Flagler about the social implications, everyone staring at their phone instead of talking might not be a good thing. It's also not a good thing when local culture is wiped out. It used to be you could drive to Charleston or LA or New York State and there would be variety of thought and values and family.  Today everyone gets the same instantaneous info, and a lot of it is pure propaganda for either political or commercial purposes or useless nonsense. In general having the world's library at your fingertips would seem to be a great thing for personal and business reasons, but it's actually killed local stores, a lot of local commerce, and dampened local people meeting and sharing news without outside influence. Is that "Better"? I don't know about that. I tend to think not. I don't think we are dumber for it, but more removed from each other, ironically at the same time everyone's facebook page says they have 1000 friends.

 

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I agree with Flagler about the social implications, everyone staring at their phone instead of talking might not be a good thing.
It's also not a good thing when local culture is wiped out. It used to be you could drive to Charleston or LA or New York State and there would be variety of thought and values and family.  Today everyone gets the same instantaneous info, and a lot of it is pure propaganda for either political or commercial purposes or useless nonsense. In general having the world's library at your fingertips would seem to be a great thing for personal and business reasons, but it's actually killed local stores, a lot of local commerce, and dampened local people meeting and sharing news without outside influence. Is that "Better"? I don't know about that. I tend to think not. I don't think we are dumber for it, but more removed from each other, ironically at the same time everyone's facebook page says they have 1000 friends.

This is something I have stressed to my kids about...I have tried to get it through their heads that all this texting and facebook/social media is detrimental to their ability to communicate...Today people are "friends"  with scores of people they have never met face to face and carry on a relationship without ever meeting...Kids today have diminished social skills because they don't really "hang out" like we did...They are not good problem solvers when they have a problem with someone, they just air it out on facebook or text and then unfriend people and block them...The lack of face to face or even diminished face to face time results is poor social skills, and a lack of knowing how to "play nice with other people" ( that description is for lack of a better term at the moment)...I've held job interviews with teenager after teenager and they really have no idea how to present themselves in an interview due to lack of social skills...They have no problem/conflict solving skills that you would expect a high school graduate to have...The only thing they know about conflict resolution is to not eat [BLEEP] from anyone, and that also applies to rules...If rules are dumb they shouldn't have to follow them...

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This is something I have stressed to my kids about...I have tried to get it through their heads that all this texting and facebook/social media is detrimental to their ability to communicate...Today people are "friends"  with scores of people they have never met face to face and carry on a relationship without ever meeting...Kids today have diminished social skills because they don't really "hang out" like we did...They are not good problem solvers when they have a problem with someone, they just air it out on facebook or text and then unfriend people and block them...The lack of face to face or even diminished face to face time results is poor social skills, and a lack of knowing how to "play nice with other people" ( that description is for lack of a better term at the moment)...I've held job interviews with teenager after teenager and they really have no idea how to present themselves in an interview due to lack of social skills...They have no problem/conflict solving skills that you would expect a high school graduate to have...The only thing they know about conflict resolution is to not eat [BAD WORD REMOVED] from anyone, and that also applies to rules...If rules are dumb they shouldn't have to follow them...

 

I agree society is changing due to the existence of the internet.  The way people communicate is changing, but it's really just evolving.  Society isn't going to be the exact same as past eras when the world is completely different than it was then.   I agree that people could use the internet in ways that could be negative, but I'd argue there are significantly more positives, even pertaining to social skills.  You complain about teenagers today as if teenagers were great all the way up to now where the internet has ruined him.  I have a hard time believing that.  

 

I also don't see how you perceive that kids today don't "hang out".   Kids seem to hang out now just as much as ever, it's just they are using their phones a good deal of that time.

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I agree society is changing due to the existence of the internet.  The way people communicate is changing, but it's really just evolving.  Society isn't going to be the exact same as past eras when the world is completely different than it was then.   I agree that people could use the internet in ways that could be negative, but I'd argue there are significantly more positives, even pertaining to social skills.  You complain about teenagers today as if teenagers were great all the way up to now where the internet has ruined him.  I have a hard time believing that.  

