one time in an english class for some reason we had to read and respond to an article about a couple of young parents who had decided to take away all this Fancy New Technology and only use shit that had been around since the mid-80s. it quoted the father as saying something like “kids today are just spending too much time looking at their screens, it wasn’t like that when i was a kid, we were outside all the time!”. but the parents were about the same age as me. they were part of my generation. and when they were kids—when we were kids—our parents said the same thing about us. we spend too much time playing video games, playing nintendo, watching 24 hour cable tv, and not enough time playing outside. and our parents got the same shit when they were kids, about spending too much time watching tv. and this shit just goes back generations and generations, and maybe it turns out that when we grow up we romanticize our childhoods?? like, if you don’t think your eight-year-old needs a cell phone, that’s fine, but don’t act like this is a sign of some moral decay that conveniently didn’t start until after you graduated from high school
rewind a 115 years and read any record of adult sentiment during the time (and place) and you get: kids these days read too many fucking novels and spend too much time playing tennis and going boating with their friends in straw hats!! jazz music is corrupting western civilization!!! bustle skirts and picture hats are way too revealing attire for young women!!!!!
The “good old days” were actually terrible, and water is wet.
Three thousand years ago: YOU KIDS TODAY AND YOUR MARSH THICKETS.
