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StoryWorth: Generational Changes
Aug. 2nd, 2019 10:48 amHow is life different today compared to when you were a child?
There's always a temptation to compare one's own childhood and adulthood and to see the world of our youth as simpler and larger than the world we face today. I think the biggest difference between Alice's childhood and mine is that she is almost never bored.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do when I was a kid. School was pretty tedious, but after school and in the summers it felt like there just wasn't a lot to do. I watched a bunch of tv--there were four channels: ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS. There was relatively little tv made for kids (though more than just a decade earlier) and I could only watch what was being broadcast at the moment. I read every book in the children's section of our relatively small library, supplemented by books that my eldest sister bought me on trips to Boston, and completely inappropriate books from the shelves of my middle sister and even my father. I played with my toys, I had what we now call playdates, I hung around with the kids up the block--my mom kind of hated that, as they were not "our sort". Most of my friends didn't live right in the center of town, and I could only talk to them if one of my parents wasn't on the single landline. I played in our backyard or went over to the playground at school, or later went to the village pool and playground on my own. I explored the woods down behind the bank across the street from our house. I wrote stories and plays. I had ballet once a week. Sometimes I helped my mom with whatever housework she was doing, but she tended to be impatient with my efforts and find it easier to do it herself. I helped my dad if he had mailings to fold, or bulletins to copy on the mimeograph machine. It feels as though I spent a lot of time at loose ends.
Alice puts in long days. During the school year she has after school activities most days (chorus, piano, kung fu, dance) and if she has a free day she often has a friend over. She has more homework than I remember doing at her age. But when she has free time she has the entire world at her fingertips. She has had lots of toys and art supplies, costumes, and kits, but these days barely touches those. She has a gazillion books, both hardcopy and on her Kindle. She can watch any of the dozens of made-for-her-age tv shows whenever she wants (another big change is that she has watched almost nothing made for adults, whereas I watched whatever my sisters and parents watched). She has YouTube and video games and all the rest of the internet at her fingertips. She can text or talk with her friends any time.
I'm interested to see what difference that makes for her as she matures. When I talk about this, many people respond with regret, feeling that the boredom was motivating and forced us all to invent our own toys and games and projects. But I don't see Alice as any less inventive than I was at her age, just with more resources. I love all the opportunities that she gets to have, because of the ways that things have changed, as well as the contrast between my upbringing in a tiny, rural town and hers here in Somerville. As she builds her own life, I am excited to see how she absorbs all these inputs and experiences and what she makes of it all.
There's always a temptation to compare one's own childhood and adulthood and to see the world of our youth as simpler and larger than the world we face today. I think the biggest difference between Alice's childhood and mine is that she is almost never bored.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do when I was a kid. School was pretty tedious, but after school and in the summers it felt like there just wasn't a lot to do. I watched a bunch of tv--there were four channels: ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS. There was relatively little tv made for kids (though more than just a decade earlier) and I could only watch what was being broadcast at the moment. I read every book in the children's section of our relatively small library, supplemented by books that my eldest sister bought me on trips to Boston, and completely inappropriate books from the shelves of my middle sister and even my father. I played with my toys, I had what we now call playdates, I hung around with the kids up the block--my mom kind of hated that, as they were not "our sort". Most of my friends didn't live right in the center of town, and I could only talk to them if one of my parents wasn't on the single landline. I played in our backyard or went over to the playground at school, or later went to the village pool and playground on my own. I explored the woods down behind the bank across the street from our house. I wrote stories and plays. I had ballet once a week. Sometimes I helped my mom with whatever housework she was doing, but she tended to be impatient with my efforts and find it easier to do it herself. I helped my dad if he had mailings to fold, or bulletins to copy on the mimeograph machine. It feels as though I spent a lot of time at loose ends.
Alice puts in long days. During the school year she has after school activities most days (chorus, piano, kung fu, dance) and if she has a free day she often has a friend over. She has more homework than I remember doing at her age. But when she has free time she has the entire world at her fingertips. She has had lots of toys and art supplies, costumes, and kits, but these days barely touches those. She has a gazillion books, both hardcopy and on her Kindle. She can watch any of the dozens of made-for-her-age tv shows whenever she wants (another big change is that she has watched almost nothing made for adults, whereas I watched whatever my sisters and parents watched). She has YouTube and video games and all the rest of the internet at her fingertips. She can text or talk with her friends any time.
I'm interested to see what difference that makes for her as she matures. When I talk about this, many people respond with regret, feeling that the boredom was motivating and forced us all to invent our own toys and games and projects. But I don't see Alice as any less inventive than I was at her age, just with more resources. I love all the opportunities that she gets to have, because of the ways that things have changed, as well as the contrast between my upbringing in a tiny, rural town and hers here in Somerville. As she builds her own life, I am excited to see how she absorbs all these inputs and experiences and what she makes of it all.
