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At the start of my teaching career, when I was fresh out of graduate school, I briefly considered trying to pass myself off as a cool professor. Luckily, I soon came to my senses and embraced my true identity as a young fogey.
After one too many students called me by my first name and sent me email that resembled a drunken late-night Facebook post, I took a very fogeyish step. I began attaching a page on etiquette to every syllabus: basic rules for how to address teachers and write polite, grammatically correct emails.
Over the past decade or two, college students have become far more casual in their interactions with faculty members. My colleagues around the country grumble about students' sloppy emails and blithe informality.
[...] Sociologists who surveyed undergraduate syllabuses from 2004 and 2010 found that in 2004, 14 percent addressed issues related to classroom etiquette; six years later, that number had more than doubled, to 33 percent. This phenomenon crosses socio-economic lines. My colleagues at Stanford gripe as much as the ones who teach at state schools, and students from more privileged backgrounds are often the worst offenders.
-- submitted from IRC
Source: The New York Times
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DECbot on Tuesday May 16 2017, @04:48PM (11 children)
This generation's of old people have a lot of gall demanding any respect from younger people just cause.
This ^^^
It's not just the environment, they also fuck up the economy, education, social stability, traditions, culture, and so much more. While I think informal emails and messages to your professor is a move in the wrong direction, the boomers and X'ers should accept this is a consequence of throwing out the traditions and formality that the older generations respected. If you don't personally adhere to tradition and formality, then why do you expect it from anyone else? If you are not respectful with your clients or even at the grocery store, then why do you think you're entitled to it?
From the young Millennials' point of view, their early education was fuck up, the secondary education is rigged to put them in stupid amounts of debt, the job market is broken, car ownership is a means to keep them in debt, news is warped in both directions, the economy is rigged to explode in the failed sense, religion is nothing more than another control mechanism for the weak minded, social media is out to sell them as a product, government debt is designed to be a problem during the prime of their life, home ownership is not realistic, the environment is catastrophically ruined, the classes and races of our society are primed to start killing each other, and the government is a deranged circus that is either there to oppress them or to oppress the entitled--or both. Unless you're set to profit from the collapse of western society, which of the previous listed achievements should command the Millennials' respect?
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Soylentbob on Tuesday May 16 2017, @05:07PM (3 children)
I assume nearly every generation says that about their predecessors (... started the war, ... were all Nazis, ... committed atrocities in Vietnam, ... killed the US-Natives, ...). Of course, they were all wrong, while we are obviously right. And our kids will be wrong as well :-)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 16 2017, @05:42PM
Of course, they were all wrong, while we are obviously right.
Which is what every generation says about their successors.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Tuesday May 16 2017, @06:08PM
I assume nearly every generation says that about their predecessors
The Boomers [youtube.com] certainly did [youtube.com].
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Tuesday May 16 2017, @10:44PM
I assume nearly^w every generation says that about their predecessors...
FTFY
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @05:13PM
government is a deranged circus that is either there to oppress them or to oppress the entitled
What exactly is the method of oppressing the entitled? forcing them to pay a fair share of taxes... Nope. Not allowing them to move money offshore and not pay any taxes on what they make in the U.S.?... Nope. Making sure they get treated poorly by the justice system?... Nope. Not allowing them to form monopolies or cartels that outright steal from and abuse the citizenry?... Nope. Not allowing them to outright buy politicians or in fact make those purchases a functional part of our "Democracry"?... very much Nope!
What is this oppression you speak of?
(although deranged circus is a very apt description of our government. What I don't understand is when I watch a White House press conference, I do not see jugglers and clowns roaming around the room. I keep expecting that every time I see a news clip and I'm constantly disappointed. I really wish I was joking.)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Tuesday May 16 2017, @06:05PM (2 children)
which of the previous listed achievements should command the Millennials' respect?
Nothing. It's about poiiteness in civil engagement and discourse.
Politeness and etiquette are all about greasing the wheels of society.
Civil discourse has hit, if not historic lows, then close to it.
This is reflected almost everywhere, so it's not surprising that it's in post-secondary educational environments.
I think that, in part, it's due to communications moving towards the least common denominator.
At one time, only the wealthy and the clergy were literate.
After he printing press and Gutenberg type were invented, more folks could afford books, making literacy more useful. Over time, that led to significantly higher literacy rates, and in some ways drove the growth of enlightenment thinking, individual rights, and the incredible scientific and economic expansions of the past few centuries.
Until fairly recently (the last twenty or so years), widespread publishing of one's thoughts were still gated by book, magazine and newspaper publishers, as well as TV producers. Say what you want about those folks, but as a whole, their influence (perhaps not the TV people) maintained a certain level of discourse in the broad public discourse.
Up until recently, only those with both the will and the means could participate in that broad public discourse. Whether it be a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, or the time and resources to write a book, article or fund a movie/television piece.
With the explosion of cable TV channels, the rise of easy to create websites, blogging platforms, social media and other mechanisms for individuals to make their thoughts (however dotty or banal [azquotes.com]) known to the world, the quality of the broad public discourse has suffered.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing. More folks having the ability to weigh in in important events of the day is probably a good thing. Where once the majority of us saw only the discourse promulgated by those with knowledge, means and motivation, now we see what used to mostly be discussed at the bar or around the water cooler.
One of the consequences, however, is that the quality of the language, logic and level of civility has dropped significantly.
Another consequence is that those with knowledge, experience and expertise are being dismissed as not knowing any better than anyone else. Which is patently false.
Giving more people the ability to communicate in the public sphere is, on the whole, a good thing.
However, this results in more casual, dismissive and impolite attitudes towards others. More's the pity
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by deadstick on Tuesday May 16 2017, @09:07PM
TL;DR -- The Internet is today's restroom wall.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday May 17 2017, @12:25PM
Obviously there's a need for efficient filtering based on personal preferences.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Tuesday May 16 2017, @08:16PM (1 child)
From the young Millennials' point of view
Why are you talking about Millennials here? This story is about college students. The Millennial generation is all out of college now; they're around 30 years old and having kids now. The college kids are the next generation after them.
Please try to keep up.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Wednesday May 17 2017, @09:25AM
Actually, the Millennial generation is currently defined as being 20-36 years old, give or take approx. 2 years in either direction. Then again, they're also supposedly all the offspring of Baby Boomers, in spite of how old the youngest Boomers would've been by 1997, and Gen X is supposedly uniformly the offspring of the Silent Generation...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by r_a_trip on Wednesday May 17 2017, @10:06AM
***Unless you're set to profit from the collapse of western society, which of the previous listed achievements should command the Millennials' respect?***
It is not about giving respect to people. It is about maintaining good form, so that the people who can negatively influence the course of your life, are not given a reason to do so. Courtesy and formal address go a long way to make sure you don't end up at the bottom of the pile.
Don't sputter that acting in that way is unfair, because guess what, nobody who matters cares. Those in power can equally use it or abuse it, mostly with impunity. You are dealing with humans. Humans are irrational and emotional critters. We simply do more for people who make us feel good about ourselves.
Go ahead. Piss off the people who in part decide on your advancement in life. See if that gets you what you want. My guess is that the people who do use formal address and who are inclined to communicate professionally will have it easier than the ones not adhering to formal standards.