The Millennial Question

[GoldenRivet]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU

In the video, he breaks the "Millennial problem" down into four basic elements, they are; Parenting, Technology, Impatience and environment
He's absolutely right

From the Parenting Standpoint, for most of their lives, millennials have been lead to believe that they are special and unique and if they want something bad enough they can get it and received rewards simply for showing up (everyone gets a trophy). and when you take these people and put them into the real world they discover that they are in fact NOT special, and you are NOT rewarded just for showing up.

As for Technology, this one made the biggest impression on me.

I was born in 1979, and i have very early memories of 1982, 83, 84 having video games like atari and intellivision, but video game baseball and football etc sucked just enough to make you want to go outside and ride bikes or foot it from door to door throughout the neighborhood trying to get enough kids together so you could go outside and play actual sports.

and, as you know, we didn't have social media, we didn't have home electronics. If you asked a kid in 1984 to name off some home electronics in the house they likely would have thought ... washer, dryer, phone, tv and that would have been about it.

Kids now... hooked... always on Ipad, tablet, xbox one, Playstation, PC, iphone, Ipod, virtually every single toy on the shelf at toys r us... electronic in some way (hatchimals for example) but millennials who found themselves as young people in the late 80s and early 90s when technology was exploding, these are people who had it bad, and kids now have it even worse.

My stepdaughter, she gets in the car for a 25 minute drive to her grandmothers house and immediately upon buckling her seatbelt says "Mommy, can i play on your phone." and we aren't even out of the driveway yet! she takes her tablet with her to dinner whenever we go out to eat 95% of the time no matter where we go. Children in her age group are so self absorbed and so dismissive of everything that doesn't have an immediate impact on them. Today for example... she is on winter break. Her day, wake up, feed the cat, turn on the xbox and vegetate. I know personally that she has been up since 7:30am and has come out of her room to eat breakfast, get a snack, and eat lunch. If it weren't for her basic physiological needs... i could have easily been fooled into thinking i was home alone all day.

and its not just children, as a bit of an experiment, every time i went to get a haircut for about a 45 day period, i would people watch. everyone, every single person young, middle aged, old, retirement age across the board everyone sat in silence on their cell phones until their name was called to get a haircut.

and hes right about when people get lonely or down and out they bulk text message their friends just for the sake of striking up a conversation or getting a response. I'm guilty of it. I work out of town 200 days a year, sometimes straight through. When i find myself cooking dinner for the 50th time, and having a cold beer and thinking of how alone i am.. i will bulk text 4 or 5 friends - almost as if i am "fishing" just to get a nibble

When i was a kid, entertainment on a long drive was following an atlas trying to figure out where we are, how to get from there to where we needed to be. counting license plates that were not from the state we were in, playing "slug bug" or similar games. We built valuable relationships with our peers. i have friends in my life that have been there for me through thick and thin since 1988 for crying out loud, now days... kids move 10 minutes down the road from their good friend and never speak to them again.

a lot of the millennial problem has to do with this electronic device addiction and the dopamine released into the body by interacting with such devices.

Which brings us to impatience. why are Millennials so impatient? I was not familiar with the concept of "instant gratification" until i was 13 or 14 years old. the only means of instant gratification i had prior to that period of my life might have been the 90 seconds it took to make chicken nuggets in the microwave i guess?

Impatience comes to millennials so easily because - mostly - of the technology around them. overnight shipping, binge watching instantly available TV series that you dont have to wait a week for the next episode. instant gratification is such a real issue for millennials that they come to expect it with all aspects of life. patience eludes them and they focus more on the immediate, the short term and are often unable to see the big picture and focus on the long term.

Finally, the environment in which millennials live is counter to everything they have grown up expecting. the companies they work for, as companies always have been, are driven by a bottom line, goals, statistics, sales data, number crunching, technology further inhibits this because everyone is so engrossed in the social media, digital life, cell phones, texting etc that the little moments that inspire and innovate are essentially removed from the equation.

[Platapus]

Ah these wacky kids with their crazy rock and roll....

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

@GoldenRivet I agree with a lot of what you. I've seen plenty of it myself everywhere but no more so then at work. I had to tell on guy I work with about three times, "If you want to get out of here at 10 tonight put the phone away and pick up the pace." Then when he thought I wasn't looking he'd take the phone out and do it again, and that was just tonight.:nope: Another instance was when some family friends came down from the Northwest for a visit and one of the kids might of well had his face glued to the monitor of his cellphone, and rather would of played candy crush then go swimming in the pool. I could see that a couple of generations down the road will be called "Generation Duh" at the rate things are going.

[ikalugin]

I am a milennial (born in 1992) and at the moment I do not own a smart phone. And when I do have a smart phone I mostly use it for various services ie taxi order, camera, navigation, wifi-modem.

