Then and now…

Have you ever noticed how things have changed in your lifetime? Think about it, and you might be shocked at what you find. I will admit that I am old enough to remember when there was no such thing as cable TV. We had four channels and if the President was on our night was over! Every channel had set things at set times. We could set our watches by the news being at 5pm – no matter what sports show was on – World News at 6pm. 

I am old enough to remember the first video that came out on MTV was ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ by a group called The Buggles.  This is the link that will show you how much things have changed.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwuy4hHO3YQ

Thinking back on my life, I remember when there rotary phones (yes they did exist.)  I am old enough to remember there was something called a pay phone and you needed quarters to call home.  .

When I was in high school (this will tell you how old I am) we used magnetic tapes to load programs into computers and the common response that we got was C://Invalid Command Path// and the screen had two colors, black and green.   

If we got to school and had to do a report for history class we had to go to the school library and find the information in the encyclopedias and history books and then handwrite or use a typewriter to do the report. There was no delete button and spell check, you did it all. If you misspelled something we had to use white – out to cover over or retype the entire page.   Kids today have things so different, everything from phones, to the TV channels, to the music videos to the type of reports to do. 

When did we change from what is above to if you need to find out something you touch a mic icon on your phone and say ‘OK Google … ‘ and ask your question. When did reports go from having to learn how to use a card catalog to find the correct book to this?

It seems that kids don’t realize that we did have other things when we were growing up and that what they consider ‘old’ was at one point the latest thing out there. 

I remember when you wanted to hear a song you had a few choices, listen to the radio, play a vinyl record or play a cassette tape and hope it didn’t get eaten in the process. Today the kids have MP3 players, YouTube and so many ways to get what they want, but they are missing one concept in it all — having to work for what you want or need to have.

Kids today feel that they are entitled to everything and the attitude isn’t the best for this planet. How many of the older groups remember having to mow lawns if they wanted to get the latest Van Halen album and then if they wanted something more expensive they really had to work for it. 

Those are the ethics that are missing today from what I see. When kids that are 9 and 10 have cell phones that are more expensive than my water bill I am going ‘WTF?’. When those same kids will throw a fit when asked to take the garbage to the dumpster or get the mail and the parents have to tell them that they will get something in return I want to freak.  I know that I am old school but how are the kids going to learn responsibility if they aren’t taught that there is a punishment for not doing something that they had to do?

I ask each parent something, look at the way you were raised and the way your kids are being raised. If there is a major difference in the behavior, then work on changing it. The kids are the future of this planet and we need ones that are going to be responsible not ones that don’t care about their neighbors.