Was It Better Times Back Then?

[toobfreak]

Are kids better off today with cellphones, constant monitoring, GPS tracking, zero tolerance, cameras watching your every move, or was it better back years ago with sex, drugs and rock & roll? Are we better off as a people now controlled and regulated, or did being wild and free back then make for a better person, happier life, and a better world with better more prepared people to deal with it?

I say the latter.

I've included a poll. Tell us what you did and when you did it. Things you can't do so easily growing up today that made those days special.

 

[frigidweirdo]

Are kids better off today with cellphones, constant monitoring, GPS tracking, zero tolerance, cameras watching your every move, or was it better back years ago with sex, drugs and rock & roll? Are we better off as a people now controlled and regulated, or did being wild and free back then make for a better person, happier life, and a better world with better more prepared people to deal with it?

I say the latter.

I've included a poll. Tell us what you did and when you did it. Things you can't do so easily growing up today that made those days special.

Kids are certainly less bored than they used to be.

 

[JoeB131]

Are kids better off today with cellphones, constant monitoring, GPS tracking, zero tolerance, cameras watching your every move, or was it better back years ago with sex, drugs and rock & roll? Are we better off as a people now controlled and regulated, or did being wild and free back then make for a better person, happier life, and a better world with better more prepared people to deal with it?

I say the latter.

I've included a poll. Tell us what you did and when you did it. Things you can't do so easily growing up today that made those days special.

Are you kidding, I would have loved to have grown up today instead of back then.

I mean, we all pine for simpler times, when we only have five TV stations and if you wanted to find something out, you had to trudge down to the library.

 

[toobfreak]

Are kids better off today with cellphones, constant monitoring, GPS tracking, zero tolerance, cameras watching your every move, or was it better back years ago with sex, drugs and rock & roll? Are we better off as a people now controlled and regulated, or did being wild and free back then make for a better person, happier life, and a better world with better more prepared people to deal with it?

I say the latter.

I've included a poll. Tell us what you did and when you did it. Things you can't do so easily growing up today that made those days special.

Kids are certainly less bored than they used to be.

Really? How? When I was a kid we had a million things to do. We came home from school excited and energized. Now all the kids I see come home quiet, demoralized, tired-looking, go in their houses, lock the doors and get back on their cellphones and social media living in an unreal world while their parents worry they might get a pimple.

 

[JoeB131]

Really? How? When I was a kid we had a million things to do. We came home from school excited and energized. Now all the kids I see come home quiet, demoralized, tired-looking, go in their houses, lock the doors and get back on their cellphones and social media living in an unreal world while their parents worry they might get a pimple.

Actually, I remember being bored most days after school. At least after puberty when playing outside wasn't all that anymore.

Of course, I grew up in Chicago before Global Warming and we used to actually have winters.

 

[toobfreak]

Are kids better off today with cellphones, constant monitoring, GPS tracking, zero tolerance, cameras watching your every move, or was it better back years ago with sex, drugs and rock & roll? Are we better off as a people now controlled and regulated, or did being wild and free back then make for a better person, happier life, and a better world with better more prepared people to deal with it?

I say the latter.

I've included a poll. Tell us what you did and when you did it. Things you can't do so easily growing up today that made those days special.

Are you kidding, I would have loved to have grown up today instead of back then.

I mean, we all pine for simpler times, when we only have five TV stations and if you wanted to find something out, you had to trudge down to the library.

Simpler or just more basic? Those 5 TV stations had more stuff on than 30 channels do now. It was GOOD programming, original ideas, comedy, variety shows not reality TV, and they only showed things ONCE. You had new programming not repeats, except maybe here and there, only 2 minute commercials, and you learned by doing real research and making an effort and thinking using bone fide comprehensive sources that had been vetted, not having instant gratification clicking a few web links and reading undocumented crap that any clown could produce.

Using a slide rule rather than an electronic calculator that just gives you the answer, watching The Big Valley and Perry Mason over 'America Can Dance' and 'Cops,' and having to actually find and research in books, understanding and putting things in your own words rather than clicking, copying and pasting and having everything right at your fingertips BUILT CHARACTER. Growing up handling guns and trusted with them rather than being afraid of them, learning to take care of yourself rather than being watched and mothered and restricted every minute, being allowed to feel your oats and make mistakes to learn from them and be forgiven rather than zero tolerance, a tight leash and a police record BUILT CHARACTER. It build Leaders.

I can understand why you would choose the latter, more easy path.

 

[strollingbones]

i dont long for polio and all that....and i think it is grand that kids now are computer savy at 3 ish....what were we doing at 3 ish ..eating mud

 

[JoeMoma]

i dont long for polio and all that....and i think it is grand that kids now are computer savy at 3 ish....what were we doing at 3 ish ..eating mud

Kids have lots more allergies and such because they don't eat enough mud anymore.

 

[midcan5]

Most people see the world as they are and not as it is. Of course times change, we were dirt poor (fifties) and while we sorta knew it, it really didn't matter as each person has their own personality and way of facing and being in the world. We had to share, and work was the way to any privilege. Advanced education, even then, was out of the reach of the working poor, but HS was considered an achievement as neither of our parents passed tenth grade. Today I am edgumacated (sic) and well to do, oh, and still happy. Being an avid reader and hard working liberal may be part of that. Who knows. Anyone who is serious student of people must puzzle over these times of addiction and ....

