Friday, May 14, 2010

Today’s segment is certainly not an original and the latest which portrays the difference in growing up today as opposed to say just 30 years ago. Even relatively young parents with teen-agers admit that in many cases their kids have it much easier then they did.

It was not that long ago when the Internet did not exist so if you wanted to know something you had to go to the library and look it up…by the way those libraries did not have coffee shops in them either.

There was no email…you actually had to write letters with a pen. Then you put a stamp on it and had to walk across the street and put the letter in the mailbox and it would not get there for a couple of days.

There were no MP3’s or Napsters or ITunes…if you wanted to “steal” music you had to get a ride to the record store and shoplift it yourself!
Or you had to wait around to tape it when your favorite radio station played the songs you wanted. By the way there were no CD players but tape decks in cars. Often when you hit the “eject” button the tape would get stuck and come undone and you might have to throw it away.

There were no cell phones so when you left your house it meant you would be out of touch with your friends for more than ten minutes. Can you imagine not being able to make or receive a call or even worse be able to text on a 24/7 basis?
By the way there was no Call Waiting so when you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal…what a tragedy.

In the old days there was no Cartoon Network….if you wanted to watch cartoons you waited for Saturday morning. After school or on weekends you did not play some fancy electronic game…rather you played outside with your friends and if you came back inside you got stuck doing chores.
Oh and child protective services did not care if your parents beat you…as a matter of fact your friends’ parents also had permission to whack you when needed.

Times really have changed….today’s younger generation could not have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!