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AJshep

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I was having a chat with a customer the other day about all the apprentices I've worked with over the last few years, and how Ive found them to be stuck to their phones and lazy. They recommended this video to me. Its a few years old and I'm sure many if you will have seen it but I really think this guy nails it, so thought I'd share it here.
 
Is it just apprentices?

When I go to the wholesalers and see other sparks supposedly working, there's always one on a phone, coffee in hand.... another chatting about football or girls and someone else taking the mick out of the young lad behind the counter.
These are time served guys, everyone over the age of 20.

Is it the phones to blame or the fact that we're not allowed to give them a kick up the backside to get them moving.
 
A very succint precis of the maladies related to electronic gear and children and adults. It seems to identify some very cogent reasons not to encourage this in children. Looking after four grandchildren I have to be very careful as to how they are using technology. I have managed to herd them (like cats mostly) into not using the tech, and getting bored then finally finding something to do with a cardboard box and scissors, play chess, monopoly and scrabble. Their peers are on tech straight from school to bedtime and in the morning before school. Denial of tech leads to tantrums. Trainees I have supervised are strictly forbidden to be on phones during work at pain of being sent off site. Being old school with the spinning top as a kid and home made bow and arrow I would not even entertain the thought of children getting lost to tech and interacting through tech to have "relationships" My own daughter said a boy (man???) saw her and instead of approaching her he contacted her through facebook. Sheesh! I think his analysis is good but in no way goes far enough, it is much deeper than that and is a societal ill.
 
I works some security at the weekends and the youngsters on the doors or working the reception or bars are always on their phones.
Like literally every 30 seconds they are on the phone looking st Facebook or snap chat.
To them it’s an extension to their right hand.
 
Is it just apprentices?

When I go to the wholesalers and see other sparks supposedly working, there's always one on a phone, coffee in hand.... another chatting about football or girls and someone else taking the mick out of the young lad behind the counter.
These are time served guys, everyone over the age of 20.

Is it the phones to blame or the fact that we're not allowed to give them a kick up the backside to get them moving.
He aint wrong
 
When i was an apprentice i had one spark who thought it was ok to have us do the work whilst he sat on his toolbox playing games and checking social media
 
There are plenty of good young people eager to work an keen.

There was plenty of dossers whilst I trained and went to school in my generation, an seen plenty in the generation above an below me.

It's not a new thing that, just maybe more noticeable. Rose tinted glasses me thinks.
 
Having been self employed for a few years now I'm a little eout of touch, but when I was last employed full time we were not allowed to use personal phones outside of our breaks, does this still happen?
 
I remember an old school teacher I had, that used to write in to the local papers letters page on all sorts of subjects he was a bit eccentric but an interesting bloke reminded me of a quirky Michael Palin.

He wrote about the attitude of youngsters, being obsessed with image, lack of any respect, spoilt laziness of kids with too much money and free time to waste on idle things etc and I thought yup he's nailed it

Then at the very end he finished off with the fact that this quotation was written 2000 odd years ago by some Roman roughly 100 years before the collapse of Rome

So nothing new really but as they say History repeats itself so maybe a warning here somewhere
 
Youngsters learn from their elders and each generation progressively spoils the next by giving their kids what they never had!

I also remember when I was an apprentice in the early 90's all the older blokes were in their 50's complaining about how much worse my generation was than theirs,
not so much laziness but more about the football hooliganism and rave/ drug culture

A lot of these blokes grew up in rougher areas than I did but they all assumed I and all my mates carried knives robbed old ladies and did drugs etc, " You fear for your life just walking past teenagers" and the like

I'd have a few days where I'd be constantly harangued as if it was all my fault

Then they'd be talking how it was in their day

" Marvellous times but it's no life for anyone now!"

"Different girl every night "

"You could leave a good job in the morning and have a better one the same day"

"You'd have a fight shake hands and that was it done"

I'd ask stuff like were you a mod or rocker?

Some were, Mods, Rockers, Teddy boys, Smoothies etc

Then out came the stories of fist fights
en masse, bike chains, switchblades and cutthroat razors in jacket lapels

But of course no one ever got hurt back in the good old days it was just a bit of fun!
 
I believe that the Prevention of Crime Act 1953 in respect of offensive weapons / knives etc came about due to increase in stabbings during the ‘Teddy Boy’ era...some things never change. Agree, that smart phones are a major issue and must account for thousands of hours of lost productivity.
 
In my humble opinion, I reckon most of the so called problem with many of the "younger Generation" is an !I want it now" problem.
There are some who aren't prepared to work towards a career in whatever discipline. they want the rewards without any effort on their part.
This is not true of all of the youngsters, I have worked with many apprentices/trainees who are keen to learn and willing to wait, it's the Minority that curse the Majority I'm afraid, a sad fact but sadly true.
 
I don’t know that it’s just the younger generation that has the ‘I want it now’ syndrome.
I think that syndrome has been around now for many years.
People don’t save up to buy things, they get stuff on HP, instant credit or use credit cards.
 
There are plenty of good young people eager to work an keen.

There was plenty of dossers whilst I trained and went to school in my generation, an seen plenty in the generation above an below me.

It's not a new thing that, just maybe more noticeable. Rose tinted glasses me thinks.
I disagree Rob,

These social media platforms have been designed to be addictive, as the video says, they trigger very well studied, documented and understood responses in the human brain to certain stimuli.

These Dopamine effects coupled with Classic Conditioning, Pavlov's Dog, and the understanding of human sexual drivers, Freud, have all been combined to create some of the most addictive and controlling mechanisms humanity has ever faced.

When applied at a young enough age this conditioning is almost impossible to break but even as adults are we are not immune, we all like the 'likes' and 'agrees' we get to posts, how do those affect your behaviour?

These effects have always been used, subconsciously, to program human behavior. The reward of praise for a good deed was often enough to make a child try to please again, we call it good parenting.

The problem is They know what they are doing to a largely uneducated and unaware public.

Facebook for instance has the ability to make access to their platform, if not impossible, unusable for under 13s. It chooses not to do this as they know the earlier the programming starts the more effective it is.

As Aristotle said "give me a child until he is seven and I'll show you the man"

None of this is new, what is new is the widespread and, in my opinion, nefarious uses that it is being put to namely profit and social control.

I think that this is thankfully becoming apparent to more and more people.

Ten years ago I'd have a 95% "you're mad" response to such ramblings, today most people at least see the potential for nefariousness.
 
Last century, the generation above mine bought a daily sport every day for a mild ---- fix. A different type of addiction. They smoked a pack of cigs a day and had a pint or two on the way home, driving.

I would rather my girls be addicted to their phones than cigarettes.
 

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