Recently I’ve been working overnights so I go to the gym in the afternoon.
I usually walk to the gym and then go to the store and take the bus back.
Now while I’m waiting for the bus, the high school lets out. Everyday there has got to be at least 30 kids (yes I counted I get bored) waiting for this bus.
These kids all get on at Addison and get off at Belmont. This distance is FOUR BLOCKS.
Now sometimes I am waiting with these kids for 30 minutes or more for this bus. I pay $2.00 they pay $1.00 to ride.
Now I walk to the gym just about under 2 miles and there is no way in hell I’d wait 30 minutes (in cold(er)) weather no less, to ride FOUR blocks. The only reason I take the bus back is I usually go to the store and I don’t want to carry the groceries back.
It seems ridiculous to me to wait a half an hour. Ride one stop over and get off, but about 30 of them seem to do it.
College students often ride the campus bus a distance equal to or shorter. My rule has always been that if the bus is there, I’ll hop on it, if not, I’ll walk. shrug
Is it a high-crime area? Maybe they aren’t allowed to walk home. I agree, though, without other information this seems totally lazy. Unless it would be a 20-min or more walk, I’ll wait two minutes tops for a bus. And four blocks is nothing.
I have no idea where you live, so I can’t draw too much inference from it. For instance, it would be far more unusual in the 'burbs or a rural area than an urban one.
But it’s not just teens that are lazy. Yesterday I saw a woman (age uncertain, but somewhere between 35 and 45, I’d guess) take the elevator in our building to go up one. story. I looked around to see where her oxygen tank was. She wasn’t carrying anything, wasn’t in a wheelchair, on crutches, visibly limping, or in any other discernable way unable to walk up one flight of stairs. The stairs are right next to the elevator, and there’s no door to open in the stairwell (except at ground floor level, where there’s a security door with a passcode).
So - don’t single out the teens. They learn it from somebody.
I would bet that teens are no more lazy than any other age group. In the US, the majority of people are overweight/obese, so pretty much everyone is lazy.
Actually, teens are probably more prone to activity since they are young and still take PE class.
Dangit, YaWanna beat me to it by 3 minutes and more eloquently, to boot. shakes fist
I’ve also noticed that phenomenon with electric doors. People will go ridiculously out of their to avoid the bone-grinding manual labor of opening a door with their hands, even when they’re not carrying anything.
Not only power vs. manual doors, but I’ve noted on many occasions that people will wait in line for a door that’s already open rather than reach for the handle of an adjacent door, for example, at a mall exit where there may be 6 or 8 doors all together. Being the rebel that I am, I’ll open a door, only to have another queue form behind that door. Bizarre…
They’re just following their parents’ example. In my area, we see people drive to the end of their driveway to get their mail. If 50’ is a strain, 4 blocks might as well be a lightyear.
This might not be so bizarre as it appears at first. If I’m going through a door and see someone approaching right behind me, I’ll hold the door open for them. If there’s someone right ahead of me, I’ll let them hold the door for me, because (hang on, this might sound strange, but try and follow me) if they do wait an extra second to hold the door, but I open the door right next to them, it might appear rude or dismissive.
Okay, did that make any sense at all?
As to the OP, people in general are as lazy as technology allows them to be. I don’t condemn it. It’s just one of those things.
You mean like my brother, the wrestler/basketball player/lacrosse player/baseball player/honor student/future drama club member? Yeah, he’s pretty lazy.
I’m being quasi-sincere. Being lazy in some things does not mean you’re lazy at other things. He spends plenty of time on sports, but it lazy when it comes to homework and refuses to walk anywhere.
No, it made perfect sense - perhaps I wasn’t clear. I’ve seen a cluster of bodies maybe 5 or 6 deep waiting to pass through the single opened door, while the 4 or 5 others sat closed and untouched. Rather than wait for the herd, I’d go to one of the other doors. Because I’m a trailblazer!
