I watched a kid rip apart his laptop

[vsage]

So here's the setup: I'm walking out of taco bell in my college's union which exits through the gameroom. I sit down at a seat and watch some people play DDR and this kid comes up next to me (he was at least 18 but you'll see why I call him a kid in a moment) and thinks it would be fashionable to listen to music on his laptop while waiting to play on the machine. He flips the screen open and I notice he's silent next to me and proclaims "What the hell?! My screen is cracked!"

I didn't really know what to think but I was sure that he was about to do something stupid. He gets up and chucks the laptop in the trashcan. That's right: Because of a slightly cracked screen he throws his entire laptop away. He comes back 5 minutes later and proclaims he wanted to save the HDD so he proceeds to rip apart the laptop with his hands, damaging every single component inside (including ultimately the HDD which is now wet from the contents of the trash can).

At this point I was fairly pissed off that someone could just throw away a $1000 item but kept quiet. I glanced over and noticed there was a port that allowed for a monitor to be attached to the laptop and instantly became a little more angry at his wastefulness. I'm not hardcore into technology but I know for a fact that you can transplant LCD screens over with a little knowhow or just asking a computer repair technician. I didn't bother to tell him that though because it appeared to me it wasn't going to make him any less angry so I just walked out.

What are your thoughts on this kid? I still can't believe I saw that just yesterday.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Damn spoiled rich kids. They think everything's disposable.

Where was this? Pepperdine?

 

[Smurf]

American way of life at its peak.

 

[Moonbear]

American way of life at its peak.

I'd call it a nadir, but same intent. I don't know if there are more and more kids like that nowadays, or just that I notice them more than I used to. Spoiled brats.

 

[loseyourname]

American way of life at its peak.

A righteous sense of entitlement is not the American way; it is the way of a small, wealthy minority.

 

[loseyourname]

What are your thoughts on this kid? I still can't believe I saw that just yesterday.

He's an idiot. What are your thoughts on the Ron Zook firing? I used to love Florida football under Spurrier.

 

[franznietzsche]

Its not that there are more spoiled kids, its just that there are more morons with access to these kinds of things.

I know, i live in a dorm full of them.

 

[vsage]

He's an idiot. What are your thoughts on the Ron Zook firing? I used to love Florida football under Spurrier.

I don't think he should have been fired in the middle of the season. I'm just glad he's carrying on as normal to an extent. He still did some good recruiting but I think he's getting shafted because the team is so young. I would have personally waited for another year to fire him but UF likes winning teams. I liked Spurrier football too. I think it's good he isn't coming back to UF because it could be analogous to when Michael Jordan came back to basketball the 3rd time: A part of his reputation eroded away when he stepped back on the court.

 

[tribdog]

One Christmas I got a new laptop and my girlfriend at that time got mad at me and drop kicked it across the room. Shattered the screen. Had to hook it up to a monitor to use it, but used it that way for quite a while.

 

[Smurf]

A righteous sense of entitlement is not the American way; it is the way of a small, wealthy minority.

This small, wealthy minority being the peak of it. And the peak is getting higher.

 

[tribdog]

This small, wealthy minority being the peak of it. And the peak is getting higher.

There were more millionaires created this year than any other

 

[loseyourname]

And it isn't created millionaires who have this attitude. It is people born into money that don't appreciate the work done to make it.

 

[BobG]

One Christmas I got a new laptop and my girlfriend at that time got mad at me and drop kicked it across the room. Shattered the screen. Had to hook it up to a monitor to use it, but used it that way for quite a while.

Umm, this didn't have anything to do with the carpet incident, did it?

 

[Chrono]

He could have just given it to someone instead of throwing it in the trash.

 

[Dooga Blackrazor]

Most people are wasteful and this kid only seems wasteful from the perspective of the average individual. Many people discard food and waste energy because it's more convienient for them to leave lights on or not package leftovers. If this labtop was his equivalent to a penny I can't really blame him.

If I was in your situation I would've been angry too though.

 

[franznietzsche]

Umm, this didn't have anything to do with the carpet incident, did it?

tribdog willnever live that down. Thats twice in one week its been mentioned in different threads. Long live carpet welding!

