Earbuds

I am tempted to start yanking them out of young people's ears. Number one I'm tired of having to listen to the tinny version of whatever wretched dreck they're listening to and calling music these days. (Aw go ahead, insert the ironic comment of your choice.)

Number two--yes, of course, we ALL UNDERSTAND that being young is a HUGELY difficult undertaking, it is, but as counterintuitive as it may sound, stuffing one's ears with only what one chooses to hear, viewing only what one chooses to view on whatever gizmo one views it upon, does NOT actually help any of the difficulty, it ONLY MAKES IT WORSE. And the young person may miss exactly what unlikely bit of information is needed to really help. Cheerlessly demanding to be "entertained" 24/7 is a quick way to ruin.

Either number three or arguably two-A--Now howanhell does anyone expect to learn even the most rudimentary of social skills--I'm talking like the ones to not get yourself killed by cranky perimenopausal commuters like myself--without a modicum of practice? I will morosely prophesy that in some number of decades exactly these same young people will be sitting around all plugged in and desperately lonely beyond anything of my imagining, without even knowing what it is. They will fasten upon their flickering screens filled with words written by Moliere, or Jane Austen with sorrowful wonder that people could ever have been anything like that. These writers will be stranger than Phillip K. Dick.

Feh. Maybe I'll say "You'll thank me for this some day," as I yank.