Where is this trend of selfishness and entitlement going to end?

[INACGMOOH]

I've noticed more and more instances of people being rude, selfish and entitled being written about on here and on other social media. Examples include: people talking loudly / eating Pringles in theatre performances, people having TVs / music on loudly in shared wards in hospitals, people ignoring the highway code etc. In my work (teaching) I have seen an increase in parents get more and more demanding and entitled (e.g. refusing to provide school uniform, getting the school to change their procedures to suit them, arguing that they don't need to hear their children read etc).

It seems that as a society we have moved to become more selfish and less considerate.

Moving forward I can see that it's likely to get worse before it gets better. What can we do to try and reverse this trend?

Well it’s going to get worse because there are a lot of entitled kids out there. I work in a Comprehensive, an independent school, and a community pre school. Sadly I’m seeing a lot of children who seem to be encouraged to only think of themselves and to push their own agenda at every opportunity. It’s a real “me me me” culture.

No, GENERAL violence that is not reported as a crime is far lower. More people report violence now because it is not tolerated. Higher reporting does not mean higher incidence.

Think of all the violent incidents that were LEGAL in e.g. 1940 that do not happen, plus all the fights that were just happening in pubs, streets that were never reported.

How many incidences of corporal punishment per year in schools in England in 1940?
How many men hitting their wife?
How many kids routinely hit as a normal occurence?

Yes there are stabbings. But outside the pages of the Daily Mail is the real world, which is hugely changed from when my parents were born. Our society is becoming less violent in general.

Children on safeguarding plans - the point is what gets you on a safeguarding plan these days was just accepted as normal parenting in the past.

I think a lot of it is access to tech. 24 hour news for example so that you can see and hear bad things all of the time.
I think withdrawing from social media can be a good thing.
I have no idea if things are getting worse. I do believe that people expect far more now. A lot of people expect others to do the most basic of tasks for them.
It’s not schools responsibility to clothe your child. It’s not their responsibility to parent your child either, that lies 100% with parents. If you don’t like it then stop having children. It’s not compulsory.

Yes, but my point is you only have brain space to moan about that small fry because the world has improved. Some people have always been a bit selfish. However these days we have much higher standards in what we expect of others.

Take dog shit. I now moan like mad if anyone leaves it behind - but when I was a kid in the 80s everyone left it behind. Leaving dog shit behind was just accepted as a normal standard of behaviour. I was forever standing in it, falling over in it. Dogs owners in the 1980s were way more entitled than dog owners in the 2020s.

I agree it’s much worse.

Year 5/6 swearing at teachers, parents who refuse to believe their child would do such a thing, the children fighting in the play ground!

It’s not much fun and these children will go into the work place expecting to do as little as possible for a much as possible.

I think it's top down. Successive governments have proved how selfish they are.

The Be Kind movement stuck in my throat during lockdown because no one was kind. I witnessed so much entitled and anti social behaviour but there they were clapping for the nurses after holding parties and loud music each night.

So many expect others to be as invested on their lives as they are. But with the expectation that their issues will be sorted out by the magical "someone".

So few want to do anything. I'm getting more like that. I'm not interested in community any more.

and here's the first !!!

These messages are like reading the comments in the Daily Mail. I think if you sit behind your windows reading negative crap the world must feel scary.

These comments bear no relation to the world I walk around in.

My town is much improved on what it was when I was growing up, and that was an improvement on when my father was growing up.

One thing we do have is a decimated public service network so where there are problems they are not being tackled - but that is the government's choice not mine. I would have e.g. more police to tackle the problems there are.

In my father's day people did not have to wear school uniform in primary, so rather than schools providing it it was just a cost that did not exist. Many of his peers when to school with no shoes. That would not be allowed now, would result in a safeguarding plan as discussed earlier, but it is not 'entitled' to be unable to afford uniform now or shoes in the past. That is just poverty.

There was also community charity in the past. The curtain-twitching cunts would have been under peer pressure to contribute to the charity drives the church would have been organising, not just sit about moaning on social media about their neighbours.

Have this biscuit for being a prejudiced person who has made incorrect assumptions about where I live and what I do

People are allowed to disagree with your negative assessment of everything. I have seen my town improving (well, until the 2010 government of course, but that is a political change not a societal change). I also know what my town was like in the days before I was born.

Ah well, that called freedom🤔

Hopefully the entitled prince and princesses will live at home forever.

The others can thrive and travel and climb a career ladder.

You reap what you sow.

I notice that on trains and buses there's an increasing number of people who don't bother with headphones and just listen to videos/watch music oblivious to people around them. It's bloody annoying.

The first what?

Never.

People are inherently selfish. The onset of social media and instant gratification, has exacerbated what was already there.

I think, in part, it is an unexpected outcome of the mental health awareness campaigns that have been around for a few years now. People are now encouraged to put themselves first and to look after their mental health which some people have interpreted as doing exactly what they want with no thought or care for how it may impact other people.

I think I see your error OP. You think this site reflects society. Trust me, it doesn't. Half of the people on here aren't even real people. I'd lay bets there's five people behind the zillion "Harry" threads. I find that it helps to get out more, and just duck in here and there to see how the fantasy world is developing.

The intrusion from tech is a particular annoyance in modern life, definitely.

There's a general loss of "rules" which used to manage behaviours, from religious rules to social norms. It used to be the case that people behaved "well" out of fear of being judged by others and then being ostracised or hauled up before the vicar. Now, no one cares if others judge them - in fact, we are positively admonished for having the gall to judge others' behaviours. Because "what business is it if yours".

We've lost the plot as a species

Can I be the one to roll out the Socrates quote:

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

There are similar quotes from throughout the centuries. People have always looked back to their youth with nostalgia and criticised "modern" behaviours.

When Mumsnet goes bust.

You might want to read this, in particular the graph on p2. Violent crime is far less common than it used to be.

Smoking was banned on buses in 1990 I think? Maybe earlier?

there were definitely many peaceful years without smoking and without tech on public transport.

I know what you mean OP, cinema behaviour is a lot different than 20 years ago...better than the 1920s, before someone says it, but yes, we are in a phase where really weird stuff is considered normal.