 

I also don't see how you perceive that kids today don't "hang out".   Kids seem to hang out now just as much as ever, it's just they are using their phones a good deal of that time.

all teenagers were and will always be stupid...when I said they don't hang out like we did, I meant they hang together at times but they are so engrossed in their phones that they don't do a whole lot...they sit right beside each other and text each other...the lack of actual face time results in lack of social skills...When kids have no clue how to act when having to talk to persons about a job, a disgruntled customer, or pertaining to their job, it's a serious problem...I agree there are more positives to having the internet than not having it and I blame parents for allowing so much social media/texting et.al (including video games) that they have nearly zero social skills... The internet along with video games and movies have become parents in home babysitters... Parents allow kids to play on their phones during meal times,which means less family time....apparently that means nothing today though...Home schooling and computer schools are also key to the lack of social skills...Kids who don't even know how to address an envelope to send in the US mail or look up something in the phone book are the ones who are going to leading this country when I am old and that thought scares the [BAD WORD REMOVED] out of me

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the ones who are going to leading this country when I am old and that thought scares the [BAD WORD REMOVED] out of me

Can't do much worse than the current generation.

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Can't do much worse than the current generation.

It can always be worse...Every generation says the same thing, and every generation leaves a bigger mess than the one before

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It can always be worse...Every generation says the same thing, and every generation leaves a bigger mess than the one before

 

This is exactly why we're making the robots.

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This is exactly why we're making the robots.

so what are they going to do with the people?  People have to have something to do too...

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so what are they going to do with the people?  People have to have something to do too...

 

People will be the ones programming the robots.

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I survived the Gus Bradley Error.

so what are they going to do with the people?  People have to have something to do too...

 

The discussed plans to fix global warming/overpopulation involves the elimination of fully half of the population. That will free up a LOT of jobs.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

The discussed plans to fix global warming/overpopulation involves the elimination of fully half of the population. That will free up a LOT of jobs.

Really? Which plans would that be?

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Really? Which plans would that be?

 

Sure, you can start here:

 

http://www.un.org/popin/icpd/conference/bkg/wppa.html

 

Then here for some light reading:

 

http://www.overpopulation.org/

 

http://humaneeducation.org/blog/tag/overpopulation/

 

Note that I'm not saying the NWO is going to round up the population into camps and kill them. The goal is to reduce the birth rate so that the population declines naturally.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

Sure, you can start here:

 

http://www.un.org/popin/icpd/conference/bkg/wppa.html

 

Then here for some light reading:

 

http://www.overpopulation.org/

 

http://humaneeducation.org/blog/tag/overpopulation/

 

Note that I'm not saying the NWO is going to round up the population into camps and kill them. The goal is to reduce the birth rate so that the population declines naturally.

1: If you're going to link to 109 section long UN report at least include which sections are relevant to the discussion because I have neither the time or the interest to read the whole thing.

2: Linking to badly designed and coded websites from groups and institutions so small they don't even have a Wikipedia page only serves to invalidate your argument. 

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People will be the ones programming the robots.

It only takes so many people...there would be too many people for too few jobs

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The discussed plans to fix global warming/overpopulation involves the elimination of fully half of the population. That will free up a LOT of jobs.

yeah well I wouldn't put a lot of stock in this theory

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1: If you're going to link to 109 section long UN report at least include which sections are relevant to the discussion because I have neither the time or the interest to read the whole thing.

2: Linking to badly designed and coded websites from groups and institutions so small they don't even have a Wikipedia page only serves to invalidate your argument. 

 

Hey, you asked and I answered. What you do with it is your business.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

yeah well I wouldn't put a lot of stock in this theory

 

It's not a theory, it's a plan. You can do with it what you like.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

It's not a theory, it's a plan. You can do with it what you like.

How about nothing? This could never come to fruition...Much like the preparations doomsday enthusiasts are touting...

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