From ... "The Book of IF: Questions for the Games of Life and Love" by Evelyn McFarlane and James Saywell ...
If you had to name the one thing that has changed the most about growing up since your childhood, what would it be?
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The sense of security.
When I was growing up nobody locked the doors to their homes and everybody left keys in their cars and it was safe for our children to play outside!!
I am sure bad things happened, but overall I grew up with a sense of security and a sense that good things happen. Now we raise our children to never trust strangers, and don't stray out of sight, and we lock ourselves up tight at night and set alarms ....
Were things just as dangerous back then but we just weren't as aware of it??
When I was a kid in the summer, my Mom would let us out the door in the morning and say - "Be back by dark", and we were gone for the day - riding our bikes, playing baseball, exploring the neighborhood, whatever we wanted. That is long gone from a kid's life today, and it is a pity. Now it is organized everything, from just playing to all sports. No more free time to just be a kid.
I remember distintly the first time, as a kid, thinking things were getting too complicated.
Too fast.
I thought people would start to freak out if they didn't just take it easy and slow down.
Now, that I'm older and not wiser, I was right! People are freakin out! Makes me want to live in the woods and pretend it never happened.
But... I loves my puter.
I'm the youngest of 5, now 40something. I can remember plently of acts of sibling rivalry, but there was still a dependability factor among us. There was never a notion that someday years would pass without communicating. I never heard my parents threaten to leave each other. But when Dad died, shit started to rain. Mom was well into Alzheimers, so we grieved over her too. Now she died, and some communication has been restored, but the trust seems to have been lost. Please tell me that's not what growing up means. I thing we've grown older, and grown down.
Great answers and I agree.
I think the biggest change is the loss of serenity and feeing of being safe and secure.
Things have gotten out of hand and we live in dangerous times.
Everyone lives in a state of anxiety. Not good.
World is moving too fast for me.
i have to say things have changed. reading your answers, i see that i've changed, but i cling to the idea that i've grown older but not up. i see that distance has changed. we do have e-mail, phones with international access, and cell phones that can give is instant access anywhere and anywhen, but when is that last time anyone sat with another and shared hopes, dreams, goals? i'm proud of the accomplishments of my brother in the air force and industry and of the success of my sister in her efforts to be "perfect mom", but we're so far apart i miss them constantly. i remember the skinny kid with the big ears and the girl with the unruley curles. we no longer have the time together to see those people...even the the girl with the pony tail and the constant giggle seems to be far away...
When I first read the question I thought about the electronic advances. But I think everyone is right, the most dissapointing aspect is how society and morals have deteriorated. I was remembering growing up with Andy Griffith and Captain Kangaroo and Ed Sullivan and Lucy and Father Knows Best. Look at TV now!
Ahhh...the carefree days of childhood,(pre-teenage angst, that is! LOL)Getting up in the morning on a summer day, playing all day, no fears, no worries, no sense of REAL responsibility!No one had to lock their doors, or fear getting car-jacked at a red-light,or worry about their computer crashing from the next "virus" or "hacker". I didn't get palpations when I heard a jumbo jet overhead that seemed to be flying a little too low,or felt I needed to learn self defense to thwart off a rapist(wish I had learned it earlier!). I know now evil existed back then just as it does now, but because we didn't have these marvelous machines we didn't hear or see about them as often or as soon as we do now and I think our parents and society in general,let us be kids a little longer (and shielded us from a lot of it),then kids today are. But perhaps some of it is necessary for their survival.But I think today kids see so much, they are systematically desensitized to much of it.
But for all of the danger, and fear, and ugliness, I still hold on to HOPE...for without it....there is nothing. Kahlil Gibran said "A great man is he who never loses the heart of a child." Wise words!
The sense of entitlement..
I don't believe the majority of us were raised to "expect" anything, but we were raised to work and earn everything...
Too many people believe they are "entitled" to all the luxuries and conveniences the world has to offer......without effort..
TV - used to only be 4 channels (ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS) and now there are umpteen kajillion!
The kids have a distinct lack of respect for those elder and more knowledgeable. In other words, the majority of them are.....well....they're buttheads. That's what they are!
Simplicity. In our age of instant gratification, instant information and instant access we are forever bombarded with the minutae of life which takes our time and energy and is of no importance whatsoever. Simplicity is now a commodity sorely needed in many of our lives. I know I cherish my simple moments
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