Issues that people don't seem to make such a big deal of like they once did

[Lencoboy]

People generally have a very short attention span for big news stories, which I think is part of it. Another part is that some things have actually improved. Teen pregnancy had dropped 77% since the 90s (at least in the US). Growing up in America we were also inundated with anti-smoking ads, but smoking has become far less common as well. HIV/AIDS is so much better controlled now with medications that it's no longer a crisis that needs to be in the news. But, I would say that international affairs - against at least in the US - drop off quickly as Americans are so uninterested in the rest of the world generally. I did just come across something about the Zika virus yesterday and it reminded me of that hoopla a few years back. I looked it up and there was another epidemic of it in Brazil recently, but I haven't heard a word about it.

Thanks for your reply Erin.

I think you're correct about people's generally shorter attention spans nowadays concerning many issues which I was basically thinking the other day soon after my last post in this thread. I don't necessarily believe that most people are inherently more selfish or indifferent in general nowadays, even though it can often seem that way; it's largely symptomatic of the plethora of 24/7 rolling news channels, social media and being forever bombarded with an endless flurry of adverts whenever we go online (including this very site).

I've said this before that prior to the advent of 24/7 rolling news channels and the like (especially pre-2000), people actually watched and listened to news bulletins on the TV and radio at set times throughout the day as there was very little choice back then, plus people actually went out and purchased conventional printed newspapers or had them delivered via subscription to their local newsagents, so were basically more invested in many current affairs for much longer, unlike now where many events (especially not-so-good events) that a lot of us simply tut about and highly condemn in the heat of the moment that then seem to be forgotten about and 'water under the bridge' a couple of days later.

I've noticed over the past 20-odd years or so (on both sides of the Atlantic) many of us have seemingly become more cynical about things in general and less trusting of officialdom and 'experts', even the vast majority who aren't reputed to be unscrupulous. Climate change deniers are among my biggest bugbears ATM, including those who do acknowledge it deep down but act all defeatist with stuff like 'well the planet's now already well damaged beyond repair so what's the point in doing anything, plus why should I be denied the right to 'live and let live' at my age' and 'Well what about the Chinese who are evermore indifferent to all things global warming, so what's the point in the rest of the world taking action?' Yeah right, just because one country (e.g, China) doesn't appear to be taking climate change seriously doesn't mean the rest of the world should simply sit on its laurels and come out with the same old feeble excuse 'it's all a waste of time and money, and a violation of personal freedoms' and inadvertently not give a damn about the generations to come and bury their heads in the sand forever more.

As for issues like teen pregnancies and conventional cigarette smoking; they've generally become less prevalent here in the UK too over recent years despite the fact that many doom-mongers still refuse point blank to believe it (the so-called officialdom cynics) and are still adamant otherwise, despite the official stats here revealing the downward trends similar to those Stateside. Ditto for AIDS/HIV.

So far the current Zika epidemic in Brazil that you mentioned still has yet to be plastered all over the UK media, so here's hoping it doesn't escalate into yet another Covid-like global pandemic; but at least the previous 'epidemic' around the mid 2010s didn't quite materialise in such a manner.

[Lencoboy]

Funnily enough I was having a conversation with a staff member at my day centre the other day and they believe exactly what Erin suggested about people's reduced attention spans nowadays and for example, I brought up the 'kids today...' thing and the general moral panics about ASB and the like and how back in the 2000s in particular what big things they seemed to be in terms of both day-to-day conversation and general media coverage and how many people don't really seem to make the same big deal of said issues now that that they once did.

The general public's reduced attention span thing was one factor cited in said staff member's explanation, plus she also believes (in her opinion) that most youngsters generally seem tamer now compared to most previous decades and don't appear to be as compelled to rebel quite as blatantly as they used to.

I also wonder if many people are simply more blase about ASB in general than they once were, and now consider making big issues of it a pointless waste of time and just shrug it off/brush it under the carpet with the oft-cited belief that 'there's far more important issues to be concerned about right now'? Or is there genuinely less ASB and wild behaviours from youngsters now (apart from the likes of knife crime and dubious online activities obviously) than there used to be? Or a combo of each perhaps?

[Lencoboy]

I don't know whether or not it's just me but more recently I haven't noticed as many discussions about the epidemic of 'shortages' in this country which has been quite a hot topic since the last months of 2021, particularly after the pandemic-related restrictions petered out over the course of that year. Plus I haven't noticed as many gaps in supermarket shelves either since around earlier this year, though there's a possibility that my two main go-to supermarkets (LIDL and our local Co-op) could have reorganised the layouts of their stocks on the shop floors to make it look like there's less shortages now than last year.

I wonder if the 'shortages' in general have actually become less of an issue now or if most people have simply become more accustomed to them and like I suggested above the shops might have rearranged their stock displays in order not to show the gaps, which may in turn be fooling us that the worst is over?

[Lencoboy]

I've noticed people seem to be more blase about big-name retailers going bust of late, especially Wilko.

Unlike even as recently as 15 years ago when Woolworth's went bust which I remember being a big thing at the time and in some respects highly politicised (e.g, dubbed as one of many symptoms of Brown's/New Labour's 'Broken Britain' by some at the time, especially those on the Right).

