Mad World

• Subject: The causes of the decline in social etiquette.

• Purpose: to explain the causes of this decline.

• Audience: Peter F. Chernin, Founder of Fox Entertainment Group.

• Occasion: many rude encounters have led me to choose this topic.

Mad World

America has changed. The land of the free has come under siege of cell phone wielding citizens trying to fight over the precious spare time they have left over from the grueling work hours and punishing their ill-mannered children from watching too much television. Life gets ever more complicated and as it continues to get harder everyone has less time for the simple courtesies that used to be commonplace. Social etiquette is as rare as someone not having a cell phone, but what is causing this major decline in social skills in America?

The problem is that people have no time or desire to help their fellow citizens to make the community more polite, which is caused by an increase in technological advances, the new American way of life, and the below standard rearing of children. Each of these categories has a great deal to do with the gradual change of social etiquette. Beginning with the American way of life, people today work longer hours and more days just to be able to follow the American dream; by living for the day and above your means. While America overworks itself they leave their children at home soaking up hours of television leaving them with little time to interact with their parents and an excess of time browsing the Internet. Along with the fast paced American way and children spending less time with their working parents and learning by themselves, technology is another factor of this social decline. Technology has a major effect on people’s social life. The ability to talk to someone at anytime either over a cell phone or over the internet leads to less true human interactions which leads to a society with socially uneducated people. These issues all tie into the slow decline of social morality and the digression into a more selfish and rude society.

Twenty-four hours and seven days a week is Americas new motto. Everything is about convenience and beating out the competition to maximize profits. Since everyone is working overtime to beat out the competition, they have no extra time for these common courtesies. The timetable doesn’t allow for politeness. In a poll dealing with the causes of rude and disrespectful behavior forty-seven percent say that “life is too hectic and people are so busy that they just forget to be nice”(Farkas 1) Life is too busy to be able to hold the door open for a stranger; life is too busy to say “thanks”; life is too busy to let the turning minivan into your lane; life doesn’t allow the few seconds it takes to do these common courtesies. The problem is the shortage of time and since time will never change common courtesy will continue to decrease. People follow their schedule and do not let anyone interfere. I observed the entrance to a local mall and while sitting there you see many fascinating things. A lot of people are on the phone walking around chatting away oblivious to what is going on around them some even bumping into people and not even apologizing (Fortner). The American culture has changed for the worse, the selfishness and lack of time has made the simplest courtesies almost nonexistent.

The future of America looks even bleaker for an improvement in social etiquette. In a poll on the causes of rude behavior eighty-four percent of the people believed that parents aren’t teaching their kids about respect (Technology 1). The next generation being raised by busy working parents is giving children a lot of freedom to learn life lessons on their own by becoming more intelligent through the use of technology but at the same time are not learning the necessary social skills to truly succeed. While they are at home by themselves watching television, children find their favorite role models, which in a poll sixty-one percent of people said their child’s role models are negative and contributes to rudeness (Harris 1). These negative role models, such as some rap artists, influence our youth with explicit curse words and derogatory statements about women, which leads to children using these statements because their role model does. These role models have an effect on growing minds and not just parents have to deal with misbehaving children. After an interview with a third grade teacher in a local elementary school about the behavior of children the problem becomes very noticeable. Out of her thirteen years of teaching she believes that children are getting progressively ruder. Her students have to be punished often for their classroom disruptions such as continual disrespect towards her by talking even when asked not to and one problematic student even exposing himself to the class after being put in time out (Zoppi). You can see misbehaving children wherever you go. These trends are just getting worse. Kids throw fits and act unruly in public and parents act like nothing is wrong while everyone else watches in amazement of what is happening (Fortner). Another problem is the basic family structure is being corrupted by the strenuous work hours of parents. Dinner is now at a restaurant or fast food on the run instead of at the family dinner table. Children are missing out on the simple interactions they need to learn respect and etiquette. Parents need to be an example of how to act to teach their kids to be proper and have some social etiquette so in the future rudeness might not be as prevalent. While the family dynamics are changing for the worse, technology continues to advance.

Technology has changed the world in many different ways, some positive and some negative, but in today’s world technology reigns supreme. Everyone is fighting to have the coolest, newest gadget around and without looking in the past tracking the changes that have taken place, people don’t realize what has happened. Our society is becoming more selfish (Rasband 1). Technology has paved the path of rude behavior patterns from cell phones, the media, and ipods. Cell phones are everywhere. While your waiting in line to check out your groceries the person standing in front of you is on the phone talking away about their grueling day at work while the cashier is trying to get their attention about bag preference and how they will pay for the groceries and you think how rude can someone be. These stories are quite prevalent since eighty-seven percent of Americans polled by the television show 20/20 said that they see