I do always take my laptop with me though.

[Jimbuna]

Both my kids were born in the eighties and I'm pleased to say that whilst they have smart phones, ipads and laptops etc. none play a major part in their daily routine, they don't have those items high on their list of priorities.

I have seen it differently in public settings on a daily basis elsewhere though.

[Platapus]

Seems like every generation feels that the following generation has problems.

My Great Grand Father's generation probably thought that my Grandfather's generation would not amount to anything because they spent their time reading trashy novels.

I imagine that my grandfather thought my father's generation would never amount to anything due to them because they spent their time staring at the radio.

Pretty sure that my father's generation thought that my generation would not amount to anything because we spent our days staring at the TV.

Now my generation, evidently, thinks that the younger generation won't amount to anything due to them staring at their smart phones.

But, ya know what? Every generation seems to do OK. Ya know what is also true? Every generation had its slackers.

I tend to reject these generational generalizations. At work we have some old codgers who are going fantastic work and other codgers that are "roadies". At the same time, we have fresh outs that are fantastic, and others just putting in the time for a paycheck.

My father has some stories about slackers in the "Greatest Generation". :yep:


Kids!
I don't know what's wrong with these kids today!
Kids!
Who can understand anything they say?
Kids!
They a disobedient, disrespectful oafs!
Noisy, crazy, dirty, lazy, loafers!
While we're on the subject:
Kids!
You can talk and talk till your face is blue!
Kids!
But they still just do what they want to do!
Why can't they be like we were,
Perfect in every way?
What's the matter with kids today?
Kids!
I've tried to raise him the best I could
Kids! Kids!
Laughing, singing, dancing, grinning, morons!
And while we're on the subject!
Kids! They are just impossible to control!
Kids! With their awful clothes and their rock an' roll!
Why can't they dance like we did
What's wrong with Sammy Kaye?
What's the matter with kids today!


It is the person, not the generation... but would it kill them to get a haircut once in a while? :D

[Von Due]

Trust the source as much as you feel like but the youth of today has indeed been a worry since the dawn of time
http://mentalfloss.com/article/52209/15-historical-complaints-about-young-people-ruining-everything

[Sailor Steve]

I watched the video when GR posted it on FaceBook, and was quite impressed. His comments about board meetings and interaction made me think, as did the comment about waking up and checking your phone before saying good morning to your significant other. He makes a lot of good points.
I was born in 1979...
Now I feel old. My older daughter was born in 1979.

[Von Due]

A couple more found on this widest of webs
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato, according to William L.
Patty and Louise S. Johnson, Personality and Adjustment, p. 277
(1953)."

"I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on
frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond
words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and
respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise
[disrespectful] and impatient of restraint" (Hesiod, 8th century BC).

[August]

Seems like every generation feels that the following generation has problems.

While that may be true it does not mean that there aren't actual issues and problems created by the way these people were raised.

[Commander Wallace]

Both my kids were born in the eighties and I'm pleased to say that whilst they have smart phones, ipads and laptops etc. none play a major part in their daily routine, they don't have those items high on their list of priorities.

I have seen it differently in public settings on a daily basis elsewhere though.


I have gone to restaurants and have seen children and adults alike, seated together and not talking with one another but rather have their faces buried in their phones. The phone themselves can be dangerous from the microwave radiation they emit. Further, I have seen people almost get hit by cars because they walked through a busy intersection and never looked up from their phones.

Like John / Golden Rivet said, technology has a way of connecting people and is also ironically creating a class of people disconnected from society and one another.


:Kaleun_Wink:Good article John.

[Schroeder]

I have seen people almost get hit by cars because they walked through a busy intersection and never looked up from their phones.

Those are known as smombies...smartphone zombies...:-?

[Platapus]

The phone themselves can be dangerous from the microwave radiation they emit.

?????

I am confused. What exactly is dangerous about non-ionizing radio frequency radiation?

Other than heating, which cell phones simply don't have the power, what are the risks? We are hit with a lot more non-ionizing radiation for much longer periods of time than any cell phone and we do just fine.

It is ionizing radiation that we need to worry about.

[ikalugin]

I do get a problem with my eyes being strained by the constant use of my laptop though.

[vienna]

I'm sorry, did somebody say something? I was busy checking my phone messages...



<O>

[GoldenRivet]

Seems like every generation feels that the following generation has problems.

I do not think that "picking on the current generation" is the purpose of the video, and it is certainly not the purpose of my OP

I cannot speak for other nations, but my experience with young 20 somethings here in The US is that they are prone to Apathy and there is a wave of entitlement and a general feeling that the results of their efforts should be almost immediate, and they tend to feel dissatisfied, disappointed and at fault when the results are not immediately recognizable.

