The I'm getting old thread of despair and hope. - The Bear and Badger

Billy

I went to view a couple of primary schools recently as our kid will be starting in September, and i was really surprised by how much things have changed. Many classrooms had a few tablets as learning tools, and some classrooms had giant 55 inch tvs that are touchscreen. The head teacher was very enthusiastic about the use of technology but the 'demo' they had organised for us was one kid learning to write his name on the giant touchscreen, i'm sure they do other stuff with it but it seemed like a massive expense just to get one kid at a time to practise writing his name with his finger.

The tablets seemed to be more of a distraction during the brief time i was in that classroom, the teacher was working hard to keep the kids focussed on the lesson but some of the kids kept gravitating towards the tablets on another table and they weren't even on.

/old

Wookienopants

First: agree that there's value in both, my point was simply that a lot of kids I speak with nowadays (I work in primary schools most days) don't know how to go out and play. For a lot of them they tell me that they go home, plonk themselves on the sofa and that's it. There's value in going out and actually playing, that's all. Just saddened by how many times I ask kids when's the last time you went out and played with friends and get told "oh, I don't, mum doesn't let me" etc.

Second: I grew up in and around Epping forest so was extremely fortunate. I was merely using my childhood as an example, not saying it's right just that's what I had. My point though was that we seem to have a generation growing up who have never had those opportunities to go play in nature.
If it's by circumstance of location then fair enough but there's enough access to fields, forests and the great outdoors for everyone.

Third: yes, I teach martial arts but that's to what... A tiny tiny percentage of the local population. Less that 0.01%? So yea, I'm doing my part to enrich the lives of kids through gameplay, sport, exercise, self discipline, confidence building and a sense of achievement.

Fourth: all I was saying is that kids should be encouraged to be kids! To play and interact and create in their way, not saying chuck every kid out in the forest and say "Go BE FREE CHILD!"
That worked for us and it was great, rather I'm just suggesting that kids should be allowed to explore their surroundings and boundaries, allowed to create and make their own fun, allowed to get hurt and to fuck up and allowed to learn to get the fuck over it. That's all

Skondo

I'm 44 and find 99% of the population disappointing and the majority of the remaining 1% irritating. Aside from this I'm quite an affable chap.

Wookienopants

Skondo wrote:

I'm 44 and find 99% of the population disappointing and the other 1% irritate me. Aside from this I'm quite an affable chap.

Sounds like we'd get on if we didn't both find other people disappointing or irritating! Lol

Funkstain

Wookienopants wrote:

[stuff]

Yes but the point is, when you put it like you just did, it sounds much less judgmental, much less unrealistic, much less dogmatic.

poprock

g.man wrote:

There definitely comes a time in life when all the bullshit that annoys you just fades away into insignificance and just lets you get on with life. It's been a pleasant surprise really.

Yep. The day my ex-wife moved hundreds of miles away.

(Flippant post, but I couldn’t resist.)

g.man

heh

trippy

Like many here I am 36.

36 is a square triangular number so I'm happy. Things may get a little rough when I turn 37.

Wookienopants

Funkstain wrote:

Wookienopants wrote:

[stuff]

Yes but the point is, when you put it like you just did, it sounds much less judgmental, much less unrealistic, much less dogmatic.

Oh of course. I was just ranting and that does come across as judgemental, I can see that.
im quite a nice calm person but when I'm passionate about something I tend to get very emotionally charged, I just feel a sense of frustration that no doubt every generation feels about the next, that the next generation is losing something or forgetting something that made the previous generation what it is.
No doubt our parents felt it and their parents felt it too.

Tempy

After some sleepy deliberation I'm firmly in the camp that, by and large for leisure input we're in the utter golden age. More music, films, literature, comics, games and non-fiction at our fingertips than ever before - the 'good old days' of cinema have been replaced by the ability to do a tiny amount of digging to unleash rich, dazzling seams of national cinema and unscreened gems from decades past. Music is largely similar, it's hard to be sad that there aren't a hundred amazing new releases to your taste every year when you can go down musical rabbit holes via a simple google search. The ubiquity of good shit is so oppressive that with a little organisation no living human should ever be bored until death.

Also I hate all the old people because they have made the future an upward struggle and a select few are trying to dismantle the rickety stairs that might help the rest of us up, so thank fuck for all that entertainment, I think I'll need it.

Funkstain

Future generations don't lose anything, neither do they learn anything. They are merely the same as your generation, and all past generations.

Funkstain

That's the spirit temps.

[Deleted User]

Tempy wrote:

@cinty 28 yo, not even left uni yet.

Man, you are well ~~hung~~ young. I thought it was me after Petey but you're actually a bit younger. 20-somethings unite!

Skondo

Wookienopants wrote:

Skondo wrote:

I'm 44 and find 99% of the population disappointing and the other 1% irritate me. Aside from this I'm quite an affable chap.

