Tykes, tech, boomers, computers
- John DeSantis
- Feb 28, 2020
- 4 min read
Parents today don’t have a very easy hand. Don’t let a generation removed tell you otherwise, but we’ve all had our challenges. I’m 36 years old at the time of this writing. My parents had such amenities as the absence of technology and not having to navigate what that meant for their kids. They could also smoke on airplanes and may or may not have used car seats depending on who you ask. We watched Saturday morning cartoons, had to sit through commercials, and probably saw some PG rated movies very early on that would have been rated PG-13 or R these days.
For some perspective, Spaceballs is rated PG, and includes a man on Dark Helmet’s crew getting lasered in the testicles, a lengthy joke about cross-eyed “assholes,” and an f-bomb. Yes, a PG-rated movie. I probably saw Spaceballs half a dozen times before my 10th birthday on a VHS me and my brother watched recorded from HBO. I suppose the same could be said of Mel Brooks’s other early era PG-rated films High Anxiety, Young Frankenstein, and Silent Movie. It seems like they only got Blazing Saddles and History of the World Part 1 right with their R-ratings, and kids like me could see them all in those days with little warning to parents...but I digress.
TV was also looser in those days, and I can assure you most parents weren’t checking on the content their kids were watching, especially not over the summer without any sort of TV ratings system or descriptions of graphic content that forewarn us today. Even “Parental Advisory” stickers on CD’s were a futile gesture, though they’re all but irrelevant and obsolete today.
The introduction of the 16-bit Mortal Kombat was mostly the extent of video game taboo they had to deal with. And perhaps the moral ambiguity of whether to allow a 10 year old to buy an “OJ in the slammer” pog slammer.
Our parents didn’t have to worry about children better equipped to handle tech at the rapid rate that only occurs with having it available to you your entire life. A dial up modem and America Online didn’t debut in my house until I was a teenager. Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego was the extent of true crime exposure I had during the nascent internet age.
Now you’re dealing with the mystery of trying to keep up with what’s going on in your child’s life inside a sea of social media identities and what they might be doing or being subjected to, all while real tangible social interaction is no longer a requirement in society. We have student debt, housing prices, and cost of living increases at rates our parents never experienced, all to get ahead in a world that no longer permits many careers outside of vocational work without college education.
Fathers used to go to work and provide for the family, come home, help participate in sports and some extracurricular things of that nature. Mothers took care of everything in between. Along the way the traditional family model changed, men and women worked, both for self-fulfillment and out of necessity. Fathers took on more participation in the day to day upbringing of their children. Mothers became equally vital to the financial fortitude of the home. Expectations changed. The world changed, in many ways for the better, but not necessarily any easier.
Children today have the world at their fingertips. They can visit any dark corner of the world in an instant, and we do our best to try to guide them on a path that hopefully develops them into at least a decent human being. The basic pride in parenthood hasn’t changed, the worry hasn’t changed, but the approach has, the obstacles have, and the world is a smaller and a hell of a lot scarier place. And while this is going on we get bombarded with data and information both voluntary and involuntary. This is also a good thing, we have more resources and information in minutes than entire civilizations had in lifetimes just 100 or so years ago. The good old days, emphasis on “old.”
If the pre-internet age parent wanted to they could just turn off the TV or put the newspaper down. That’s no longer an option, not unless you plan to spend your life living out in the wilderness like Henry David Thoreau. But even Thoreau didn’t have the option to turn his phone back on and queue up an Uber to drive him out of Walden Pond.
Our kids sometimes seem like collateral damage in this age of digital overexposure, and the only way not to drive yourself crazy with that thought is to understand it and educate yourself on the evil and misinformation out there. We see more bad things as well as good than ever before some instances not because they’re happening at a higher rate, but because of their ability to be instantly reported on and broadcast to the world for anyone who wants to unlock a screen in their pocket. People can jump to conclusions and spread misinformation in ways never before possible. There are also 100 million more people in the US alone than there were only 40 years ago. Technology has rendered many jobs obsolete in that span. This is what parents today think about while giving their families every ounce of love they have.
People without kids or older parents of the pre-internet age may rush to tell you to put the phones or tablets away. However, computers and tablets are used more prevalently in modern education settings in addition to the already rigorous academic requirements, so some tech use is helpful unless you’re going Amish or deciding to ignore science and information altogether.
The reason no one has a catalog of Encyclopedia Britannica on their bookshelves anymore isn’t necessarily a bad one, we have more information literally in the palm of our hand than what was over 200 pounds of hardcover books only 20 years ago.
No one is closing the door on technology, it’s a part of our everyday lives and to brush it aside is more useless than screaming at clouds. Just try to let them be kids in the ways that will make them decent human beings in a world full of tech, for better or worse.
Listening to:
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