Changing norms

Research suggests today's Britons are no longer capable of saying 'thank you' when showing gratitude.
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Instead, 'cheers' has overtaken the expression to become the most popular phrase to bestow thanks.
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Forty per cent of those polled said they believe saying 'thank you' sounds too formal, and would rather heap praise using colloquial terms like 'fab', 'lovely' or 'wicked'.
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Almost half of those polled said they now use 'cheers' more often than 'thank you', while other popular phrases include 'ta', 'cool', and 'great'.
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A third said they would often just resort to a quick wave instead of saying 'thank you'.
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Caroline Weaver from the gift company Me to You, which conducted the poll of 3,000 people, said: "While the Great British public might feel uncomfortable saying thank you these days, they do like to show their gratitude in other ways.
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Respondents felt it didn't matter how you thanked someone for their kind actions, as long as you did so in a friendly and polite way.
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At the end of the day everyone knows that a big smile and some form of acknowledgement is all it takes to show we are grateful.
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The study found 'lovely', 'nice one', 'much appreciated', 'you star', and 'all right' are also used regularly in lieu of 'thank you'.
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Even foreign words such as 'merci', 'dance' and 'gracias' have become more popular than the traditional expression of thanks.
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However, despite the trend towards more informal language, two thirds of people described Britain as a "rude" nation and 84 per cent think people should make more of an effort to show appreciation.
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The decline in traditional standards manifests itself in the fact that four in ten people no longer send thank you letters if they receive gifts through the post
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The same percentage would not make their children send a thank you either, the study said.
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Language is changing all the time with each generation finding ways to make itself distinct from the previous one.
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Writing a text saying thank you or a face book message is now becoming the popular way to communicate
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So one generation moans about the perceived lack of manners while the next evolves its own way of saying thanks
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Has it ever been thus!