I also refuse to continuously paint millennials with a broad brush stroke because i know several people who are 10-15 years my junior who are hard working people who have the vision to see a long term goal of perhaps 3-4 years in length or longer through to fruition - though these sorts of millennials are often the exception rather than the rule

additionally, the video makes the point that technology has impacted the current generation more so than any generation previous to them. it is verifiable fact that the areas of the brain stimulated during use of personal electronic devices, social media and video games are the same areas stimulated during the use of illicit drugs. But then again, so does sex.

i am not making the argument that society will crumble if we dont get these meddling kids off their pesky cellular phones and reduce their use of the new fangled myfacespacebook (because i am a daily user of Fb) - i am simply saying that the video makes some interesting observations, and provides some verifiable data and cause / effect relationships to explain those observations. Whether you stand on one side of the fence or the other does not matter here... what matters is that the man in the video makes points about millennials in a way that is interesting, tangible, understandable and perhaps most importantly not derogatory.

it is undeniable that the last 20-30 years have made society into an "instant" society. things that used to take hours or days now take minutes or seconds.

and, largely as a result of technological advances of the last 15-20 years the generation gap experienced between me and my parents, was not nearly as large as the generation gap experienced between my children and I.

For example. My dad and i can sit for hours and listen to music from the 50s, 60,s 70s etc without batting an eye. We can occupy a space with little stimulating activity and keep ourselves entertained with mild chit-chat. We both know what its like to have to wait all day to call someone after 9pm because of long distance charges. We both know what its like to order something by catalogue and wait a week or two for it to show up, or write a letter to a friend, colleague or family member and wait a week or two for a response. We both know what its like to spend a week in a library researching for a biology paper.

When it comes to my kids, 5 minutes of the rolling stones is a punishment.

They also need near constant stimulation, generally of the electronic caliber.

if you want to talk to someone anywhere in the world, all they have ever known is to just call from the phone in their pocket. Children actually made special trips to my house to see a rotary phone in action when i plugged one in here. one of whom lifted the receiver to make a call and simply put their finger into the holes as if pushing a button (without rotating) to make a phone call and wondered why the phone didn't work.

my kids want to buy a movie, rent a movie, buy a product online? just get on steam and download it and its ready to play in hours. just get on netflix and press play. there's no waiting. and if you do have to wait its never more than a day or two.

want to write a letter to a friend? send them an e mail, they will get it in two seconds and respond within a minute generally

and libraries... i cant understand how such places still exist to be honest. virtually all of my kids' homework is done online. i busted at least one or two backpacks per year at the seams due to the amount of text books i had to carry around in school.

[Commander Wallace]

?????

I am confused. What exactly is dangerous about non-ionizing radio frequency radiation?

Other than heating, which cell phones simply don't have the power, what are the risks? We are hit with a lot more non-ionizing radiation for much longer periods of time than any cell phone and we do just fine.

It is ionizing radiation that we need to worry about.


The medical community has suggested a link with Incidences of brain Cancer and the use of Cellular phones. Gioma is the most common type of brain tumor. The common denominator was cell phone use. Right handed people tend to develop Cancers on the right side of their head while left handed tend to develop cancers on the left side of their brain. Obviously this is because people who tend to favor their right or left hand will ultimately hold their phone against their ears with that hand.

It should come as no surprise that the manufactures of Cellular phone and the associated technology's have tried to dispel the connection but the medical community has stood fast on the association of Gioma brain cancers and cellular phone use.

Quote: The recent worldwide increase in use of wireless communications has resulted in greater exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF). The brain is the main target of RF-EMF when these phones are used, with the highest exposure being on the same side of the brain where the phone is placed. These are just a few of the websites that are saying there are risks from cell phone use. Please note that one source is the Mayo clinic, which is world renowned.

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/cell-phones-fact-sheet

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/834888

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/expert-answers/cell-phones-and-cancer/faq-20057798

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/01/06/cell-phone-use-brain-cancer-risk.aspx


To be fair, there are arguments on both sides. Some researchers are split on the dangers which cell phone may pose. That may well be because of who signs their paychecks. Ionizing radiation would cause immediate damage but researchers are more concerned with long term use with non ionizing radiation. Researchers are more concerned with EMF or Electromagnetic radiation present in Cellular phone technology and WiFi devices, just to name a few.

http://www.earthcalm.com/emf-dangers-2

You may dispute the findings as much as you like but prudence would suggest that because of the links, Cell Phones do pose a significant health risk and according to the articles, the most susceptible are those under the age of 20. If people are aware of even a casual connection, they can take precautions such as limit their cell phone use or use ear phones or buds. A number of cars today have built in cellular phone technology. How much this helps is yet to be determined.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone-radiation2.htm

[AVGWarhawk]

http://funigy.com/img/0516/im-having-people-over-to-stare-at-their-phones-later-if-you-want-to-come-by.jpg

[vienna]

@GoldenRivet...

