As we’re on the subject of men this week, I thought I’d share this story as food for thought:
A friend recently commented on the young men in her office (she’s in her 50’s; she’s talking about the 20- and 30-something set.) “When I was young,” she said, “all guys talked about was sex, how, when, and with whom they were going to get lucky. Sometimes they talked about their cars, too, but their main focus was girls. These days, all the guys in my office ever talk about is technology—their phones, the hottest gadget and new fangled whatever. It’s bizarre.”
Granted, I’m sure that today’s sexual harassment laws have curbed a lot of that young male enthusiasm in the workplace, but it did get me thinking. Will technology be the demise of the human race? Are today’s young men really more interested in their phones than the opposite sex? What do you think?
They still think about sex even when it comes to technology. As soon as the ipone4 came out with video phone cababilities, my husband exclaimed “THIS is going to change the phone sex industry!” I turned to him with total dismay and asked “They say the words “video conference” and you think phone sex immediately???” And, after hearing from his male friends “I thought the same thing!” – I’d say the human race is safe. Unless of course they are able to create virtual women some day…
If you really want some scary food for thought, watch the movie “Idiocracy.” It’s supposed to be a comedy, but I thought it was a little too close to true.
I don’t think they think more about technology but i’ve come to believe one reason why more and more couples are childless is because MEN (not women!!!) are living only for their career.
In earlier times it was clear that the husband would provide for the whole family and men wanted a career to offer THEIR WIFE AND KIDS a good life.
nowadays women are able to earn money for themselves and have careers even when having kids. Therefore one of men’s motivation for a career has vanished. Since it hasn’t changed around totally to being now focused on having babies, the focus of their careers has become – the career in itself.
As a consequence, the decisions about if/when/how to make babies rests more and more with women. One person less who is taking this step within the couple, many childless couples because HE waited too long – because of HIS career.
(Catching up, finally, after vacation…!) Elena’s post above reminded me about one of my own pet peeves. Women get dinged all the time about “waiting too long” to have kids. Nobody (or very few) delve into WHY this is so — it’s assumed that it’s because women are devoted to their careers. Maybe. But I know an awful lot of women who have spent a lot of years looking for someone to have kids with. A lot of guys are reluctant to commit, get married & have kids (& of course, they don’t face the same kinds of time pressures we do). Sometimes, they meet a great man, but he’s been married before, already has kids, & isn’t keen to have more. I know several women online whose husbands said all the right things about having kids before they got married, but when push came to shove, changed their mind. If you’re in your 20s or early 30s, you might still have time to find someone else to have kids with, but if you’re in your late 30s or older, do you leave a marriage that’s good in other respects & hope you’ll find someone else (& hope your fertility holds out) before your biological clock runs down? I know you can always go it alone, but many women don’t want that, & I don’t blame them.