 

[Moonbear]

One Christmas I got a new laptop and my girlfriend at that time got mad at me and drop kicked it across the room. Shattered the screen. Had to hook it up to a monitor to use it, but used it that way for quite a while.

Where do you find these psycho women?

 

[Zantra]

I don't know where this kid got his laptop, but I'm betting his parents paid for it. I'm also betting that if they knew what he did, they'd have hit the roof. If my kid did that, I'm make her pay it off, or it would be the last thing she got for a very long time. If he were my kid, he'd live to regret it. Unfortunately, he's not.

And tribdog, I hope you made your girlfriend pay for that laptop, I'd have dumped her just based on that alone.

Childish and wasteful.

 

[franznietzsche]

If a girlfriend had drop kicked a $1000+ computer, she had better have been breaking up with me, because it is childish, wasteful, not to mention disrespectful.

Of course then again, i suppose i should wonder what her reasons were. If this was in retaliation for cheating, beating her,or some other behavoir worthy of a $1000 penalty, my position softens considerably, though from your post it doesn't sound like that, and i would hope her reasons weren't like that...

 

[Evo]

I don't know where this kid got his laptop, but I'm betting his parents paid for it. I'm also betting that if they knew what he did, they'd have hit the roof. If my kid did that, I'm make her pay it off, or it would be the last thing she got for a very long time. If he were my kid, he'd live to regret it. Unfortunately, he's not.

And tribdog, I hope you made your girlfriend pay for that laptop, I'd have dumped her just based on that alone.

Childish and wasteful.

I've got to say I completely agree with Zantra on everything. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior. Regardless of how much money you have, it is childish and wasteful.

 

[Dagenais]

American way of life at its peak.

You live in B.C., right?

There are plenty of rich, spoiled kids there. Don't claim that this is exclusive to America.

 

[Smurf]

Dagenais, there are plenty of rich, spoiled kids everywhere in the west. I have never, ever, and I never, ever will claim that wastfullness is exclusive to America unless/until that one day becomes true.
I've argued with you enough you should realize by now I hate the Canadian Government and Economics as much as I hate the American counter parts.

Perhapse you are not familliar with the terminology 'American way of Life' to which I was refering.

 

[vsage]

The 'American way of life' may not be exclusive to Americans but we sure made it famous. I think http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/saving/efficiency/savingenergy.html speaks for itself. We consume twice as much energy as China despite being 1/5 the population (Canada has a curiously high consumption per capita as well though). I won't say that the DoE data shows that we are wasting all that energy because the US and Canada do enjoy high standards of living relative to most eastern countries.

 

[jimmy p]

Its not that there are more spoiled kids, its just that there are more morons with access to these kinds of things.

I know, i live in a dorm full of them.

I vote for "moron" too. Damn, I love that word.

 

[Moonbear]

This topic brought another thought to mind...anger management classes. I don't know what they really teach in those classes or if any of it really works. Does anyone know? I always thought that if someone got to be an adult and still acted like such a child about controlling their displays of anger (the grown-up equivalent of a temper tantrum), then how is sitting through a class really going to change that?

 

[franznietzsche]

This topic brought another thought to mind...anger management classes. I don't know what they really teach in those classes or if any of it really works. Does anyone know? I always thought that if someone got to be an adult and still acted like such a child about controlling their displays of anger (the grown-up equivalent of a temper tantrum), then how is sitting through a class really going to change that?

Kinda like rehabilitating criminals, eh?

 

[Smurf]

yes, taking a bunch of murders, bank robbers and rapists and sticking them in the same place, let them hang out for a few years and then letting them go is the perfect way to reduce crime.

 

[franznietzsche]

yes, taking a bunch of murders, bank robbers and rapists and sticking them in the same place, let them hang out for a few years and then letting them go is the perfect way to reduce crime.

I thought that was internment, not rehabilitation. Maybe you're confused.Or maybe I'm confused.

 

[Smurf]

There's supposed to be a difference but I'm not aware of any.

 

[tribdog]

Actually the reason my laptop was kicked across the room was because I was paying more attention to it than to the girlfriend. that is the one area where I'm not perfect. I am usually pretty good about making sure whoever I'm with is happy, I do sometimes get sidetracked while checking PF for new posts and end up spending about 10 hours online.