When bossman says to "Hide"

quote from PLC Pie Guy about smart phone addiction ...

I cant stand this. Its not even that they feel the need. Its just all they know. If they didn't exist on the internet then they don't exist in real life.
We have a 20 something here now who wants to be something, however, he cant look away from it for 10 minutes. He even knows its not allowed but....
This bull*** is even infiltrating my own home regardless of my threats to ban all things digital that don't relate to work. I try to teach my kid (and wife) that its a TOOl, that is all, nothing more. but it seems that I am the only one in my world preaching this. Why the school allows them to have devices at an elementary school level anyway makes no sense to me. My kid doesn't have one, but defiantly has access to one through his peers. He doesn't have internet or violent games at home but damn well knows all about stupid things like Fortnight and Five Nights at Freddy's. Getting a bit OT here but just saying that this madness has to stop. Its de-evolving the human brain.

A person shouldn't feel alone 90% of the time while sitting in a room with other people as this is going on continuously. In the Dr Office, In the grocery store, at work, at the school concert, before the movie, during the movie, the guy driving the big rig on the highway after the movie. Its sad!

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true personal story ...

my wife and I were eating dinner at a local restaurant a while back ... the waitress came over and said something like this, "Please don't take this the wrong way – but I mean it as a compliment. I've been working here for several months – and you are the FIRST couple I have seen who actually sit and talk with each other. Everyone else drags out their little smart phones as soon as they sit down - and then they start poking and sliding around all the way through dinner."

the only phone I have (and probably will EVER have) is a little flip phone – and I keep the texting feature disabled on it ... my wife has a smart phone so that she can keep up with her friends (they all insist on texting) ... I absolutely refuse to let her even look at the darn thing while we're at the table ... and neither one of us are on Facebook, etc. ...

so – 28 years of being happily married - and counting ... life is lovely ...

also from PLC Pie Guy ...

I'd like to see an academic comparison of kids in this age compared to kids at the same level in the pre-internet days in things like reading and writing.

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be careful what you ask for ...

Tucker Carlson Show: Smartphones make kids dumber, less happy
https://video.foxnews.com/v/5997169910001/#sp=show-clips

and a couple more recent news articles ...

Paul Batura: 'Zombie Eating' is a sure sign of a coming social apocalypse
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/paul-batura-zombie-eating-family-screen-time-smartphone-device

Dr. Siegel on why teens are 'growing horns' from prolonged cellphone use
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/teens-growing-horns-cell-phone-use-dr-marc-siegel

party on ...

This is off topic too.
In June Delta celebrated its 10th year in our building. Employees and retired employees and their families were invited. We have a ping pong table at work. Some of the kids tried hitting balls shoot out by the robot. The balls are shoot in a pretty consistent way so it should be easy to get most of the balls back even if you simply hold the paddle in front of the balls.

You wouldn't believe how uncoordinated the kids are. They play too many video games. Too many are couch potatoes. Back in the dark ages we played real games or sports.

I know there are a few kids that are very good at sports but I think the percentages are dropping.

The 20-somethings I work with sure don't have any problem staying busy and keeping the work done. Or paying attention when it is time to work. Our 18 year old high-school graduate is probably the hardest worker out of all of us and as smart as a whip.

The 45 year old, 50 year old and the 60 year old we fired last year for not showing up, not showing up on time and the one we refused to higher because he went to two other jobs and was let go sure gave us plenty of problems, though.

You can't generalize an entire generation because you had some problems with a few select people. This is especially true if you have not blunty told them to "Get off your f***ing phone. We are here to get a job done."


I'm not saying some people don't have a smart-phone addiction, I'm just saying the millennial hate is a bunch of BS.

sparkie said:

The 20-somethings I work with sure don't have any problem staying busy and keeping the work done. Or paying attention when it is time to work. Our 18 year old high-school graduate is probably the hardest worker out of all of us and as smart as a whip.

The 45 year old, 50 year old and the 60 year old we fired last year for not showing up, not showing up on time and the one we refused to higher because he went to two other jobs and was let go sure gave us plenty of problems, though.

You can't generalize an entire generation because you had some problems with a few select people. This is especially true if you have not blunty told them to "Get off your f***ing phone. We are here to get a job done."


I'm not saying some people don't have a smart-phone addiction, I'm just saying the millennial hate is a bunch of BS.

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This soo much! I always hear the older folk whining about the entitled lazy younger people. Yet they can't touch type, they have a hard time grasping high school level concepts. It's crazy annoying. (Also... what is the deal with office gossip, I swear older folk act like business is high school drama.)

