It is 11:55pm June 7, 2009. I am typing away into a Blackberry a blog about the 70's. I was staring into a metal frame for about half an hour, wondering where my amusement has went. I sat, I complained, and still there was no cable in site. I trotted over to another metal frame, this one asks for my participation. The internet was not working. My amusement ceases to exist, and a profound thought enters my mind, what if I had grown up to never experience this.
Earlier, I sprinted 20 feet across the street. I visited my cousins who had the same cable and internet company, I was hoping there's was still working. We sat, we talked, and decided that it was problem in the neighborhood.
My 2009 NBA Finals Game 2, was not meant to be watched. I was left in the dark, and did not know what to do. I looked over at my uncle and he told me it would fix itself in a while.
The thought hit me, and I asked him. What was it like growing up in a time without, cable TV or the internet? A time in which kids were not plugged in to constant stimulation. Kids have so much media to access. Has it gone to0 far, is it better or worse?
He said when he was a kid, they spent their time mostly in the street. They played every game, stickball, football, basketball, baseball, dodgeball, kickball, punchball (I think it is safe to say that they exhausted the possibilities of playing with a ball). There was more, tag, manhunt, red light green light. Every media they had too was exhausted. There was one TV in the house, and since he was the youngest he had the least right to it. "When a novella was on, forget about it. And I think, the real change started with VHS. The idea of watching a movie whenever you wanted to made growing up different. Everything followed after that."
Also dating was a lot different. He did not have his own private cell phone. There was not a facebook or a myspace. He said, "I see all these kids now, meeting girls on the internet. Talking to them using text messages. People didn't have that. There was more space between two people who were dating. These kids nowadays get married before they even know it."
To relate that to now, there are kids who get their first cell phone before they even get a double digit age. They are always plugged in whether it is an ipod or a their twitter account. They have the option of choice. My uncle said that winters were the worst. There was nothing to do in the house. Now kids have plenty and more to do, video games, TV, computers, there is a wide array of amusement. There is no reason for a kid to be doing nothing. To be kept in a house all day is not the worst thing ever. A kid can stay home all day and not even urge to go outside, not even urge to feel the sun on their skin. A kid's access to the world does not have to directly deal with where they live, but rather what they engage themselves in.
Long lost are the times where media is limited, where there was less to wonder and reach out for. What is lost vs. what is gained is another discussion in itself. Hopefully the nostalgia of being a child is never lost to future kids.
Here is a clip from the classic movie Stylewars. This movie characterizes graffiti in the late 1970's and early 80's. If you have never seen this movie, then you do not know hip hop. Simple as that.
Good post.
ReplyDelete