Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : The world is changing... bad changes or good?


EricG1793
08-06-2007, 08:12 AM
We all know that the world is changing. Global warming, yes. Continental Drift... extremely slow; we don't notice a thing in our own lifetimes, but, yes, it is happening. But what I'm talking about is our own behavior. In someways it's getting better as the years go on, but in more ways it's getting worse.

Let's talk about how we're getting better first. We have been getting better and better in terms of medical treatment. For example, back in the Civil War (Excuse me if you don't live in the United States; I'm using an example that I am pretty knowledgeable about) medical treatment was HORRIBLE! The surgeons did not clean their tools between patients, they didn't wash their own hands before they did a surgery, etc. So most people ended up dieing in the hospital rather than leaving it healthy. Nowadays, and for a very long time we've seen the importance of keeping medical supplies clean, so now more people live in hospitals, or at a war hospital, even. It seems as though there's less violence, say, in high school in terms of people beating other people up. It also seems as though there are less people on drugs, too. Education seems to be getting better, more thorough.

All right, now for the bad stuff that's going on in the world. Wow, this is going to be long!

Shootings, robberies, etc. are definitely skyrocketing; that's the first thing I think of. All of the big factories, like computer companies, car companies... just aren't making their products good, to last as long as they possibly can anymore, and things are just getting more and more expensive. Greed. Evil greed, that's what's going on. People are always in a rush to go somewhere. People apparently don't have time, are too lazy, etc. to make a good homecooked meal, so they're more and more processed food. Research what processed food does to the body. And yes, as I said before, there is Global Warming and Continental Drift. People are just getting... oh, I don't know, antisocial. My grandfather has his microwave right above the stove, and it has a vent. When the vent is on, whatever's cooking, the smell goes outside, and there's a beach on a lake down there. My grandfather said once that people used to come up and say that the food smelled so good, so they'd give those people some of the food... but that doesn't happen anymore. Once a few days ago my mom, a friend, and I had gone out to a lake that we have always liked. It's in a state forest, and in it they have a rock island. You can take a ten minute hike or so out to the rock island, and when you get there there's a massive rock, right next to the water, and there are a couple places where you can jump off the rock and in to the water. Right next to that big rock, there's a smaller rock that has an incline, where the little kids play there and slide down the rock. And about fifty feet in to the water there's another rock that you can jump off of, where the water's really deep. But the last time we went... there were dozens of older, rowdy teenagers there, dominaing all three of the rocks, swearing, singing dirty songs, smoking, littering... that's the last time we are going there. And the water had gotten dirty and kind of smelly. Now, all three of the lakes around, which used to be pristine and clear, and dirty, and in this one's case, dominated by rowdy older teenagers. We don't know where to swim now! And we don't have a pool either.

I don't think the education system is getting any better, either. Instead of spending time learning concepts, such as WHY the Civil War started, we're memorizing dates and names. And teachers are probably the people who have the most important job in a country, also the hardest job. Yet, they aren't paid like the famous celebrities that have absolutely no function in the world. And you look at football players, baseball players... they get paid MILLIONS to play a game!

Well, that was part of my rampage about the world changing. I'll talk about more after there's more discussion on I already mentioned, and things that I mention probably will lead up to more ideas and topics. I started another thread just like this one and we really had some great discussion... I'm really interested in hearing what all of my fellow members here at Webdeveloper.com think!

The Old Sarge
08-06-2007, 09:20 AM
Are shootings and robberies really skyrocketing, or are we just hearing about more of them? The media tends to follow hotbutton items.

School shootings are definitly (IMO) on the rise since I was a teen, but I attribute that to the general attitude of some of our young people and what they are (or are not) taught about guns, violence in general, conflict resolution, etc. When I was a teen, if you went on a shooting rampage, you were either shot yourself or you went to prison for a very, very long time. Nowadays it seems everyone wants to talk about "Why did he do that?", "What can we do to help/understand the poor guy?" and "We need to ban guns." instead of dealing with the individual that committed the crime.

IMO, we are so absorbed in the "whys" and "why nots" that we have lost the ability to deal with the problem itself. We have lost sight of the root causes of the problems. It's like a doctor treating the symtoms instead of the illness.

EricG1793
08-06-2007, 09:31 AM
Wow, that's the fastest I've ever seen anyone reply to a thread I've created. Cool!

Now to get back to the topic, even though I am a "young person" as you say, I agree with what you're saying. The rate of school shootings is definitely going up, amongst other violences amongst high school kids. (I am in Middle School so it's easier for me to say that than if I were in high school, exposed and used to it)

potterd64
08-06-2007, 07:21 PM
All of the big factories, like computer companies, car companies... just aren't making their products good, to last as long as they possibly can anymore, and things are just getting more and more expensive.
I don't know if computers ever had a reputation for lasting a long time, but I know at least home appliances did. You're right, the newer appliances break easier than they used to :( . My Toyota runs really well though, just avoid the American cars :cool:

People are always in a rush to go somewhere. People apparently don't have time ... People are just getting... oh, I don't know, antisocial.
I think a lot of blame can be put on the Internet for this. Society is becoming connected through technology and gadgets and is foregoing the less convenient, more personal ways of communicating. I think the Internet provides a ton of positives though to out-weigh this negative.


