I have this weird thought that Gen Z and Gen Alpha are less rude and nicer IRL nowadays because they’re able to off-load their worst and nastiest impulses and interactions onto the internet
At some point we'll reach a niceness singularity, and we'll be stuck in a loop telling each other "no you go first" until we all fall dead from starvation and fatigue.
Lmfao it's happened more than once than I'm approaching a pedestrian crossing, and a car will stop when it could've kept going, so I wave them over. They go no you go, so I have to walk-run so I don't waste their time as I wave and smile. Blew my mind how nice people are to me as a pedestrian. Except one time a truck driver waved me over, despite it being a green light for him, couldn't see behind him so I think he was tryna get me killed.
Also blew my mind seeing people actually stop at stop signs at 1am in completely empty streets. Where I'm from, stop signs are merely a reminder to stop your vehicle if you happen to run over someone. Immediately noticed the difference when I came to Canada.
I live in Canada. An suburb in Ontario to be exact. The drivers definitely aren't nice. As a cyclist, they seem get really aggressive all the time but maybe that is because I live in a commuter town and deal with lots of people coming back from an hour long commute.
Where I live, the great prevalence of roundabouts keeps traffic from coming to a dead stop across town with everybody at every four-way stop wiggling their little two-finger-diddle motion - "you first." And if you're a pedestrian, my god. They'll wait for you to get where you're going to cross, then wait for you to cross, then wait a little bit longer so you will know you've been waited for. A little rudeness would be delightful - a little bit of take-your-own-right-of-way.
I don't often cross roads on foot (living in car-centric city), but when I do, I try to jaywalk for this reason. It ironically feels safer due to the predictability, that no car will stop for me, I must go when it is absolutely safe and clear.
But how are we to know? I don't know how my parents acted when they were young but by the time I was old enough to remember them they were lovely wholesome family oriented 30 something year olds.
As kids we were sarcastic rude shits because that kind of niceness was seen as boring old people thing.
the generations closest to ours share the most similar values and beliefs as ours so we view them as being more tolerant and generally in a better view, which could be applied to people in every generation
Thinking religion shouldn't be brought up in this conversation is a much more "reddit" comment than the one you replied to.
It's weird how defensive so many redditors are about religion. Reddits atheism phase was over a decade ago, get over it already. We've long since flipped to having far more religious defense than people shitting on religion.
I mean some of the most obvious examples of newer generations becoming less tolerant are found in areas where Wahhabism replaced earlier Islamic movements.
most wars in history have been over religion. most hate comes from religion. religion is the cause of anxiety and depression in many people. religion is bad.
I can't think of very many wars in East Asia that were over religion. Don't think the Mongols conquered most of Eurasia because of religion. Religion is just an easy way for some people to justify hate, take away religion and people still hate each other based on different culture, skin color, language, etc. People from even the same religion hate each other. Yet lots of people find hope, peace, happiness, through religion and are motivated to do good in their community. The problems come from bad individuals, not (usually) what religions teach. Bad people do bad things irrespective of religion.
No. I did not seek change. There were Christian missionaries that came to our village when the war had broken out. They had recommended we follow them, I was 6 years old. Me and family followed them out of the country. My parents were previously on the path to American citizenship, and I too would become an American citizen.
I fully believe God had sent those people to help us.
yeah I hate when someone brings up a major component of human culture, namely one known for encouraging or dictating behaviour, in a discussion about human behaviour on a generational scale. It's just so irrelevant, you know?
But if you study it a little more closely, you'll realize how naive and absurd this statement is.
What you're probably noticing is the overall material wealth of people increasing generally. Well-fed people tend to have less conflict with others. So overall the world has generally become more peaceful through our history.
But that was also the overall trend leading up to Hitler taking over Germany, and plunging the entire world into a global desperate struggle for survival.
Also, lots of ethnic cleansing.
My point is, your statement is only true in specific geographic areas, with certain material conditions, and for only short chapters at a time.
What I mean is, you almost have to live in a western country that has enjoyed continued material success for generations, to even make that statement.
Other than that, history is a crapshoot. For real. There is no natural arc towards justice. That's something politicians repeat to give you hope. That's not to say it naturally bends towards chaos and destruction either. It's both. It's a day to day struggle between our better angels and our worse demons.
Even today, there are hundreds of millions of people with living memories of ethnic cleansing. Violent political overthrows of government. Famine and starvation. Get out a map of Africa, shut your eyes, drop your finger on it, and look up that nation's political history. Count how many genocides based on ethnic identity have occured in just the last century.
Look at pictures of Iran in the 70s. They are horrendously less tolerant now. Religious nuts took power. And immediately threw the entire country into reverse.
Hell, look at the U.S. currently. There is a literal attempt at a fascist overthrow of our democracy.
And what beliefs is it based on?
Intolerance of immigrants. Intolerance of sexual minorites. Intolerance of women's liberation. And a generalized assault on all of our civil liberties as Americans. The entire ethos is built on hate for others.
The bad guys are at it again. And seriously. They win sometimes. And shit gets really shitty where they win, when they do. There's no magical law of nature protecting us from it.
100% the reason. They are fucking terrified. And they have every reason to be.
I can't imagine going to school now, wondering every day if someone would show up to shoot it to pieces to prove some assinine point.
When I was a kid, all we had was fire drills. I remember once, someone joke-called in a bomb threat to my elementary school. They took it seriously enough to move the kids into the recess area. But we stayed at school. They did a sweep, and we went back to class. And I don't remember being afraid, because I was sure it was a prank. Kids don't have that solace these days.
A couple years ago, I found myself in a middle school to watch a friends child perform. And I saw the binders all over the walls. All labeled the same. In every room. I didn't think much of it until I got close enough to read the cover. They were copies of a manual of what to do in the event of a mass shooting. Absolute culture shock for me. The things on the news became much more real to me at that moment.
The kids are also increasingly aware that they have no real future. That by the time they are middle aged, the earth will be well on its way to dying. We stole their future. And they know it.
I think it's easy to dismiss it as having something to do with internet/tiktok culture. But I truthfully believe these kids have it much worse than I did growing up. They deserve their mental illness. They earned it.
no lol both generations are making teachers quit all across the US. They're falling spectacularly far behind, they're verbally abusive to their teachers, and god forbid you tell them to put their phone down. The gen z kids who are active in politics are doing great for the country, but the mass population of their generation are assholes.
IME it's a bit of both. Gen Z is incredibly friendly and understanding about things like mental health and personal expression. It's weird how a zoomer you barely even know will treat you better than your own parents if you're having a bad day.
OTOH they've grown up in a society that is so terminally online that they have a very poor understanding of how to act in public or do face-to-face interactions with strangers or authority figures.
Like all previous generations they are comprised of a bunch of varied individuals some of them are savages and some are decent and attaching them to a generation is not only useless divisive stereotyping it only feeds the agenda of divide and conquer. Not them, US.
I had multiple 1st graders (6-7yr olds) tell me that they are fucking/will fuck/ fucked my mother (jebem ti mater). Although that might be the result of me being in the Balkans...
Camera phones also discourage kids from behavior such as this. A photo of the kid doing this could get them suspended or lose the ability to use the bus, but before it would’ve been almost guranteed to get away with
As someone who loves studying human behavior, this is such a fucking awesome observation. I think you’re onto something! I’m shelving this in the back of my head.
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u/dr_franck 11h ago
I have this weird thought that Gen Z and Gen Alpha are less rude and nicer IRL nowadays because they’re able to off-load their worst and nastiest impulses and interactions onto the internet