The Downfall Of Society

[AYSM]

I've argued since shortly after it's introduction and gain in popularity, the downfall of society, in part, began with the invention of the telephone answering machine...it became a line of defense from honest human interaction...I submit that current events in communication technology bear that out.

Society is ever evolving so this thesis will likely ring more plausible with those who experienced society during my generation while the younger folks are diggin' their toys...amazing technology to say the least.

In the old days no answer meant no one near the phone...nowadays we have Ring where you can appear to be home when you really aren't...voice, floodlights, heck, set off an alarm...deter thieves, way cool

I preferred a society where we lived in neighborhoods where we didn't worry about even needing to carry a house key.

 

[bearpoker]

I've argued since shortly after it's introduction and gain in popularity, the downfall of society, in part, began with the invention of the telephone answering machine...it became a line of defense from honest human interaction...I submit that current events in communication technology bear that out.

Society is ever evolving so this thesis will likely ring more plausible with those who experienced society during my generation while the younger folks are diggin' their toys...amazing technology to say the least.

In the old days no answer meant no one near the phone...nowadays we have Ring where you can appear to be home when you really aren't...voice, floodlights, heck, set off an alarm...deter thieves, way cool

I preferred a society where we lived in neighborhoods where we didn't worry about even needing to carry a house key.

In that case, the first nail in our coffin was the invention of writing and paper.

 

[countryboy]

I preferred a society where we lived in neighborhoods where we didn't worry about even needing to carry a house key.

I have always needed to carry a house key, and I'm no spring chicken. I think it has more to do with WHERE you live, not, WHEN you lived.

 

[devildavid]

I've argued since shortly after it's introduction and gain in popularity, the downfall of society, in part, began with the invention of the telephone answering machine...it became a line of defense from honest human interaction...I submit that current events in communication technology bear that out.

Society is ever evolving so this thesis will likely ring more plausible with those who experienced society during my generation while the younger folks are diggin' their toys...amazing technology to say the least.

In the old days no answer meant no one near the phone...nowadays we have Ring where you can appear to be home when you really aren't...voice, floodlights, heck, set off an alarm...deter thieves, way cool

I preferred a society where we lived in neighborhoods where we didn't worry about even needing to carry a house key.

i don't think technology has led to mistrust. It is more likely our increasingly mobile society and the way corporations are run. Loyalty of companies to employees is pretty much non-existent today. Also, corporations have not remained loyal to the areas where they first established themselves. Corporations have contributed greatly to the increasingly cold, impersonal society we find today. Families no longer live near each other, promotions are gained only by moving to a new company in a new location. Mobility has become a way of life so fewer and fewer people and businesses ever set down roots and establish communities of trust.

 

[RabidAlpaca]

I preferred a society where we lived in neighborhoods where we didn't worry about even needing to carry a house key.

I think a lot of this may just be romanticizing your childhood as if it were some golden age of peace and enlightenment. Violent crime is at an all time low and there are still neighborhoods where people don't spend much time thinking about security.

I have always needed to carry a house key, and I'm no spring chicken. I think it has more to do with WHERE you live, not, WHEN you lived.

Totally agree. People's memories tend to skew towards fondness when they lived in a safe neighborhood growing up, they don't put it into the context of society as a whole.

 

[SmokeAndMirrors]

I've argued since shortly after it's introduction and gain in popularity, the downfall of society, in part, began with the invention of the telephone answering machine...it became a line of defense from honest human interaction...I submit that current events in communication technology bear that out.

Society is ever evolving so this thesis will likely ring more plausible with those who experienced society during my generation while the younger folks are diggin' their toys...amazing technology to say the least.

In the old days no answer meant no one near the phone...nowadays we have Ring where you can appear to be home when you really aren't...voice, floodlights, heck, set off an alarm...deter thieves, way cool

I preferred a society where we lived in neighborhoods where we didn't worry about even needing to carry a house key.

I'm sure someone said the same when we invented pen and paper and began to write letters to people rather than speak.

The "leaving my front door unlocked" thing is a function of population, not "the times." Fact is, crime is objectively lower than it used to be . And I'm sure no one in New York City has felt like they could leave their door unlocked for over a hundred years. My dad's parents sure as hell didn't.

In the "good old days" that you're imagining from behind a veil of youthful nostalgia, more Americans lived in rural areas than they do now.

 

[Grand Mal]

I have always needed to carry a house key, and I'm no spring chicken. I think it has more to do with WHERE you live, not, WHEN you lived.

Exactly. We don't even know where our house keys are. Where we live nobody would hear a window breaking so it's pointless to lock the door.

 

[joG]

I've argued since shortly after it's introduction and gain in popularity, the downfall of society, in part, began with the invention of the telephone answering machine...it became a line of defense from honest human interaction...I submit that current events in communication technology bear that out.

Society is ever evolving so this thesis will likely ring more plausible with those who experienced society during my generation while the younger folks are diggin' their toys...amazing technology to say the least.

In the old days no answer meant no one near the phone...nowadays we have Ring where you can appear to be home when you really aren't...voice, floodlights, heck, set off an alarm...deter thieves, way cool

I preferred a society where we lived in neighborhoods where we didn't worry about even needing to carry a house key.

