People are also more distracted by material things than they used to be. The proliferation of technological aids and toys has contributed to a level mindlessness that was not characteristic of previous generations. Although the standard of living is higher now the standard of personal and spiritual development is gradually lessening. There is a principle one can't get around, which is that personal struggle produces character. The difficulties of getting through the day without pleasurable distractions from technological devices used to force people to do more with less in order to get through the day.

I meet kids now that strike me as utterly empty-headed. If they even want an education, it is for making money more efficiently. I am not often very impressed by the character of kids in the internet age.

I came up in the 70's and 80's. My family did not have cable tv, internet, a car for me, or a phone for me. I had no tv of my own for most of my childhood, and when I did it was a small black and white that was fun to watch for maybe 30 minutes a week. My point is not that we were a happy family, because we weren't, but that we had a deeper sense of character than later generations seem to display.

All in all I think technlogy is a good thing and it has made life better, but people are way too enamored of pop culture and they are paying more of a price for it than they realize. They think life is about all this stuff that basically has been put forth to make money from them. We did self-enriching activities like music and sports when I was a kid, we did not sit around rapping on cellphones. It's a different culture and I wonder about it.