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life." Anonymous

"Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control. We can love and care for others but we cannot possess our children, lovers, family, or friends. We can assist them, pray for them, and wish them well, yet in the end their happiness and suffering depend on their thoughts and actions, not on our wishes." Jack Kornfield

"If what Proust says is true, that happiness is the absence of fever, then I will never know happiness. For I am possessed by a fever for knowledge, experience, and creation." Anaïs Nin

 

[Penelope]

MAGA, there is no previous time I want to go back to.

 

[rightwinger]

No question kids had more freedom

I got home from school, got on my bike and was gone till dinner. During the summer we were gone all day.
Sports were pickup games with whatever kids showed up. We made up the rules to accommodate
In the summer, I went camping with my friends. Not backyard camping, we would grab our tents and sleeping bags and go to a nearby creek or nearby mountain

 

[Penelope]

No question kids had more freedom

I got home from school, got on my bike and was gone till dinner. During the summer we were gone all day.
Sports were pickup games with whatever kids showed up. We made up the rules to accommodate
In the summer, I went camping with my friends. Not backyard camping, we would grab our tents and sleeping bags and go to a nearby creek or nearby mountain

It depended on where you lived I guess. I suspect we had the same crime back then, it just now known about more.

 

[rightwinger]

No question kids had more freedom

I got home from school, got on my bike and was gone till dinner. During the summer we were gone all day.
Sports were pickup games with whatever kids showed up. We made up the rules to accommodate
In the summer, I went camping with my friends. Not backyard camping, we would grab our tents and sleeping bags and go to a nearby creek or nearby mountain

It depended on where you lived I guess. I suspect we had the same crime back then, it just now known about more.

I think parents are more obsessed with crime and neighbors will report you if you let your kid out unsupervised

But many parents feel the need to supervise their kids whole day. Every activity needs to be planned and organized

 

[TNHarley]

Of course, I grew up in Chicago before Global Warming and we used to actually have winters.

Why you are an idiot reason #32,145
As to the OP, they are positives and negs to both.
I think technology is hurting us. As a society. People are more selfish and narcissistic

 

[Natural Citizen]

I spent most of my time in the woods.

Then, when I got old enough, I had a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with a really loud stereo which I played hard rock on really loud. And a jean jacket. Damn right.

 

[longknife]

Are kids better off today with cellphones, constant monitoring, GPS tracking, zero tolerance, cameras watching your every move, or was it better back years ago with sex, drugs and rock & roll? Are we better off as a people now controlled and regulated, or did being wild and free back then make for a better person, happier life, and a better world with better more prepared people to deal with it?

I say the latter.

I've included a poll. Tell us what you did and when you did it. Things you can't do so easily growing up today that made those days special.

Are you kidding, I would have loved to have grown up today instead of back then.

I mean, we all pine for simpler times, when we only have five TV stations and if you wanted to find something out, you had to trudge down to the library.

Who paid attention to the Boob Tube?
And going to the library was neat.

 

[blastoff]

Out of the house a lot more than in it it seems. Back home for lunch, back home for dinner, back out until it was time to come in in the summers. Every day rain or shine unless lightning keep us holed up for a while.

 

[JoeB131]

Simpler or just more basic? Those 5 TV stations had more stuff on than 30 channels do now. It was GOOD programming, original ideas, comedy, variety shows not reality TV, and they only showed things ONCE.

Are you fucking kidding me? Television in the 1970's was largely CRAP!

And, no, frankly, all you really had on most of these channels were reruns of stuff that was cancelled in the 1950's and 1960's. It's how Star Trek got so popular.

Using a slide rule rather than an electronic calculator that just gives you the answer, watching The Big Valley and Perry Mason over 'America Can Dance' and 'Cops,' and having to actually find and research in books, understanding and putting things in your own words rather than clicking, copying and pasting and having everything right at your fingertips BUILT CHARACTER.

No, it just took longer. Heck, in my previous career, I had to do math pretty much all day. I'd never get anything done without a calculator and a computer spreadsheet.

 

[Wyatt earp]

Are kids better off today with cellphones, constant monitoring, GPS tracking, zero tolerance, cameras watching your every move, or was it better back years ago with sex, drugs and rock & roll? Are we better off as a people now controlled and regulated, or did being wild and free back then make for a better person, happier life, and a better world with better more prepared people to deal with it?

I say the latter.

I've included a poll. Tell us what you did and when you did it. Things you can't do so easily growing up today that made those days special.

Are you kidding, I would have loved to have grown up today instead of back then.

I mean, we all pine for simpler times, when we only have five TV stations and if you wanted to find something out, you had to trudge down to the library.

You would be In jail if you grew up today ..


I wish I grew up in the 1950s...



.

 

[toobfreak]

Are you fucking kidding me? Television in the 1970's was largely CRAP!

You ARE fucked in the head, admit it! The 1970s was perhaps the greatest epic period of television, including many pioneering and cutting edge programs including:

MASH
All In The Family
Happy Days
The Rockford Files
Taxi
Saturday Night Live
Hawaii Five-O
Kung Fu
Gunsmoke
Bonanza
Kolchak The Night Stalker
The Streets of San Francisco
Monty Python
Laugh-In and
Space: 1999

No, it just took longer. Heck, in my previous career, I had to do math pretty much all day.

That's only because you were never any good with a slide rule.