Older people often lament the good old days. As an older parent, I look at the differences between life for my son and what life was like for a kid in the 60s and early 70s and see that things were better then. To qualify that statement, what I mean is that it was better for the kids then; mentally, spiritually and physically.
Life for a kid today means growing up in a technologically sophisticated world. Many of the devices taken for granted today were “futuristic” and just pure fantasy and science fiction when I was a kid. Now that we have grown into that high-tech world, it’s not all good for kids.
Technology is not a kid’s friend
There may be a certain amount of “old-fogeyism” involved here and certainly anyone under 40 will view it that way. What could possibly be wrong with smart phones, tablets, netbooks, MP3 players, DVD’s Blu-Ray, video games or texting? They all make life enjoyable, right? (and we even sell these products on Pilewire.com)
The truth is that there is plenty wrong with all of these innovations from a very practical standpoint; they actually hurt the kids and take away some of the childhood that older folks enjoyed and lament.
A kid then
When we got home from school, when I was in grade school, we just could not wait to get outside and play with our friends. If those friends got to our house first, they would stand on the porch and melodically yell our names. We would rush to the door, let our moms know what we were doing and head out in a hurry.
There was plenty of exercise that was part and parcel of play and it was generally outside; no worry about bad people doing something, drive-by shootings, adult Internet-fare or music with violent or overtly sexual lyrics. Parents didn’t have these concerns except for some minor “stranger danger” and kids generally never had to experience any of them. That’s not to say that kids were perfect then, but life was just different.
How many kids in my neighborhood were overweight? Maybe two that I can think of. That was a rarity then because kids spent too much time burning calories to gain weight. There were no kids who owned a gun and pocket knives were used for carving tree branches and not considered as a necessary weapon. There was no concept of having to watch somebody’s back. At least not in the Midwest.
When it was dinnertime, a parent would go out onto the porch and yell the child’s name. They would then yell “dinner.” Some people owned a “dinner bell.” The kids ran home, ate dinner and then begged to go back outside. With instructions to be home before dark, they returned to play and received the benefits of the associated exercise. During the summer, this pattern started earlier in the day and continued until dusk.
Kids today
Today, kids spend hours a week or even hours a day in front of the TV or computer playing video games. They play more video games on mobile devices. Most video games are built around the theme of shooting something or someone. They watch and listen to shows and music that include blatant sexual lyrics or lyrics inciting violence. The portrayal of woman is a long ways from Wonder Woman.
Kids get lazy and many end up experiencing the net affect of no exercise paired with ingesting many empty calories. While the kids of the 60s and 70s were thrilled with the occasional visit to McDonalds, today the diet is skewed towards foods offering little benefit. While the realization that something has to be done has recently gripped our society, the lifestyle has become too hardwired.
When kids first choice is to be reclusive and play a video game, what does that do to their social skills or a social life? The child’s perception may be that they have friends online because of social media, but to compare this with the time spent with friends in the 60s and 70s just isn’t the same. There is no replacing real in-person time with friends. Some people have those same friends today; friendships that have stood the test of time.
Many kids complained about going to church back then, but it was still a part of life for the majority. There was no attempt to dissuade kids from going to church or Sunday school. They weren’t always overtly religious in their day to day lives, but they had a sense of what morals and ethics were and it was a concept that was taught in the home.
That life was better for a kid
In my opinion, it would benefit the country and especially today’s kids to go back to the life that many baby-boomers lived as kids. The sad truth is that changing a culture or society is like turning a massive ship around without power steering. Not only is that change hard to initiate, but there is no large-scale movement to initiate it in the first place. Most parents of school-age kids today did not grow up in the 60s and 70s and just don’t realize the enormous difference.
Who wants to hear stories about the “good old days” when a person today can spend three hours blowing away their opponent on a video screen? Without any reference or ability to compare life today to life 45 years ago, they think that the video game must be life at its best.