I see you were born in 1979; I was born in 1950; you're the younger generation my generation complained/complains about; it all goes full circle. A few nights back I was dealing with some chronic insomnia and I turned on the TV at about 4:30 AM. Every station on the set was actively broadcasting and my mind flashed back to when all stations ceased to broadcast by about midnight, a few even earlier. All you got on your sets was either a test pattern, with an annoying signal tone or static snow. Thinking about the difference made me think about all the other vast changes, just in my lifetime. You mentioned rotary dial phones and waiting to make calls to take advantage of lower rates; did you ever have to deal with party lines, where several households shared the same line and you could only make a call if none of the other parties to the line were not using their phones. (Incidentally, if you did make a call, the other parties to the line could very well just listen in on your conversations, a sort of 'pre-historic' hacking or Blu-jacking.) Virtually none of the then current technology of my youth exists in its original form today...

Generational differences will always exist. My parents were immigrants and had a very rudimentary education. My father was in the Merchant Marines and, by sheer diligence and effort, worked his way up from a wiper to a Chief Engineer. We were never close, but he could deal with changes easily because he was in a technical occupation. I respected him and wish that I had had more of an opportunity to know him. My mother, with whom I spent all of my childhood and adolescence, on the other hand, was a mixture of religious belief, wild superstitions, and a keen distrust of anything she didn't understand; explaining anything to her was a chore because she would tend to take whatever explanation I gave as an effort to deceive her; coupled with a keen insistence that she was always right, even in the face of full evidence to the contrary, there was little I could do to remedy the situation. Given that I was a bit precocious and voracious about learning new things, I must have seemed like a Martian to her. In my house there wasn't a Generation Gap; it was a Generation chasm. That's why, whenever I feel the impetus to wag my finger, scowl, and intone "Young whippersnappers! Why in my day...!", I make a conscious effort to restrain myself because that means never worked in the millennia before and very most likely never work in the future. The youngsters? They're all Martians and the best we can hope for is they come in peace. And, they better not be here for our women: I may may want to work my way through another ex or two...

Regarding the cell phone use, the local news has been doing stories on all the new laws and regulations taking effect on Jan 1, 2017. One new law will penalize any driver even holding a handheld cell phone while driving; you don't even have to be using it, just holding the phone; if you are behind the wheel and driving holding a phone, you get dinged. This may seem extreme, but the number of death and injury accidents caused by mobile phone distraction in California now exceed, on an annual basis, the number of accidents caused by DUI. Of course, if you get dinged enough for illegal mobile usage, it could drive one to drink...



<O>

[Buddahaid]

@GoldenRivet...


Regarding the cell phone use, the local news has been doing stories on all the new laws and regulations taking effect on Jan 1, 2017. One new law will penalize any driver even holding a handheld cell phone while driving; you don't even have to be using it, just holding the phone; if you are behind the wheel and driving holding a phone, you get dinged. This may seem extreme, but the number of death and injury accidents caused by mobile phone distraction in California now exceed, on an annual basis, the number of accidents caused by DUI. Of course, if you get dinged enough for illegal mobile usage, it could drive one to drink...



<O>

And yet I get sent traffic alerts to my phone while driving!

[vienna]

The medical community has suggested a link with Incidences of brain Cancer and the use of Cellular phones. Gioma is the most common type of brain tumor. The common denominator was cell phone use. Right handed people tend to develop Cancers on the right side of their head while left handed tend to develop cancers on the left side of their brain. Obviously this is because people who tend to favor their right or left hand will ultimately hold their phone against their ears with that hand.

...

You seem to be read up on the matter, so a question: is there any evidence, researched or anecdotal, of similar incidences of tumors on persons who store their phones on other parts of their bodies, such as a back pocket or shirt pocket, or on a belt? It would be interesting to see if the effect is not present on other body areas; the correlation would not be so much solely the radiation but, rather, the disposition of brain matter to the radiation...

...You may dispute the findings as much as you like but prudence would suggest that because of the links, Cell Phones do pose a significant health risk and according to the articles, the most susceptible are those under the age of 20. ...

Still looking for a way to get those whippersnappers to put down their mobiles, eh?... :haha:




<O>

[vienna]

And yet I get sent traffic alerts to my phone while driving!

Our's is not a perfect world; failing all else, you can blame the youngsters...



<O>

[Commander Wallace]

You seem to be read up on the matter, so a question: is there any evidence, researched or anecdotal, of similar incidences of tumors on persons who store their phones on other parts of their bodies, such as a back pocket or shirt pocket, or on a belt? It would be interesting to see if the effect is not present on other body areas; the correlation would not be so much solely the radiation but, rather, the disposition of brain matter to the radiation...



