I think today’s world is better. Memories are better than the real thing.[/quote]
It’s better in some ways. The weed is better. Easier to smoke with a vape. Cheaper. TV is better (both the content and the apparatus). You can carry most of the world’s information in your pocket.
And you’re right, memories are better than the real thing.
All that said, I wouldn’t trade growing up when I grew up with growing up now. Kids are under so much pressure now. They’re so overscheduled. There’s less freedom and free time. There’s less opportunity to figure things out for yourself. It’s tough for parents today to try to raise a kid the way my generation was raised. First, the neighborhood generally isn’t full of other kids roaming around. They’re all at piano lessons or playdates when they’re young, and, when they’re older, piano lessons or volunteering or joining clubs or otherwise building their college resumes. So a free-range kid is likely to spend a lot of his free-range time by himself. Second, you can get arrested for letting your kid go to the park by himself at ages we had been going to the park by ourselves for years. Third, you risk your kid being left behind in today’s much-more-competitive world.
We spent countless hours playing sandlot baseball, exploring field and forest, relaxing, riding our bikes here and there and the beach. Occasionally being bored enough that we’d sit around thinking of something to do. I wouldn’t trade that for all the information and great tv and cheap weed in the world.
Sure, parents can try to raise their kids like that today. But they generally don’t. No, I’ll take my childhood over today’s kids’ any day.
