Generation Ignorance

I pre-warn you that this post is a bit of a whinge. I may sound like an old man but hopefully there is some substance in it for you.

Im old school and a bit of a traditionalist. I open doors for Ladies, give up seats for the elderly and will buy the dinner for a lady even if I can ill afford it. This is down to my upbringing and Im grateful for that. I understand these are traits that are disappearing generation after generation. However Common Courtesy costs nothing and no excuse for that to be demonising – or is there?

Firstly through my frustrated observations I believe it should be coined just ‘courtesy’. As its clearly becoming less and less common. This is not just the ‘please’ and ‘thank you’s’! Its the pure common and accepted ignorance. Obviously this is only a generalisation and plenty of people or not ignorant, but increasing numbers are. Take text conversations, for starters. They give the respondent the right to be completely ignorant and continue a conversation whenever they want! Imagine doing this face to face. You ask someone a question mid conversation and they get back to you a few hours later. Now I understand that people get busy and this form of communication enables this conversation to be parked until more convenient. However my issue is with this is not always the case.

SEND and RECEIVE!!!!

Whether its text, email or Facebook you can see if someone has actually read the message. All this does is confirm pure ignorance. If they have time to read it, they have the time to send something quick in reply. I think the fact that the technology exists in the first place to let us know we are being ignored says it all. What is its other purpose apart from being an ‘ignorance confirmer?’ Going back to the face to face example this ‘send and receive – ignorance catcher’ is not necessary as you can tell by them simply stopped conversing, leaving you thinking – HOW RUDE!

I think culture is changing and the death of the Gentleman may be on its way. Common Courtesy is the first victim to become a rare trait. Technical advances have created a world where ignorance is accepted and with the dumbing down (googleisation) of the population we have created an ignorant culture by not needing to know anything. In fact Google is such a good back-up brain it even tells us what we are thinking as we type.

In the mean time I will remain a Gentleman and will be as polite as I was brought up to be even if the world around me is changing..

PS if you message me from this, I will aim to get back you as soon as Im free 😉