Peter Nachtwey said:

I know there are a few kids that are very good at sports but I think the percentages are dropping.

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My grandson plays football and last season several communities around us didn't have teams because they couldn't get enough players. When my step son was playing these same communities had 2 teams with plenty of players.

T Gibbs said:

My grandson plays football and last season several communities around us didn't have teams because they couldn't get enough players. When my step son was playing these same communities had 2 teams with plenty of players.

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Probably due to no electrical outlets on the playing field:

O you young one's who is going to give the great advice/wisdom learned (sorry to say) over years of experience. Personal l think it will be a laugh shortly when the knowledgeable few on this site stop giving advice for nothing, then watch process industry grind to a holt. My appreciation and gratitude go out to the scholars of this forum (l hope you know who you are, Ron, Ken, Dabba, Peter, Geo and all the others).
I imagine the only ones that agree to some of these comments earlier are the same people that have been asking questions.

sparkie said:

The 20-somethings I work with sure don't have any problem staying busy and keeping the work done. Or paying attention when it is time to work. Our 18 year old high-school graduate is probably the hardest worker out of all of us and as smart as a whip.

The 45 year old, 50 year old and the 60 year old we fired last year for not showing up, not showing up on time and the one we refused to higher because he went to two other jobs and was let go sure gave us plenty of problems, though.

You can't generalize an entire generation because you had some problems with a few select people. This is especially true if you have not blunty told them to "Get off your f***ing phone. We are here to get a job done."


I'm not saying some people don't have a smart-phone addiction, I'm just saying the millennial hate is a bunch of BS.

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I agree with you 100%. I am only 36 years old myself. When I grew up, the phone was just starting to be a thing. Folks still had the old car phones sitting on the console plugged into the cigarette lighter. The old razor with the cameras built in was all the rage. Now its glued to the palms of their hands and is just as important to them as life itself.. It just makes me sick. I'm just dreading my 6 year old getting into this stuff. Hes so interested and is always going on about how his friends have them, why cant he. I just keep telling him to read more books, once I felt he has read enough books, Ill get him a smartphone....... so he keeps reading books...I I know it will happen, just a matter of time till he becomes a mindless phone zombie with his face in his hand.

I quite pride myself in knowing that I don't feel the need to post my every life detail on the internet. Nor do I have a constant hunger for likes or follows on my stupid daily poses! I see how upset folks get when they can't get to the internet. Most recently at a campground that I was at that offers free WiFi and one very irate camper who couldn't connect, she was freaking at the poor girl in the main office where kids were buying ice cream. I told my son that its unacceptable to act like that and she was a victim of an addiction, like any other addict who has no control of their actions and this is what happens when your addicted to technology. For the life of me I cant understand that one, A its camping and B its camping, stay home if you need technology that bad.

Ohh, the other one, last week we were having an orientation of new hires. There was 5 of them, 3 of them were on their phones the whole time! 6 hrs. They were lucky it wasn't my orientation or they would have been out. If somebody is presenting to you, listen and look at them. The presenter complained but at the end of the day, they needed those bodies. Bottom line is, they didn't see any disrespect in what they were doing. Completely acceptable in their minds. They shouldn't have to be told to Get the &*& off their phones, their adults!. Or at least want to be. They should know that.

This just hits a note with me. I make a living from working with technology, with this site being the furthest thing from work that I do with devices and when I leave work, I cant stand to just see people, 18 or 60 years old, especially my people, staring at screens, especially when its beautiful and sunny out.

That is all.

PLCnovice61 said:

O you young one's who is going to give the great advice/wisdom learned (sorry to say) over years of experience. Personal l think it will be a laugh shortly when the knowledgeable few on this site stop giving advice for nothing, then watch process industry grind to a holt. My appreciation and gratitude go out to the scholars of this forum (l hope you know who you are, Ron, Ken, Dabba, Peter, Geo and all the others).
I imagine the only ones that agree to some of these comments earlier are the same people that have been asking questions.

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I can say I owe a great deal to this site! Its a great thing and hopefully it goes on forever. The amount of collected knowledge here is amazing.

Two quick stories regarding the new generations:

1) I took a colleague's employee (21-yr old at the time) on a startup with me for the week. He is decent at graphic and tag changes, and I knew I would be busy in the code, so I wanted him to handle that anything HMI related. Not only did he show up late to the plant *every* day, but if I did not give him a specific task, he sat there in front of the customer, playing on his phone.

2) My neighbor's son (16-17ish) got in trouble for something and he was given a choice to either lose his phone for a week or his car. He handed over the keys.

I've been at 2 customers where they gave me a shirt to put on. I don't work well with white. (Doesn't match my eyes)