Setting off East to their next adventures of the school day, constraints of the classroom momentarily fade away as the early morning bell rings freedom for lunch attendants, teachers, and mainly; students. This legendary chime opens a gate way to what we call 5-minute liberation, but at what cost? Hallway manners.

  Over my 10 years of attending school statewide, I can say with personal certainty that the decline of generational manners is not just a growing issue for Nebraska, but for America in general. Surely I can’t be the only one who notices the idealization of apathy, self-harm, and general violence with our post-COVID generation. And I have to say… I’m tired. 

Scrolling through social media is usually one of the most go-to methods for killing time in our generation. This activity is so normalized from quarantine, that if you took one day to walk around any city and observe the general population’s lifestyle, you could see a phone’s abilities replacing an organic task that was once performed naturally. Grocery trips became “unnecessary” with online delivery available; walks to the park turn boring when an entire playground is already installed on your phone, and worst of all; simply enjoying a quiet scenery in school is treated seemingly as a crime. That’s not normal, so when did it come to be? 

On March 13 of 2020, the governor issued the state of emergency declaration. During this time, everyone had to stay indoors with the exception of attending basic needs. Restless, stir crazy people had subtly subsided over the course of graying long months. And before many knew it, a human’s best friend wasn’t a dog, but technology. 

During quarantine there became a 13 percent prevalence in the usage of drugs and a 60 percent increased usage in personal electronics, which have led our generation into the isolative culture we see currently today. Distrust is the main eroder for power in communities, as it alienates a person’s views to others. Gaining trust online is hard to do because everything you digest was curated in some way to be appealing, so when younger audiences like gen-alpha step outside into our unperfect world; it becomes what’s best described as a culture shock. 

 24/7 accommodations have led some people of our generation to be ungrateful for the ordinaryness this world has to offer, while also forgetting how to act appropriately in public. Examples of these accommodations would be being the algorithms in social media that are tailored to perform for their doom-scrooling users, or the ability to socially “check out” every time a conversation goes stale, and additionally the electronic shield a person could protect their ego with when digitally discussing their blunt opinions with keyboard warriors. So when the pandemic officially ended on June 30 of 2021, many who relied on technology were left strained in fact-to-face encounters.

I care to disagree with some who say this didn’t really affect us nor did it matter… While personal devices don’t necessarily hold weight, believing it doesn’t affect us is not only faulty, but also slightly ignorant. Nowadays, students mainly struggle with criticism, behavioral appropriateness, and knowing when there is a time & a place. According to The Times Of India, 1 out of 6 companies hesitate to hire gen z due to their lack of motivation, work ethic, and general professionalism. 

So when I say I’m tired, I don’t mean fatigued by the latest trends or the newest iphone updates, no. I’m sick and tired of the disrespect. The students who drag out class periods with their faulty disputes that get tossed at teachers, as if the classroom was a courthouse you could negotiate in. “Yes I’m late because I slept in, but I’ll literally cry if you count me tardy… I’m just a girl.” While we all have freedom of speech, I do think there’s an appropriate time and place one should express it outloud. That time is not during the middle of a lecture. Phrases like “I’m bored,” or “I’m hungry,” and perhaps “my nose itches,” show how some of us do not understand the concept of spatial appropriateness. This is not a comment section, so why do I hear every thought in your head when no one asked for your personal input? 

I’m tired of the awareness people seem to lack when their disrespectful actions impact others. With the average of 1 position being fulfilled out of 8 nationally, some teachers (and bus drivers) work incredibly hard to accommodate everyone while keeping order, at least here at East. These same staff are also experiencing a shortage with staffing which makes it to where they have to do double the work depending on the day, all while having to put up with stray bullets powered by the inconsiderately ignorant minds of students… Why can’t people take the time to consider the feelings of others? It’s not that hard to respectfully pay attention to another person, many just don’t like putting in the extra effort for something that won’t directly impact them. So who cares! That doesn’t matter… Right?

Mainly though, the hostility we as a society have chosen to praise has tired me the most. While disrespect isn’t a spectacle to see nor new to hear, especially in school, I do think that the increased prevalence of blunt behaviors has impacted our generations in ways that will be hard to undo. Which leads me to my main point… The manners in our generation are becoming incredibly sparse, from both teens and adults.

Frankly, online trends like “the milk jug challenge,” or “devious licks” have normalized and encouraged destructive behavior with the idea that everyone is just “NPC’s” who don’t feel the same as we do, or who don’t deserve the same respect we expect. The lack of empathy has been known to increase rates of hostility, as many have trouble with self-awareness. There has been a 500% increase in reported cases of road rage over the last 10 years. (CNN) Along with a 31 percent increase of texting while driving. This shows that slowly but surely, technology is trickling into the way our society views the world. 

However now, fortunately it’s only 2025 and not the end of the world, so we definitely have time to recover from this social pause. I believe that if we were to stop this hate train of trusting your community while discontinuing the romanticization of isolation, the society we once knew could be restored to its original condition. So put the phone down and go talk to someone, because the glass in it will still be preserved for the next million years, while your friends… may not.