Still looking for a way to get those whippersnappers to put down their mobiles, eh?... :haha:




<O>



As I said, the connection is at least a " casual " one. To be honest Vienna,
I know a little bit about the cell phones but certainly not enough to say one way or the other . You mentioned having the Cell phone somewhere else on your body and I have wondered the same thing. If there are dangers in WiFi use, I would think the dangers would increase exponentially if the phone's are in close proximity to the body. Wearing them in a belt clip comes to mind.

Research is ongoing and the connection is contested. I do think that if there is at least a casual connection, Prudence suggests people understand the dangers and enact safety measures.

whippersnappers eh ? I guess we are all guilty of having and using them. :D


Leave it to you to be the voice of reason, as always Vienna. :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up:

[vienna]

Well, if you're going to insult me and accuse me of being reasonable, I'll leave in a huff...make that a minute and a huff...

I don't know if it has any real effect in the avoidance of possibly harmful radiation, but I do make it a practice to turn off the Wi-Fi and mobile data functions on my phone and I usually carry the phone in a sort of day bag I sling over my shoulder, along with my other items, books, etc. After I finished my prior post, I had a vague recollection of seeing something some months back on a TV news report about breast cancer cases in women who stored the mobiles in their bras. I found this link on that subject:

http://ehtrust.org/key-issues/cell-phoneswireless/cell-phones-and-breast-cancer/



<O>

[Commander Wallace]

QUOTE=Schroeder;2455132]Those are known as smombies...smartphone zombies...:-?[/QUOTE]

I like that :haha: @ smombies. I have never heard that one. Mind if I use it ? :03:

[GoldenRivet]

@GoldenRivet...

I see you were born in 1979; I was born in 1950; you're the younger generation my generation complained/complains about; it all goes full circle. A few nights back I was dealing with some chronic insomnia and I turned on the TV at about 4:30 AM. Every station on the set was actively broadcasting and my mind flashed back to when all stations ceased to broadcast by about midnight, a few even earlier. All you got on your sets was either a test pattern, with an annoying signal tone or static snow.

i too can recall that, probably because i grew up in a small town and all the local broadcasts would show a fighter jet flying across the various landmarks of the USA while playing the national anthem. and when the music stopped and the screen faded to black you got this guy

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/SMPTE_Color_Bars.svg/329px-SMPTE_Color_Bars.svg.png

with a long and annoying "Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep" until about 4:30 am when local news would start ramping up

did you ever have to deal with party lines, where several households shared the same line and you could only make a call if none of the other parties to the line were not using their phones. (Incidentally, if you did make a call, the other parties to the line could very well just listen in on your conversations, a sort of 'pre-historic' hacking or Blu-jacking.) Virtually none of the then current technology of my youth exists in its original form today...

fortunately, no, i never had to deal with party lines, however i was very familiar with them at an early age and knew about having to wait to make a call or possibly getting listened in on.

My father was in the Merchant Marines and, by sheer diligence and effort, worked his way up from a wiper to a Chief Engineer. We were never close, but he could deal with changes easily because he was in a technical occupation. I respected him and wish that I had had more of an opportunity to know him.

You and i have something in common there. My grandfather was in the Merchant Marines and by his sheer diligence and efforts worked his way up as well, he retired as a captain for American Heavy Lift shortly after i was born, he retired to Florida and my family lived here in Texas which afforded us little time together, i had a lot of respect for him and enjoyed what little time we had together and would have liked to have known him better.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hRfDeafL1ms/V5AaMCT689I/AAAAAAAAIzw/VhrvhTWfVes3QC3ZQAWJN8WfGL2lz-VpgCLcB/s1600/RenezJOHNHenry.jpg

He captained the MV John Henry and the MV Paul Bunyan

Regarding the cell phone use, the local news has been doing stories on all the new laws and regulations taking effect on Jan 1, 2017. One new law will penalize any driver even holding a handheld cell phone while driving; you don't even have to be using it, just holding the phone; if you are behind the wheel and driving holding a phone, you get dinged. This may seem extreme, but the number of death and injury accidents caused by mobile phone distraction in California now exceed, on an annual basis, the number of accidents caused by DUI. Of course, if you get dinged enough for illegal mobile usage, it could drive one to drink...



<O>

i'm in absolute agreement with such laws, my vehicle is totally bluetooth hands free - so was my last one, but i owned the vehicle for 2 years before i figured out how to work the thing. distracted driving, texting and driving, using PEDs while driving... its the new drinking and driving and is pretty much just as fatal

[GoldenRivet]

Regarding the picture above, according to the caption on the website where the image is hosted, that is one of the ships he captained entering new york harbor in 1979... could very well be my grandfather on the bridge. :D

[Schroeder]

I like that :haha: @ smombies. I have never heard that one. Mind if I use it ? :03:
It's not my creation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone_zombie

So feel free to use it.:salute:

[vienna]

i too can recall that, probably because i grew up in a small town and all the local broadcasts would show a fighter jet flying across the various landmarks of the USA while playing the national anthem. and when the music stopped and the screen faded to black you got this guy

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/SMPTE_Color_Bars.svg/329px-SMPTE_Color_Bars.svg.png

with a long and annoying "Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep" until about 4:30 am when local news would start ramping up



Well, you were all fancy and had color TV; for most of the 1950s and even on into the 1960s, all we saw was something like this:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/RCA_Indian_Head_test_pattern.JPG/312px-RCA_Indian_Head_test_pattern.JPG


This was preceded by a picture of something like the Statue of Liberty and the obligatory National Anthem, although a couple of stations played other songs in addition; one station in San Francisco played "America The Beautiful" sung by the glorious voice of Mahalia Jackson...

One thing about early TV I remember is how some stations showed movies; before the advent of video recording, programs broadcast live were often filmed by means of placing a film camera in front of a TV monitor, a process called Kine-Scope; conversely, films were broadcast by placing a TV camera in front of a film screen; I recall times when a movie on TV would suddenly freeze and the picture frame would either tear to shreds or melt down; these occasions would be immediately followed by a "Please Stand By" card. IIRC, KRON-TV in San Francisco had a particular problem with self-destructing films...

You and i have something in common there. My grandfather was in the Merchant Marines and by his sheer diligence and efforts worked his way up as well, he retired as a captain for American Heavy Lift shortly after i was born, he retired to Florida and my family lived here in Texas which afforded us little time together, i had a lot of respect for him and enjoyed what little time we had together and would have liked to have known him better.

...

He captained the MV John Henry and the MV Paul Bunyan



My Dad started out as a teenager on small freighters and tramp steamer in Central America. As I said, he started as a wiper, the lowest rating on merchants at the time. He worked hard, scraped up his savings, got into Merchant Marine school, eventually (IIRC, it was called the Calhoun School or Academy), and worked his way up to his Chief's License. Not too bad for a guy who had only a few years of formal education. You can"t really do that sort of bootstrapping, nowadays; I have real respect for anyone, in any field, who came up the ranks in the Old School manner. My dad tended to work the Pacific Coast, mainly; I remember him shipping out on a variety of lines, both freight and passenger; some line names are long gone and some still hang on: American President Line, Matson, Grace, the Bear Line, etc. He kept up on his dues paying for a couple of the unions he passed through in his work history, mainly the Oiler's and Fireman's union, just in case worked dried up and he need to fall back to a lesser rating; only people who have lived through poverty could have that sense of foresight...

Growing up in San Francisco, I could tell what line a ship was by the paint on her stacks. I only had one real conversation with my father and it was just about the last; it was quite amicable and I learned a bit more about him than I knew before and it opened my eyes to things I had been unaware of before. When I last spoke with him, he had just gone through a bit of a dilemma; he actually had been a crew member of the SS Mayageuz when it was captured by the Cambodians at the end of the Vietnam War; he spent a couple of days as a prisoner before Ford sent in the Marines to free the crew. Given all he had to endure in his life up to that point, I really do hope he found peace and happiness in his later years.; he deserved at least that much...

Thinking about phone service in days gone by brought to mind a particular oddity of service in San Francisco: a special phone exchange was set up in Chinatown and staffed with women operators fluent in Cantonese dialect; this was when they still had plug switchboards and the ladies were highly knowledgeable about Chinatown and its inhabitants; very often, particularly with the elderly Chinese, they would be asked to be put through to a party, not by number, but by something like, "Please connect me with Mr. Wong on Waverly Place, you know, Fan Wong's eldest son", and the operator knew exactly where to route the call...



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[Gargamel]

Platapus has it right, this generation gap thing happens every generation. Multiple studies have shown this, and it's all based upon observer's bias. Basically, people will remember the negative things you see, rather than the good. You see younger people acting differently then you remember doing so, and opposed to how you think they should act, and you remember that. You see just as many younger people acting they way they are expected to act, and you don't remember them as well because they don't stand out to you. Younger people are faster to adopt new technologies and cultural shifts, so they appear different, mysterious almost.

No generation is any worse off than the previous, relatively speaking. There will always be those who bring down each generation, there will always be those who lift it up. In today's world though, it's much easier to see, and remember, the former, while taking the latter for granted.

I see it too, I have caught my self saying "Those damn kids". While it may be a recurring thing, it still occurs to every generation, and still affects us.

[GoldenRivet]

I see it too, I have caught my self saying "Those damn kids". While it may be a recurring thing, it still occurs to every generation, and still affects us.

My wife used to ask me what my expectations are.

simple. when i say to a 20 year old feed the dog, take out the trash and hold my flashlight or help me work on something on the car for about 10 minutes. i don't mean say "ok just a minute" and then spend the next 45 minutes on some imaginary skyrim quest while i stand there waiting.

It doesnt happen as much as it used to. but i used to have to remind her, that, as a flight instructor, im used to working with a whole other type of 16-20 year old.

the kind who are motivated to do well, who borrow mom's car to come to the airport after school, leave the airport after the lesson and go feed the neighbor's livestock, and then drive to their evening job where they will work until 9pm on a weeknight just to make a few coins. the kind who, knocks on the door of my house unexpectedly and asks for help with a writing assignment or history assignment which is something i am glad to do. the kid who after 2-3 months of that sweat and toil shows up in their own car.

sure its a piece of crap

sure its got 97,000 miles and the A/C needs work, but they pinched their hard earned pennies to pay for it themselves. they didn't rely on mommy or daddy or gampa. and they are proud of it.

so sure, when i've worked with those types of kids, i guess it does make the bitter disappointment even worse when i see one in the same age group with their pants around their ankles just sitting around burning cigarettes and precious time

if that makes me a curmudgeon old ass, well, so be it

id rather be a curmudgeon old ass than a spoiled little...

the hope is, that most of them will come around and make something worthwhile of the world, and themselves.

[Commander Wallace]

Well, if you're going to insult me and accuse me of being reasonable, I'll leave in a huff...make that a minute and a huff...

I had a vague recollection of seeing something some months back on a TV news report about breast cancer cases in women who stored the mobiles in their bras. I found this link on that subject:

http://ehtrust.org/key-issues/cell-phoneswireless/cell-phones-and-breast-cancer/



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Well, if you can't insult friends, who else can you insult. :03:

I hadn't Heard of cell phones being kept in bras and it seems a strange place to keep them a cell phone or anything else for that matter. I'm sure this was the brainchild of law firms like U.R. Screwed and others to catch cheating husbands in the act. :D

Interesting read nonetheless. Thanks for posting the link. :salute:

[em2nought]

Millennials are like a virus infecting the older generations as well. I swear I get so much useless communication from so many bored, lonely, or other people that I can hardly get any physical work done anymore. It's not like my generation was born to multi task anyway.

I'd like an app that communicates with all these people in a way that they think it's actually me talking/texting/emailing/etc with them. At the end of the day it could filter out all the crap and just give me anything really really really important. I'd pay big $ for an app like that. :D

[Onkel Neal]

Well, if the current Millennial generation are spoiled, soft, easily-distracted and lazy, I blame the parents--my generation.

But don't give up hope, a lot of them will grow up and turn out ok.

[Sailor Steve]

Well, you were all fancy and had color TV;
I'm actually just a smidgeon older than you (if that word doesn't date me, nothing will), and since my dad was an airline pilot we had a color TV early on. I remember my dad explaining that it was best to adjust the color during a commercial or a football game, as they had the biggest stake in showing accurate colors.

Today? I know my monitor has adjustments, but in five years I've never had occasion to use them.

[vienna]

Something probably unknown to those born in the 70s or 80s is NBC was owned by the RCA corporation, who, besides owning the TV network, manufactured and sold a wide range of electronic consumer products, among them, television sets. When color TV went into wide use, RCA had NBC (it kind of gets like alphabet soup) originate programming to highlight the benefits of the new color TVs, sold by RCA; therefore the network became an ongoing advertisement for the product of its parent company. One of the first major network shows to go color was "Bonanza". If you watch the old shows, Michael Landon wears a green corduroy jacket for most of the series; he hated the color and the jacket, but RCA insisted since it was a means of showcasing the new color TV sets...

Having a TV set in San Francisco was a challenge, in terms of reception; the city is a mass of hills and valleys and unless you had a clear line of sight to the transmitter, reception could be spotty at best; when color came along, it wasn't uncommon to see the colors on the screen bleed or shift...

You mention the adjustment controls on your monitor or set. One thing people in the early days of TV technology has to deal with was a host of various knobs and adjustments: vertical hold, horizontal hold, contrast, brightness, volume, channel, and, if you had a color TV, add on all the usual suspects: hue, separate adjustments for RGB, intensity and more. If your tweaks and adjustments didn't work out right, well, there's always the fallback of the sharp open hand whack to the side or top of the set case. Now, when you buy a set or monitor, you may have to make a few tweaks to taste, but, generally, you just plug it in and go. Another change is the longevity of sets; a set in the 50s and 60s was a bit of a major investment, so set repair was a thriving industry; I recall even supermarkets and other such stores had little kiosks where a person could buy replacement vacuum tubes, if you wanted to risk trying to repair a set yourself; now, if a set or monitor goes bad, you just chuck it and get a new one; its way less expensive than repairing it and, even if you wanted to, there are precious few places to do the repairs. For millennials, it is a disposable culture; something goes bad or wrong?...buy a new one...