Sounds like we'd get on if we didn't both find other people disappointing or irritating! Lol

I should add that I am socially inept. This doesn't help.

Tempy

At least when I'm dying of a disease that would be cured in days under the free NHS, living in a grimy uber hostel built for those of us who didn't bootstrap ourselves to fuck, I'll be able to fondly remember these four years of uni.

Tempy

Childintime wrote:

Tempy wrote:

@cinty 28 yo, not even left uni yet.

Man, you are well ~~hung~~ young. I thought it was me after Petey but you're actually a bit younger. 20-somethings unite!

Yup I'm surrounded by people in their early 20s too and I haven't aged a day in 5 years (physically or mentally)

Wookienopants

Tempy wrote:

At least when I'm dying of a disease that would be cured in days under the free NHS, living in a grimy uber hostel built for those of us who didn't bootstrap ourselves to fuck, I'll be able to fondly remember these four years of uni.

Fuck. If we lose the NHS... Another reason why I worry about our future

Funkstain

Right - and that will be our fault, and not the next generation's.

Yossarian

I largely agree with Temp's assessment of culture with the exception of music. I genuinely believe that innovation in music has become stymied by a lack of innovation in music tech (aside from music sharing tech which doesn't impact on the actual music itself). Most new styles of music were brought about by new instruments or new technology, and without those innovations, it's hard to do anything genuinely different.

Of course, you do still have access to everything that came before, but having access to the complete, recorded output of a band who you can no longer see live, or, if you can, spend half of the gig playing crap off their later, weaker albums, isn't much of a replacement.

If I could still be arsed to make music, I'd consider ditching the twelve note scale entirely in order to try and do something new.

Wookienopants

Funkstain wrote:

Right - and that will be our fault, and not the next generation's.

Yea. Agreed. Hence my dislike for people of our generation too

Tempy

I don't think music needs big leaps forth in innovation to remain interesting, but then again pretty much most of my favourite music is from the 90s and i'd argue that's where the end of innovation in tech began.

Also live music is often painfully expensive, and can be pointless for reasons stated. At least with new bands it's cheap and they're likely to play what you want to hear, being new and all.

Kow

Lol at fuckers taking about getting old before even being 30.

Mid life crisis time for me.

Kow

Shit, I've just realised it's probably actually a two thirds life crisis. Aaargh.

g.man

Yossarian

Tempy wrote:

I don't think music needs big leaps forth in innovation to remain interesting, but then again pretty much most of my favourite music is from the 90s and i'd argue that's where the end of innovation in tech began.

Agreed. The (early) 90s was the time when computers became powerful enough for people to be able to set up a decent recording studio at home which led to a flurry of experimentation and cross-fertilisation which hadn't been true before.

Also live music is often painfully expensive.

This may be the downside to the innovation in sharing tech, the fact that bands now make their money from touring rather than albums making concerts less accessible. It used to be that a tour was seen as a way to promote an album, now it's the other way around. When I was going to lots of gigs back in the 90s, the prices were incomparable to now, the first time I saw Radiohead at Brixton Academy just before (perhaps just after?) OK Computer came out, it cost me £14. I saw The Rolling Stones at Wembley for something in the region of £20-£25.

Gigs used to be cheap and accessible to all, not any more.

poprock

Getting older definitely lets you chill out a lot. I’ll be 40 this year and I’ve never been so relaxed or happy. I do hope it keeps getting better and better, at least for a while yet.

Some pros:
Stress is something that happens to other people.
TV gets better and better (think box-set style stuff).
The history of recorded music at the click of a button.
Being a guy, you get ever more attractive to the opposite sex as you age.

Some cons:
Reaching a ceiling on how high my salary can go without changing things up big-time.
‘Normal’ TV is utter garbage (vapid celebrity or reality nonsense).
Live music is being priced out of reach for the masses.
At my age, I finally started to put on weight. That sucks.
The UK is going to hell in a handbasket even faster than most of the Western world, thanks to the cumulative effect of historic and current Tory rule.

Speedhaak

Sometimes I catch myself in a daze whilst driving home, wondering where the last 14 years went. Staring into the rear view mirror, escaping into a fantasy land populated by worry free times where I drank, gamed and shagged my way to happiness. Then the light goes green and I carry on.

Kazuo

Tempy wrote:

@cinty 28 yo, not even left uni yet.

Man, you are well ~~hung~~ young. I thought it was me after Petey but you're actually a bit younger. 20-somethings unite!

Yup I'm surrounded by people in their early 20s too and I haven't aged a day in 5 years (physically or mentally)

Never forget: I'll always be younger than you.

Edit: Also although I'm still full of yoof and all that, the main thing that bothers me is that I'm getting worse at drinking beer for some reason. Three pints seems to be enough to almost floor me these days. Good thing we don't do as many stocks as we used to.

Tempy

I always forget you're younger because you've got so much sussed out

Kow

This isn't a game, is it?

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories