Aspects of society

Bad is talked about more but there are good things and people out there too.

For instance, I saw on Reddit a woman fighting cancer wasn't charged by the man who serviced her boiler which I thought was lovely.

I think we also have to remember the good that is out there. We need some balance to this discussion.

Yes the world is broken. I hope things will get better but I fear they won't.

Your last paragraph is very very true.

When I was at the Gig, in Manchester, back in March everyone was either drinking or on their phone. It wasn't the same as before.

I agree. I find concerts these days quite sad, people are so busy videoing it on their phones that theyre not actually experiencing it. We are more interested in projecting an image of ourselves and our life than actually living our lives.

out_of_step said:

No one is allowed to put a foot wrong nowadays. The internet and social media has become a way for people to get really angry really quickly and its a constant cycle which is fed by the media

So true.

On the plus side, I think the world is more tolerant of neurodiversity than it used to be. Although paradoxically there is more expectation to conform and less room for what used to be called "eccentricity"

People won't live, and let live. We're a nation of gossips and pot-stirrers.

Plus, there are those who use personal grief as a weapon to hold those close to them prisoner. Cancer was the thing that divided us; Covid exploited that.

My take on this, is that I'm not sure anything is worse or anything is better.  We have way more access to information and misinformation. I don't tend to believe much I read on any kind of media and try to be conscious that it's used, as it always has been, to manipulate us.

What I do feel has changed is that everything has become more polarised.  People say they want a debate but really they're just looking for validation or reinforcement of their views. The middle ground seems to be disappearing but maybe it was never really there.  

I think sometimes people look back on times thinking they were better when in reality they were not. It won't stop me fighting for a fairer future for everyone and I struggle to understand anyone not fighting for the same.

Squeaky not squeasy!

Bet that caught them by surprise!

We have similar "tech" which also includes a squeasy gate...Although it didn't deter or alert us to some randomer in the middle of the day letting themselves in the back door cos they were hiding from an unspecified person. No harm done!

I have a great low-tech security system in place: crunchy stones and one storey! 'I can step round from my bedroom in the dark in two seconds flat to ask any early hours intruder 'Can I help you?' It's happened once so far. I think in future, I'll not open the door unthinkingly like last time!

No innocence in Kids, anymore.

It was bad enough, with my generation, but now it has snowballed. Girls, as young as SIX, roaming about town; like they own the place.

And if you chastise them, the gobby mother threatens you with legal action. 

It's bad seeing Drag Queens teaching Kids, but our goose was cooked long ago. 

out_of_step said:

they saw a person trying locks on car doors or something. No actual theft or crime had taken place and everyone's cars were fine but then they got really worried. If they hadn't used this tech they would be none the wiser an

I might actually have some weirdly specific insight into that. Not long after I was (thankfully very briefly) homeless as in literally "on the streets" I spoke to someone else who had gone through a similar experience and he said having been homeless for longer he used unlocked cars in a pinch if he could find one. Well back then in the 00s cars didn't have all the alarms under the sun so what happened is if someone forgot to lock their car overnight it would make a handy rain shelter for a quick kip and then he would leave in the morning, leaving the car exactly as found, no trace of him being there, nothing taken from the car.
So I know from that chat that not everyone trying the door handles of a car is out to nick it, could just be a rough sleeper looking for a temp shelter.

Exactly that.

But it's the thing of "calling people out" etc. My local newspaper website is always doing it. One feeds into the other until everyone is whipped up into a frenzy over stuff that doesn't even matter. It's tomorrow's virtual chip papers. 

Tech / tinterweb whatever you want to call it is "helping us" with problems that were created by it in the first place. Someone I know got a virtual doorbell. Upon reviewing one night's footage, they saw a person trying locks on car doors or something. No actual theft or crime had taken place and everyone's cars were fine but then they got really worried. If they hadn't used this tech they would be none the wiser and less worried.

"My wife asked me why I was speaking so softly at home.
I told her I was afraid Mark Zuckerberg was listening!
She laughed. I laughed.
Alexa laughed. Siri laughed."

yes. total self surveillance. the thing people were warning us about regarding big businesses and CCTV has just become "us" filming and uploading each other for views and clicks. Nobody thinks about what effect this has on people. Any foot wrong or stupid movement preserved forever and with a potentially limitless audience.

There's a lot of power there in the hands of people lacking responsibility.

I was watching a gig from 1996 on youtube yesterday. I think people enjoyed themselves more then when there wasn't a)the threat of a camera phone being shoved in your face b)acting up to a camera, c)the distraction at the back of the mind of being photo'd etc. It changed when images no longer became a "way to preserve a memory" but a way to "share an experience". Everything is now conspicuous and I'm noticing it a bit n myself the more I engage on here which is the only "social media" I partake in. 

I'm old enough to remember life before the internet.  No one is allowed to put a foot wrong nowadays. The internet and social media has become a way for people to get really angry really quickly and its a constant cycle which is fed by the media. We have for the most part, willingly and blindingly entered ourselves into 1984.

I was thinking just this a few days ago, thinking back to my childhood and all the things in the 80s and 90s that I was blissfully unaware of in my own little world. The limited exposure to world events compared to life as an adult is amazing - also the assumption the people were fair and played by the rules etc which i assume to be the total opposite these days. I don't watch TV or read papers or watch / listen to the news and haven't done for ages, but it all seeps in if you're online in any kind of way and also second hand from people who do watch the news etc.

Things like social media exaggerate changes too. You won't hear that Mrs. Miggins went to town and back, had a lovely cup of tea and met up with some friends, but the one occasion something bad happens to her it is picked up and broadcast to thousands or millions of people. It didn't used to be like this (like I say I'm old enough remember the before Internet times). I got rid of all social media accounts about six years ago and only went back to it mid "lockdown" just due to the insanity of it all. I think the years without it were much better for me, I'm not sure why I still use it.

Unfortunately yes I have to agree with you TriS. I have often thought about how if I won the lottery I'd finally have the power to create - well actually something a little bit like your proposed Autistic Union Peter, except I'd make a buisness that focusses on supplying good and services to autistic people, and employs autistic people so they can close the gaps in our CVs and get references if they want to go work in other areas after a while. Then the services part can be able to be transfered to a charity once it became well established.
But without the money, I do not have that power.

Chickens coming home to roost.