The Decline of Neatness

Summary:
The article The Decline of Neatness, written by Norman Cousins discusses the phenomenon of our generation. The author expresses that our society has been significantly influenced by “sloppiness virus”; such as, our wearing styles, daily speech manners, unemotional attitude toward cruel behaviors, and human relationships.
At the beginning of the article, the author talks about our dressing style. He says that the blue jeans are the mark of times especially the untidy ones. People just blindly follow the fashion; wearing the sloppy clothing, in stead of requiring the comfortable feeling.
Our daily speech manners are also unkempt. People usually use incomplete sentences to communicate with others and they are not capable of using the English language. He tells us that it is common to hear people use violent and low language; for instance, the screenwriters refuse to write insipid scripts in order to guarantee the rating.
According to violent and low language, it influences the viewers’ responses toward cruel behaviors. The author claims that young audiences seem to lack ability to produce reaction when they see the violent and bloody screens, and “mindless violence” is the feature of the age. He says the cruel behaviors in visual medium make our children less sensitive and do not let them grow common attitude.
Finally, the author refers that untidy clothing, speech and emotions affect human relationships. It is obvious in the common attitude that weakens our feeling and obliterates our privacy toward sex in movies. In his conclusion, he states that his intention is not to go back to Victorian attitudes, but to see the sloppiness disappear soon, find the best location and draw on it.

Response:
It is easy to see that bad habits often contribute to bad consequences. Take this article for example, the sloppiness influences in many sections of our life; such as, dressing style, daily speech, attitude toward cruel behavior in movies and then, the human relationships.
In our times, people easily ignore to act in polite way when we compare with previous generation. For instance, few weeks ago, there was a piece of news stating that few high school female students occupy the priority seats without giving up their seats to the elder just standing around them. Though the elder tried to catch their attention, they just ignore him. It might seem to be ridiculous and unbelievable for adults, but it happens frequently especially on young generation.
The communicate manners also change dramatically. Young people not only use incomplete sentences while speaking, also create an unprecedented vocabulary or phrases which often confuse their parents. This phenomenon might lead to generation gap between parents and children.
Generally exposing to motion-picture affects audiences’ behavior, too. They would mimic the conversation in the films or from the television. It is common to hear them use violent and four-letter words which they recently learn from the visual medium. It brings about the declining level of people’s speech manner.
To sum up, we should start to notice, education and correct the bad habits in our daily life, or they would cause terrible results. We should search our location, like the author says in article, and avoid blindly following the fashions.