And yes, as I said before, there is Global Warming and Continental Drift.
I'm not sure Continental Drift is a huge concern at the moment. Global Warming is, as is the energy crisis, and these are things we'll all have to cooperate on to solve. The energy crisis will require a major international effort, it'll probably get very bad before anyone puts the required effort in.

Yet, they aren't paid like the famous celebrities that have absolutely no function in the world. And you look at football players, baseball players... they get paid MILLIONS to play a game!
Well now lets not go so far to say they have absolutely no function :p It is a shame that they get paid more than 20 teachers put together but celebrities and athletes entertain the hell out of us. Movies and sports contribute a lot to our culture.

EricG1793
08-07-2007, 10:08 AM
I don't know if computers ever had a reputation for lasting a long time, but I know at least home appliances did. You're right, the newer appliances break easier than they used to . My Toyota runs really well though, just avoid the American cars

I don't think that computers are lasting as long as they used to. My sister has an eight year old ThinkPad, and physically, it's really scratched up and it has one crack near the docking port, and wear on the keyboard, but the hinges are still really tight, it's really solid, it has a great cooling system.... But my dad's three year old Dell laptop is really unsturdy, like you press down on the screen while it's closed and it creaks and sinks down, and the screen kind of rocks back and forth at every movement when it's open because the hinges really aren't secure. Once it was in his laptop bag, and he set the bag down on a table in a hotel room, and the bag fell over, and now there's a nice big crack in the top of the screen lid, where the front and back panels connect, you can almost see the wires inside.... And there's also a crack in the palmnest. Dells used to be the best you could buy, but they've really been digressing over the past five years or so. Although I think that HP computers are getting better; more solid, better value for the money, nicer looking, and they seem to last longer. (I suppose I'm biased; I have my own, and am typing on, HP Pavilion DV2000Z and I love it a lot. Although the hard drive gets hotter than most laptops that I've felt (never above 55 C, though), but that's Fujitsu's fault. :p

But anyway....

And appliances are getting to be less well built, I definitely agree, as lately we have been upgrading our appliances. The motor on our old Whirlpool dryer burned out, so my dad decided to just replace it, and if he was going to replace the dryer, might as well replace the washer as well. So we get brand new Whirlpools. The temperature control knob on the washer wasn't keeping the temperature correctly upon arrival, so we had to have that replaced. Although now that I think about it, the fact that the people who installed them got the water inlets pipes crossed, that probably made it malfunction and damage it.... But we got that replaced and it's been OK since then.

*Long, airy sigh* And our dishwasher... the old one wasn't cleaning as well as it had been, and finally the temperature boost feature wasn't working, so there was lukewarm water trying to wash the dishes (our water gets lukewarm after about a gallon of water coming out, even in the shower; it's terrible). So my dad decided to get a new one. We installed the dishwasher ourselves. We turned it on for the first time and water sprayed around everywhere underneath it, and we demanded a new one. The second one, we just started connecting the electrical cord to the dishwasher end, and I realized there was a big crack in the right leg. There was spring pressure pulling near there, too, from the door, so eventually the pressure would tear the leg right off. So we demanded a third one.... My dad was traveling on business, so I installed it (I had seen it done twice, and the water inlet hose was already connected to the house supply end, and the water outlet hose was already connected to the house drainpipes). Then I realized that this one was defective, too. On the front steel panel, where the front legs are, the panel screws in to the plastic frame. And where the screw was in, the panel had been bent, and the screw got ripped out of the hole, and the hole was damaged. It made the dishwasher unlevel. My mom and I didn't think this would be a big problem, so I kept installing it anyway. My dad came home and made a bit of fuss over the defect, but decided it was OK and we pushed it in. So three dishwashers, all defective. And I'm sure that it'll only get worse as time goes on....

toicontien
08-10-2007, 06:19 PM
Nothing's changing. History, both human and geophysical, keeps repeating itself. The earth heats up, it cools down. Species come into existence. They get obliterated. Humans start wars. Humans end them. Human civilization rises, it falls (think Roman empire, followed by the Dark Ages). Then rises again (think Renaissance). Countries are conquered. Countries are freed. The earth revolves on its axis. It spins around the sun in circles. Our sun spins around the center of our galaxy. The universe expands outward, and some scientists think it will eventually collapse again to form another big bang. Nothing changes, because change insinuates something is different than all previous times. Things just oscillate.

And now it's time for dinner so I can poop 6 hours for now. :D

gmpredut
08-11-2007, 05:29 AM
Tehnology it's changing in good day by day.Other things like nature are changing in bad...

EricG1793
09-01-2007, 12:47 PM
What about the educational system? Do you think it's getting better off or worse?

I'm not really sure myself... in the whole country it seems to be getting worse, but this school year in my school a number of wonderful things have been done so it's better than it ever has been....