What's Wrong With This Generation?

It's rant time again. All I can say is OMG. I mean, Oh my GOD! This generation is getting so lazy these days. Have you noticed? The final straw that severed the proverbial camel's back was when I watched a trailer for the National Geographic Channel. Did you know that they are no longer called the National Geographic Channel? Nope. Way to many syllables. It's now called "Nat Geo". Are you kidding me? National Geographic Channel takes too long? Do they realize by dropping the last word (Magazine or Channel) the title isn't even proper English any more? Nat Geo has good company. Mickey D's, IHOP, KFC, BK, hell even the President of the United States' previously internal nickname POTUS is starting to go mainstream.

I think this is stemming from an overall laziness that is pervasive in this generation. If it can't be completed in under 10 minutes, it is worth procrastinating about, abbreviating, or ignoring. We're heading for a wall at 100 MPH. Am I the only one who sees this? Almost everything I've achieved in my life that was worth having took lots of time (and no insignificant amount of failure along the way) to get. This generation is so ADD ridden that they move on when gratification isn't instant enough or it doesn't come easily and that doesn't bode well for our future as a society.

At the risk of sounding like my parents, here are some of my pet peeves about this generation.

• It's "Lose" not "Loose". I know it's confuusing but not all long vowel sounds need too bee doubled up. If you fail at life, you're a loser, not a looser. Looser describes how your jeans fit after *losing* weight.
• It takes more syllables to say "WTF" than it does to say what it stands for. Yes I know it's to save typing but people are saying it now too.
• If someone asks you a question and your default response is "I don't know" or "I don't care", you fail. Take 10 seconds (throw an "um" in there if you need a stall tactic) and actually think. I know this is really hard, but pretend you're learning a new video game or something. It's bad enough that we're getting obese in this country because we sit around like the fat humans in WALL-E, but now our brains too? Take a few seconds, form an opinion and be open-minded to change it. Not too tough and your brain will thank you for the exercise. Oh, and the person who asked you the question won't think you're a lazy, illiterate, mouth breathing water head.
• If you boil all of your responses into three different words: "Ridiculous", "Snazzy", and "Unfortunate" you are missing out on a rainbow of very descriptive terms that encourage conversation much more effectively. For example, if someone spends 30-60 seconds explaining why they're frustrated and you respond with "That's unfortunate" what you're really telling that person is, "Shut the hell up."
• If someone says you seem angry and you respond with, "I'm not mad", I'd argue you haven't said anything. You're also not a chicken. Why not cut to the chase and say what you are instead of wasting both of our times with what you aren't. Stop telling me what you're not thinking, feeling and wanting.
• If you believe that everything happens TO YOU and that you're just an unfortunate punching bag for life, here is your professional victim badge. Get away from me in case it rubs off.
• No one "Makes you feel" anything. They do what they do and you feel how you feel. Try it on and see how it fits.
• If you're a person who thinks all things worth knowing can be achieved 1) Without a book, 2) On the Internet, or 3) Inside of one hour, I'm sure your boss at the construction site will agree with you. The owner of the construction company likely will not, however.
• Conversely, if you think all great things in life follow achieving a PhD, I'd suggest that you haven't fleshed out what "great things in life" means yet. There's learning while you go and there's learning instead of going. All things in moderation.
• If you need something and that something isn't nourishment, oxygen, shelter, sleep, or a bathroom, I'd suggest you've gotten priorities mixed up. If you want to watch someone from this generation go crazy, take away their cell phone. You'd think you were depriving them of life itself. Needing something makes it very powerful. How do you control someone? Control what they think they need. Want to avoid being controlled? Avoid needing things that you can't control yourself and even then, be able to drop it whenever other real needs take precedence.
• If your boss tells you that he wants to know when you're going to be in next week and you think that's too restrictive, you really should get the silver spoon out of your mouth and come down from whatever cloud you're on to plant your feet here in the real world. Slap your parents while you're at it.
• If you think you're being rebelliously different by doing stuff to your body that your parent's wouldn't, you're a follower, not a leader. Enjoy the whistling sound those giant holes in your ear lobes make while you're 82 having a double-shot, decaf, two-pump, non-fat, extra hot, vanilla latte with your friends.
• If you're under 30 and smoke, you are probably one of the stupidest people I know. You should definitely look in the mirror and decide why making Johnny like you in high school was more important than not becoming Phillip Morris' personal bitch.

I'm painting with a wide brush, I know, but it's not overly wide. If you don't believe me, go take a class at a college right now. Sit there and watch the almost pathological sense of entitlement we have put into this generation. I don't blame the kids entirely, I blame the parents. Love is not saying yes and shielding your kid from every possible thing that can go wrong. Love is teaching your kid how to cope with life as it happens. Love is paying attention to what your kids are doing instead of getting so wrapped up in your career and hobbies that they're forced to learn these skills from Grand Theft Auto. At this, it is my generation that has failed.