Kids don't believe me!

[WWShop]

Are those 18v or 20v hand trimmers???

 

[Fishplate]

Show them a picture of a rotary phone that hung on the wall with a cord

Or show them the one that is currently hanging on my wall in the garage.

 

[lynnbilodeau]

[QUOTE

Kids haven't changed. Adults have.[/QUOTE]

Disagree 100%

 

[nh_yota]

No doubt why our nation has gone down hill so fast, modern technology has spoiled the values that once made us great. Jefferson said: "A nation that expects to be ignorant and free, expects what never was and never will be."

People have been saying that since the dawn of time.

Technology is supposed to reduce your time spent on one activity so you have more time to spend on another activities. Technology isn't the problem, the "other activities" are the problem.

 

[sonic.apex]

[QUOTE

Kids haven't changed. Adults have.

Disagree 100%[/QUOTE]

Well as an 18 year old I feel I can comment on both. I believe both have changed greatly. Kids more so. Parents changed in raising them, with school becoming more of a competition than learning, making it all about having that straight 4.0 GPA than actually learning properly. You're forced to meet a number and not actually taught well anything of value. Then you've got kids being forced (Though willingly as they don't know any better) to always go out for football or learning an instrument etc. There's no time to just be a kid.

That said, I can proudly say I know exactly what those are. My father is rather "old school" and used them all the time so I grew up being taught how to use them, sharpen etc. He's also very fond on actually using sheep shearing shears for trimming around rocks for the garden bed etc.

To be fair I was raised fairly differently (I know that sounds like special snow flake syndrome but bare with me) with given free rain to tinker with old stuff in my dad's shed and learn about it. I think it's very sad how kids are today not knowing about how things were before all this computer **** started. I know my way around a laptop for sure and I have a smart phone (Though I only got one a year or so ago.) I'd much rather be under a car than on facebook.

-Jeremy

 

[rsanter]

I would have told,him that is how we cut all the grass. Ho ahead and give it a try kid...

Bob

 

[simpler=better]

I like to use those when installing vinyl siding!

 

[Bigbandguy]

Depending on the type of element in the receiver it should work. Might be good to disconnect the magneto but otherwise the transmitter and receiver elements should work as an extension. If you have the old diaphragm type receiver it might not work but if the receiver has a removable element like those on the the old candlestick phones it would be worth a try and would have an element of "cool" that would be hard to top.

 

[dclassical]

All I will say to add to this discussion is that I have been privileged to see some of this "new generation" in the work place, as doctors, scientists and engineers and I have nothing but compliments to give (based on my experience). People working 60 hours a week (paid 40, exempt) and the desire to understand how things work, why they do not work, ...

Think of SpaceX, do you really think the young PhD and Master of Science employees are lazy? Maybe they don't have any interest in physical work or tinkering with cars or bikes, but their skills are amazing. And to reach that level they work hard. I know a lot of people who have spent a night in the office, or worked all night at home, including weekends.

We are making some major advances in pharmaceuticals and the young people with PhD in chemistry are part of it.

I don't see us going downhill at all.

Technology is a good thing when used right. There are always people who will misuse it (and I would bet it was the same when people invested knifes or anything else).

Years ago a 16 year old - on his own - beat the DVD encryption. That took a lot of hours spent patiently in front of a keyboard to reverse engineer what a team of people did.

When I grew up I did not car about cars or anything mechanical. But I was always in a book (no internet) learning all I could about math, electronics, physics and so on.

Adafruit sells a lot of kids to eager teenagers wanting to learn about electronics and uC programming. Lots of them spend a lot of time getting their design to work (programming and hardware).

I am not worried about the new generation. You can fixate on a few people, but overall we are going to be just fine.

 

[WhiskeyRanger]

So we have a thread where adults complain about children not knowing how to use things that they themselves have stopped using for decades?

 

[J king]

So we have a thread where adults complain about children not knowing how to use things that they themselves have stopped using for decades?

Not quite...they can't believe someone would use such a physical tool to do what is now an easy task.
No one said they can't figure out how to use scissors to trim grass...I give them a lot more credit than than.

 

[boomer12831]

The kid across the street and his mother came over the other day and asked me to fix their weedwacker. I took the plug out , dried it off and got it going for them. Told him how to start it without flooding it, then showed him my hand trimmers that I use for all of my garden boxes and stone walls. He will be using the weedwacker for all my trimming when he takes over my lawn work after I have surgery in a few weeks. I told him he could use the clippers but he just laughed. Great kid and lucky to have him across the street.

 

[jb3]

I think there is lost in translation in that those are pruning shears not exclusively for grass cutting. I have several pairs I use for everything, bushes mostly. Like them a lot better than an electric cutter.

