Clap On, Clap Off

I know a boy. We’ll call him Bob. He’s about fifteen years old. His best Christmas gift this year was a Clapper. “It’s great,” he told me, “now I don’t have to get up to turn the lights on or off.”
Okay, fair enough. That’s the whole purpose of this product, and it’s been fairly successful for the past twenty or so years that it’s been around.
But what did Bob do next? He recorded himself clapping on his iPhone. This way, he doesn’t have to get up OR clap to turn the lights on or off.
Does this seem weird to anyone else? I hate to sound trite—I really, really hate to use this example—but really, there are children in other countries who are starving for food, whose parents are killed right in front of them, who fear getting abducted by terrorist groups in the middle of the night. And this guy can’t even get up to turn his lights off.
Can I tell you something else? Bob wants to be in the Marine Corps. Is this the kind of person I want protecting me, my family, my country? I don’t know, but I don’t even have much of a choice. Maybe I’m just sheltered but it seems like most young people these days really are this disconnected from reality. This lazy, (though perhaps not to this extent). At my school, we live in suites (two double rooms connected by a bathroom). If we have something to say to another person in our suite, it is more likely that we’ll text, IM, or call him/her rather than walk four feet to say it to his face. It just gives me the feeling of disjointedness among today’s youth. Our friends and acquaintances seem to be hardly more than an entry in a digital phonebook.
And I know that there are young people who have a strong work ethic and moral sense. And the fact that Bob doesn’t want to get up or clap to turn off his lights doesn’t make him a bad person. Maybe it doesn’t say as much about him or today’s youth as a whole as I think it does.
But if it does, and if I am right, then I shiver to think of what’s coming next.
How are kids today supposed to grow up to be parents? We’re so coddled and, for lack of a better word, spoiled, that we can’t even take care of ourselves. My grandparents didn’t just quit a job because they didn’t like their boss or the people they worked with. In fact, I can almost guarantee that they didn’t like their bosses or coworkers. But they didn’t have the choice to leave that job. Nobody told them they can just get a new job on a whim. Maybe it’s because times were harder, and my grandparents worked not for their own fulfillment but to support their family. But, I don’t know, it just seems that people today are simply not up to the challenge. Even if they were up to it, how could they possibly be prepared for it? Is our generation just inherently weaker than the past? Is it because our parents were too easy on us? The truth is, it doesn’t even matter. Doesn’t it seem clear that as one generation follows the next we are becoming less and less in tune with our planet and each other?
Maybe we’ve just been given too many options. I feel an intrinsic longing for the days of apprenticeships, arranged marriages, even teachers who whack the knuckles of their students. Is it discipline we’re missing? People have been so adamant about fighting for freedom, but isn’t there a point at which we should realize how free we are, and start trying to work together? In an anarchist society, people are the epitome of free; but that system could not work unless people find inspiration within themselves to stop fighting the system and work together for the good of everybody.


I apologize for my rambles.

That is all.