There are such societies. It's just that the downsides are worse than the benefits.

 

[MaggieD]

I've argued since shortly after it's introduction and gain in popularity, the downfall of society, in part, began with the invention of the telephone answering machine...it became a line of defense from honest human interaction...I submit that current events in communication technology bear that out.

Society is ever evolving so this thesis will likely ring more plausible with those who experienced society during my generation while the younger folks are diggin' their toys...amazing technology to say the least.

In the old days no answer meant no one near the phone...nowadays we have Ring where you can appear to be home when you really aren't...voice, floodlights, heck, set off an alarm...deter thieves, way cool

I preferred a society where we lived in neighborhoods where we didn't worry about even needing to carry a house key.

Let me count the ways...

We have come to accept an almost 50% divorce rate, unwed motherhood, and the disintegration of the American family. We accept inner-city war zones. Have virtually enslaved the poor in the name of helping them. Have allowed our inner-city schools to fail. The news media teaches us that we ALL live in crime ravaged neighborhoods although that is very far from true. Yes, bad people do bad things. But they do them exponentially more often to other bad people.

I could go on and on and on before I ever got to automatic call answering.

 

[Tanngrisnir]

In that case, the first nail in our coffin was the invention of writing and paper.

Forget that. I'm betting on either the invention of the wheel of the domestication of animals.

 

[ttwtt78640]

I've argued since shortly after it's introduction and gain in popularity, the downfall of society, in part, began with the invention of the telephone answering machine...it became a line of defense from honest human interaction...I submit that current events in communication technology bear that out.

Society is ever evolving so this thesis will likely ring more plausible with those who experienced society during my generation while the younger folks are diggin' their toys...amazing technology to say the least.

In the old days no answer meant no one near the phone...nowadays we have Ring where you can appear to be home when you really aren't...voice, floodlights, heck, set off an alarm...deter thieves, way cool

I preferred a society where we lived in neighborhoods where we didn't worry about even needing to carry a house key.

I do not view not knowing who is calling to be an advantage - if you are on my contact list then I now know who is calling (or was if I missed the call). Simply because I am at home or have a cellphone with me does not mean that I wish to talk about who knows what with who knows who at the time the caller does - that is why I like voicemail or text messaging. I now live where locking the house is not necessary but that is not because times have changed for the better or worse it is that my location has changed.

 

[zyzygy]

Exactly. We don't even know where our house keys are. Where we live nobody would hear a window breaking so it's pointless to lock the door.

If you do get burgled and you left your door unlocked then you will have problems with your insurance company.

 

[Hawkeye10]

I dont know that humans cant be happy healthy and wise living in a high technology society, but I do know that this technology that he have now is not working for us. A lot of the problem seems to be that we dont think, and we dont put ourselves first....we have long lived by "If we can build it then we should", which is idiotic.

 

[cuban smokes]

I've argued since shortly after it's introduction and gain in popularity, the downfall of society, in part, began with the invention of the telephone answering machine...it became a line of defense from honest human interaction...I submit that current events in communication technology bear that out.

Society is ever evolving so this thesis will likely ring more plausible with those who experienced society during my generation while the younger folks are diggin' their toys...amazing technology to say the least.

In the old days no answer meant no one near the phone...nowadays we have Ring where you can appear to be home when you really aren't...voice, floodlights, heck, set off an alarm...deter thieves, way cool

I preferred a society where we lived in neighborhoods where we didn't worry about even needing to carry a house key.

planet Earth was doing just fine until humans came along and ****ed it all up so, I disagree; humans are to blame, not the telephone .......

 

[Daisy]

planet Earth was doing just fine until humans came along and ****ed it all up so, I disagree; humans are to blame, not the telephone .......

I'll go one step further...humans without the guidance/direction from their Creator...

 

[Grand Mal]

If you do get burgled and you left your door unlocked then you will have problems with your insurance company.

Insurance is another thing we don't have.
If that were the case, though, I'd have no qualms about breaking a window myself before I called it in.

 

[Grand Mal]

planet Earth was doing just fine until humans came along and ****ed it all up so, I disagree; humans are to blame, not the telephone .......

Everything was just fine until we started to grow things. Agriculture made it possible to create a surplus and all the problems we've had since have been about who controls that surplus.

 

[zyzygy]

I'll go one step further...humans without the guidance/direction from their Creator...

In your opinion. There is no evidence of the existence of a creator. Many of us get along fine without the crutch of religion.

 

[Lethargic Aptitude]

I've argued since shortly after it's introduction and gain in popularity, the downfall of society, in part, began with the invention of the telephone answering machine...it became a line of defense from honest human interaction...I submit that current events in communication technology bear that out.

Society is ever evolving so this thesis will likely ring more plausible with those who experienced society during my generation while the younger folks are diggin' their toys...amazing technology to say the least.

In the old days no answer meant no one near the phone...nowadays we have Ring where you can appear to be home when you really aren't...voice, floodlights, heck, set off an alarm...deter thieves, way cool

I preferred a society where we lived in neighborhoods where we didn't worry about even needing to carry a house key.