If you told a kid you crawled around and mowed an entire lawn with pruning shears of course he finds it unbelievable. Touch up and hard to get areas sure, but for large areas muscle powered you would be using a scythe exclusively.

The way the info is delivered to the kid would be like telling them a general purpose pair of scissors is exclusively for cutting one thing.

last year I cleared out my entire yard using a couple different types of pruning shears, bolt cutters, and hand saws. The most effective way to deal with growth through metal fencing.

 

[justanengineer]

Not quite...they can't believe someone would use such a physical tool to do what is now an easy task.
No one said they can't figure out how to use scissors to trim grass...I give them a lot more credit than than.

The part you're missing is that unless you're VERY old, you'd have had that reaction decades ago from many kids as well. My father bought his first string trimmer ~1970 at the same time he bought mom's rototiller. My grandfather bought a handheld 24"(?) sickle-bar trimmer back in the 40s. Both thought I was nuts for growing rectangular spruce hedges and trimming by hand.

 

[Pathfinders]

Cant tell you how many times I had to kick a chain link fence and hand trim the grass.

 

[Hornman]

You guys do know that they still sell those clippers new?

 

[Crazyjake8493]

One of my favorite ones is when kids now don't believe that we had to rewind our movies (VHS) each time after we watched them.

 

[ddawg16]

Show him a pencil. Tell him we used to write with those things instead of using a computer.

 

[Pathfinders]

One of my favorite ones is when kids now don't believe that we had to rewind our movies (VHS) each time after we watched them.

I still catch myself backing out of web searches in stead of just closing the window.

 

[LXCam]

cleaning out barn today. came across hand trimmers. Son asked what these were. I told him to clip grass around things like you would a string trimmer.
He says no way.. He didn't believe me.Told him I use to mow several yards with my buddy when I was young and that's how we trimmed.. he still doesn't believe me. he goggled it and says we must have been nuts.
I said we were hard workers. different than today's kids. lol]

You were lucky. When I was a kid mom made us use our teeth and eat what we trimmed. Said it was out roughage for the week. Damn kids are toooooo spoiled now-a-days.

 

[jd_1138]

The kid across the street and his mother came over the other day and asked me to fix their weedwacker. I took the plug out , dried it off and got it going for them. Told him how to start it without flooding it, then showed him my hand trimmers that I use for all of my garden boxes and stone walls. He will be using the weedwacker for all my trimming when he takes over my lawn work after I have surgery in a few weeks. I told him he could use the clippers but he just laughed. Great kid and lucky to have him across the street.

Wow that's a rare bird -- a kid who wants to work. When I was a kid, my brother and I (along with other neighbor kids) would go around and plow people's drive ways of snow and mow in the summer. We made good pocket money.

 

[lynnbilodeau]

Disagree 100%

Well as an 18 year old I feel I can comment on both. I believe both have changed greatly. Kids more so. Parents changed in raising them, with school becoming more of a competition than learning, making it all about having that straight 4.0 GPA than actually learning properly. You're forced to meet a number and not actually taught well anything of value. Then you've got kids being forced (Though willingly as they don't know any better) to always go out for football or learning an instrument etc. There's no time to just be a kid.

That said, I can proudly say I know exactly what those are. My father is rather "old school" and used them all the time so I grew up being taught how to use them, sharpen etc. He's also very fond on actually using sheep shearing shears for trimming around rocks for the garden bed etc.

To be fair I was raised fairly differently (I know that sounds like special snow flake syndrome but bare with me) with given free rain to tinker with old stuff in my dad's shed and learn about it. I think it's very sad how kids are today not knowing about how things were before all this computer **** started. I know my way around a laptop for sure and I have a smart phone (Though I only got one a year or so ago.) I'd much rather be under a car than on facebook.

-Jeremy[/QUOTE]

Good for you Jeremy.

And you are exactly right when you say parents changed how they raise kids.
I wasn't blaming any particular segment, but society as a whole has made it difficult to raise a child to be responsible, and of course that includes parents.
I should have said I disagree 100% with the statement that kids haven't changed. Of course adults have as well.
I will say I am encouraged by a small segment of the kids in their 20's and 30's who "get" being responsible.

 

[csp]

Then Black and Decker came out with cordless grass clippers and we became spoiled!

Still on our hands and knees trimming the edges, but spoiled compared to squeezing those hand trimmers (I still use a set around small trees planted as seedlings).

 

[rharman]

I have a pair of those clippers that belonged to my dad. Wouldn't part with them for anything. He's been gone 30 years now.....