Warning Labels

My friend who designs placards for aircraft interiors was commenting how people in general have gone dumber. Before we continue, some background information: placards on an aircraft are usually decals that contain graphics or words that provide critical information required for regulatory compliance (yes, mandated by aviation law!). They can take the form of indicating where an emergency equipment like a fire extinguisher is located or even be instructional like telling people to stow their tray tables during takeoff, taxi and landing. "There are a lot of placards", so my friend laments, and she even wonders if passengers would even bother to read and understand what the placards are saying especially when a real emergency occurred; "...they'd probably just panic and get themselves killed", was her conclusion.

Just like in an aircraft, there are a lot of placard information in our daily living, a good deal of them are warning labels. One of the most epic warning labels is the one on those disposable coffee cups (used to be styrofoam but these days layered paper cups are more common) which simply reads, "Caution - Hot Beverage". "...you mean to say, if you ordered hot coffee, you won't expect it to be hot and be extra careful?", my friend went on sarcastically. Yet in 1992, a lady actually sued McDonald's for a hot drink that she accidentally spilt on herself! Since then all the cups in public establishments (not just in McDonald's) carried this warning label in some form or another.

In our modern society, people are more connected... to their mobile devices. Many of such people develop self-entitled attitudes; they expect to be served (especially just because they paid for a service) and when things go wrong, they are always quick to point their fingers at other's shortcomings. They need signs or instructions to tell them how to something, else it's your fault that they were not informed properly. As you can see in the earlier example, they would not hesitate to complain or sue when something bad happens. As my friend warns, "generally people will just become so stupid, they will need a sign or instruction to do practically everything including one to tell them how to dress up, brush teeth, feed themselves, use the toilet and so on." By that time, according to my friend's postulation, "they'd be so stupid, it won't be hard to get themselves killed."