Why can't younger people get it?

Last night my wife and I went to Wendy's with our oldest daughter and her 15-year old daughter who is, most of the time, totally oblivious to anything going on around her, except what she gets as a text message on her be-jeweled cellphone. Today, I wondered why there is so much difference between our children and grandchildren, compared to us and our parents and grandparents. When we were young (in our teens during the 1950s and 1960s) we typically didn't buy anything we couldn't afford, most of us respected those in positions of authority, we walked to school and while there listened and learned, and many of us worked performing odd jobs to get any spending money we might have. We had only a few (if any) TV channels to watch, only AM radio to listen to, no computers, no video games, no cellphone, no blogging, no Facebook or MySpace, and no car (other than our parents if they allowed us to drive). We knew what we were, appreciated what we had, and aspired for greatness based largely upon our own initiative and capabilities, reinforced by family values passed on to us…by example. Those type values have, unfortunately, been mostly lost over the years, and today's young people are far, far different (in a worse way) from what we were at their age. In short, today's youth care not for the past, seek only to gratify their immediate needs, and have little regard for what may lie ahead in their lives. Most seem to believe that "someone" will take care of them and will give them what they want, when they want it. Sorry state of affairs to say the least, especially during these times of severe economic conditions. By the time they finally do figure this all out, it will probably be too late to do much about it.