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[Sailor Steve]

there's always the fallback of the sharp open hand whack to the side or top of the set case.
What's hard to believe is that sometimes that actually worked.

I recall even supermarkets and other such stores had little kiosks where a person could buy replacement vacuum tubes...
Ours was the local Save-On drug store. On top of the rack was a tube-tester, because you weren't always sure which one it was. Take them all and test them until you found the one that didn't work.

if you wanted to risk trying to repair a set yourself;
And everybody did. Build-it-yourself kit radios were the rage for awhile, too.

[vienna]

What's hard to believe is that sometimes that actually worked.

One of the local TV stations here in Los Angeles was one of the original pioneering TV broadcasters and celebrated its anniversary a few years back with a special documenting their history and achievements. One of the stories they told was this: the station was apparently either the first, or one of the very first, to televise a live sporting event. Aside from the immense TV cameras, they had a very large truck packed with all sorts of gear; along with the gear, a highly skilled technician from the equipment manufacturer was present to deal with any equipment problems. At one point during the broadcast, a monitor in the truck suddenly went amok and the picture turned into a wildly changing set of patterns; panic ensued except for the factory technician who had fallen asleep earlier and was pretty much out cold. The station employees roused the technician who cleared his eyes, got up from his chair, walked over to the monitor, studied it for a few seconds and intoned: "This can be fixed with the RCA Technique". The station employees crowded around the technician and the monitor, eager to learn this mysterious "RCA Technique". The technician studied the monitor for a few more seconds, then reared back his arm and slapped the monitor with his hand; the picture cleared...

The "RCA Technique"...



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[BarracudaUAK]

...
You mention the adjustment controls on your monitor or set. One thing people in the early days of TV technology has to deal with was a host of various knobs and adjustments: vertical hold, horizontal hold, contrast, brightness, volume, channel, and, if you had a color TV, add on all the usual suspects: hue, separate adjustments for RGB, intensity and more.
...


Been there done that.
My earlier CRT computer monitors too. :D


...
If your tweaks and adjustments didn't work out right, well, there's always the fallback of the sharp open hand whack to the side or top of the set case.
...
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...
The "RCA Technique"...

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I've also heard this referred to as "Percussive Maintenance".


Barracuda

[Platapus]

Ours was the local Save-On drug store. On top of the rack was a tube-tester, because you weren't always sure which one it was. Take them all and test them until you found the one that didn't work.



Yikes that brought back memories. I remember Sav-0n drug stores with tube testers.

[em2nought]

What's hard to believe is that sometimes that actually worked.

Still does on DVD drawers, and car starters/solenoids. Too bad a good wack doesn't work on most people. :D

[Von Due]

The Wack, a tested and true method. I remember my grandma's old telly with these fancy touch buttons for channel selection. Of course they stopped working after a couple of decades until we discovered the secret:
Channel 1: Touch the Ch1 button and give the telly a firm fist at the top of the right side panel.
Channel 2: Touch the Ch2 button and slap the telly a little lower on the right hand side, just below and perhaps a little to the left of the Ch 1 punch.
Channel 3: Ch3 and a good punch about the center of the right hand side panel
etc etc

It worked until the telly was so tired of our abuse it finally went to the electronic junkyard in the heavens.

[Tango589]

What's hard to believe is that sometimes that actually worked.
It didn't when I tried it once. The tv started showing nothing but green instead of the usual aesthetically pleasing colours. I tried a bit of 'impact maintenance' and the screen completely died. Oh well.:-?

[vienna]

The Wack, a tested and true method. I remember my grandma's old telly with these fancy touch buttons for channel selection. Of course they stopped working after a couple of decades until we discovered the secret:
Channel 1: Touch the Ch1 button and give the telly a firm fist at the top of the right side panel.
Channel 2: Touch the Ch2 button and slap the telly a little lower on the right hand side, just below and perhaps a little to the left of the Ch 1 punch.
Channel 3: Ch3 and a good punch about the center of the right hand side panel
etc etc

It worked until the telly was so tired of our abuse it finally went to the electronic junkyard in the heavens.

Perhaps it might have worked if you had simultaneously preformed the "Hokey Pokey" (or "Hokey Cokey", for you lot on the far side of The Pond):

"Put your [left foot] in
Put your [left foot] out
Put your [left foot] in
And shake it all about..."...



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