audioguru, you might want to do a basic Google before saying something like that. The US Department of health statistics shows 14% of kids (6-19) are overweight, that's hardly a majority, though a high number in it's own right.
Go on over to Samoa, where obesity is the norm, 75% of people in Urban Samoa are overweight. China even with it's lower 5% overall rate jumps to 20% in large cities. It's all a matter of perception, what numbers or information you chose to base your viewpoints on, and how much information you have on the methods of the data collection itself. Which leads me to the original post!
Hitech, you have to take into account your noticing a particular habit in people around you doesn't mean any more or less people did that particular thing than when you were younger, it just means you're noticing it now. It's the "When I was a kid" syndrome, it tells more about how a persons consciousness and thoughts develop as they age than about what you're observing. That's why there's the scientific method. Then again that's only as valid as the individuals using it.
In case you can't guess that can be applied to me as well, as I've gotten older I've grown a whole lot more long winded and philosophical about simple posts like why do people drag their feet nowdays <heh> But then again I tend to be very introspective about the little things I observe.