On a related note, I've also noticed most people don't seem to be as publicly vocal and angry in the same way against the current COL crisis as they were against the GFC 15 years ago, though that could very well be due to it being greatly overshadowed by the Covid pandemic and all its attendant implications (including extensive restrictions pertaining to it in 2020-21) so soon before it. Had Covid not have happened it would probably have been a far bigger deal than it seems to have been so far.

[Lencoboy]

I remember when our local police station in Tamworth town centre closed in 2019 hardly anyone seemed to bat an eyelid (I still used to read our weekly local rag religiously almost every week back then but hardly ever bother with nowadays). In previous decades there would have almost certainly been protest marches by residents of the borough over it, but in 2019 it seemed like it was mostly shrugged off.

Likewise in Burton when the National Brewery Centre closed last year most of the locals just seemed to just take it on the chin and again no signs of any mass protest marches over it which also would have been a dead cert in past decades. I'm sure that must have been the case in the past when some of the breweries themselves (and other 'factories') there closed for good and jobs inadvertently lost.

But now (and for better or worse) it seems that people in general are far more emotionally embroiled in events happening far away in other countries that us Brits in most cases have no immediate control nor influence over, but at the same time seem rather apathetic and blasé about certain issues/events much closer to home that probably would have been a much bigger deal in years gone by.

[BlueIris]

It's because we're more connected, I think. Job losses are horrible, but it's not the same as people dying. We're empathetic creatures, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I know that this country is screwed up, but not in the same way as some of our global neighbours.

[Pain]

What point are you trying to make in this post, Lencoboy?

I could be wrong here, but you seem to be bemoaning the fact that folks won’t go out of their way to demonstrate or complain about stuff that you think they should.

Do you, personally, get involved in protestations... publicly voice your opinions (other than here in the NMP forum), meet with like-minded folks and organise action groups, contact your local district councillor/county councillor/MP, hire public venues and encourage folks to attend and discuss stuff, write to the prime minister, write to the leader of the opposition parties, put your fears/objections/support to a relevant government minister, request the local/national press to take an interest, get yourself on tv or radio to put across whatever it is you want to put across, join/start a demo march, chain yourself to immovable objects etecetera, etcetera, etcetera...? Yes, all these things require motivation, effort, time, expense, and will almost certainly generate hostility and ridicule.... and may end in total abject failure.... But that’s better than griping about other folks not doing their bit... as you see it!

[Lencoboy]

What point are you trying to make in this post, Lencoboy?

I could be wrong here, but you seem to be bemoaning the fact that folks won’t go out of their way to demonstrate or complain about stuff that you think they should.

Do you, personally, get involved in protestations... publicly voice your opinions (other than here in the NMP forum), meet with like-minded folks and organise action groups, contact your local district councillor/county councillor/MP, hire public venues and encourage folks to attend and discuss stuff, write to the prime minister, write to the leader of the opposition parties, put your fears/objections/support to a relevant government minister, request the local/national press to take an interest, get yourself on tv or radio to put across whatever it is you want to put across, join/start a demo march, chain yourself to immovable objects etecetera, etcetera, etcetera...? Yes, all these things require motivation, effort, time, expense, and will almost certainly generate hostility and ridicule.... and may end in total abject failure.... But that’s better than griping about other folks not doing their bit... as you see it!

I think I would personally find participation in protests/demos far too traumatic and triggering, especially with a lot of the angry aggressive shouting that often happens during them, and occasionally even full-on physical violence.

However, I don't always necessarily agree with every single protest/demo that takes place, and I have even felt that some that have taken place over the years have been rather trivial, irrational and unwarranted on occasions while many others have been totally 100% justified.

I'm just generally intrigued as to why many things that seemed to raise eyebrows far more in the past no longer seem to have the quite the same impact on the masses to the extent that they once seemed to.

[BlueIris]

It's because we're a global society, and there are much more serious things happening elsewhere.

[Lencoboy]

It's because we're more connected, I think. Job losses are horrible, but it's not the same as people dying. We're empathetic creatures, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I know that this country is screwed up, but not in the same way as some of our global neighbours.

I understand what you're saying BI, in that compared to dying in needless brutal ways (as in the Middle East, Ukraine, etc, right now), job losses, while as horrible as they often are for those affected, are generally the lesser of the two evils.

However, crime will still always affect us all in some way or another, and the loss of police stations (and officers) over recent years inevitably exacerbates those risks, even though my area is still far removed from 'Bandit Country'.

I wonder how a lot of the locals may have responded had it been, say, our library that closed instead of (or even as well as) our police station, which is obviously in lesser demand these days, especially due to the now-widespread advent of the Internet?

Although of course I di rather sad about the closure of places like libraries (especially with the few who still happen to visit and support such places on a regular basis in mind, and of course the staff losing their jobs), but less so than over the closure of police stations, hospitals, schools, etc, all of which are ultimately far more important to communities at large IMO.

I also agree with you that in spite of our own respective flaws, we in the UK still have it fairly easy compared to certain other countries around the world, especially those currently ravaged by conflicts, corruption and/or profound economic crises.