We rented a phone from ma bell that had a switch to turn the ringer off. So if no answer perhaps the switch was off, and your hypothesis goes out the window?

And while yes there were places that you need not worry about locking your door (up until a decade a go I lived in one of those places) crime still happened. That safety was an illusion, no one was ever actually safe. And the countless murders and rapes hammer it in.

 

[justabubba]

ever the contrarian, here is my take on these 'societal problems'

Let me count the ways...

We have come to accept an almost 50% divorce rate,

the alternative is to require persons who do not want to be together to be together
i find it difficult to understand why that would be the better of the two options

... unwed motherhood,

is abortion the preferred alternative?

... and the disintegration of the American family.

this is nothing new. there have always been dysfunctional families
we learn how to parent from our parents
if they were not good at parenting, chances are their children will not be either
how do we break that cycle?

back in the day, before the ability to travel became widespread, grandparents, and parents, and children typically lived in the same community - if not the same house
those children were raised by both parents and grandparents
don't believe we will ever be able to put that travel genie back in the bottle

We accept inner-city war zones.

those ghettos are nothing new
we accept the ghettos because the alternative is to spread their endemic problems around to the other communities that are not so screwed up
at least when it is contained, the locale where assistance is drastically needed is readily identified

Have virtually enslaved the poor in the name of helping them.

absurd. a generation ago (my generation), there were no food stamps, no housing programs, no requisite emergency room medical care, no Obamaphone, no social services offices, no heating oil program
the one program available to assist the impoverished to improve their lot was public education ... and the draft - once one became draft eligible

Have allowed our inner-city schools to fail.

our inner schools, for the most part, are excellent
the problem is the teachers must return their students to their homes each day
and at home they do not learn discipline and respect for authority. often, the students are mistreated and not well nourished. those students in the poor homes are often kept up late into the night. they are not well clothed or well washed. and there is little in the form of parental support for their education. why in the world would anyone expect kids who reside in such abysmal environments to become good students?

The news media teaches us that we ALL live in crime ravaged neighborhoods although that is very far from true. Yes, bad people do bad things. But they do them exponentially more often to other bad people.

I could go on and on and on before I ever got to automatic call answering.

glad you stopped because i was getting a cramp in my typing hand

 

[MaggieD]

ever the contrarian, here is my take on these 'societal problems'

the alternative is to require persons who do not want to be together to be together
i find it difficult to understand why that would be the better of the two options


is abortion the preferred alternative?


this is nothing new. there have always been dysfunctional families
we learn how to parent from our parents
if they were not good at parenting, chances are their children will not be either
how do we break that cycle?

back in the day, before the ability to travel became widespread, grandparents, and parents, and children typically lived in the same community - if not the same house
those children were raised by both parents and grandparents
don't believe we will ever be able to put that travel genie back in the bottle


those ghettos are nothing new
we accept the ghettos because the alternative is to spread their endemic problems around to the other communities that are not so screwed up
at least when it is contained, the locale where assistance is drastically needed is readily identified


absurd. a generation ago (my generation), there were no food stamps, no housing programs, no requisite emergency room medical care, no Obamaphone, no social services offices, no heating oil program
the one program available to assist the impoverished to improve their lot was public education ... and the draft - once one became draft eligible


our inner schools, for the most part, are excellent
the problem is the teachers must return their students to their homes each day
and at home they do not learn discipline and respect for authority. often, the students are mistreated and not well nourished. those students in the poor homes are often kept up late into the night. they are not well clothed or well washed. and there is little in the form of parental support for their education. why in the world would anyone expect kids who reside in such abysmal environments to become good students?


glad you stopped because i was getting a cramp in my typing hand

You've given me supposed reasons why, but they are most certainly many of the reasons people say our society is headed downhill.

 

[WillyPete]

I suppose it's depends on how you're measuring things, but I'll throw in that the Freakonomics team demonstrated statistically that the advent of television was associated with a large increase in crime rates.

 

[nota bene]

Exactly. We don't even know where our house keys are. Where we live nobody would hear a window breaking so it's pointless to lock the door.

I don't know where my house key is either. I never bothered to lock my door anyway, so I haven't missed it.

 

[AYSM]

In that case, the first nail in our coffin was the invention of writing and paper.

Not petroglyphs?

writing and paper...could certainly create a sort of downfall depending on it's use...I'd bet a number of people would agree when used as art...consider the social outcry from 60's concert posters...certainly could be used as a tool.

The reason I picked the telephone answering machine back then was because of the change it made in the use of something else...the telephone...now with voicemail...in 20 years the question will be, "What is a telephone answering machine?"

 

[bearpoker]

Not petroglyphs?

writing and paper...could certainly create a sort of downfall depending on it's use...I'd bet a number of people would agree when used as art...consider the social outcry from 60's concert posters...certainly could be used as a tool.

The reason I picked the telephone answering machine back then was because of the change it made in the use of something else...the telephone...now with voicemail...in 20 years the question will be, "What is a telephone answering machine?"

Before telephones, people were free to not answer letters.