The other day (and today) I was thinking about how different things are from how they were when I was growing up. Yes, yes, I know. I'm not that old. Just shy of 23 years, I'm practically still a new born baby, bright pink with apple lungs, having no problem with the world hearing my voice. Or a least a spring chick-chicken at best.
But things are different, and I'm not saying it to age myself. Yesterday I attended a local parade celebrating the history of our town. My mother, grandma and I snagged some great curb seats and as we waited for the parade to start we watched two little girls who were friends. They couldn't have been more than the ages of 5 and 7. One was tanned with her dark hair in braided pony-tails, sprawled out on her stomach on the street. Obviously, she isn't old enough to worry about dirt on her dress or the germs from the street. Her friend was a little red haired girl who reminded me of myself at her age with her pretty blue frilled dress and a bow in her hair, her pale little legs dotted with mosquito bites, an angry shade of red in irritation from her scratching at them. No mind, she had probably had a wonderful time the night before, climbing trees or play sets, chasing after fire flies as the air grew cool and the sun went to bed.
As we watched, my mom made joking comments about how if the people on the floats threw candy close enough, would I still dive eagerly into the street to fight for my share? I told her that they aren't allowed to throw candy anymore. "You're kidding!" she said, obviously a little disappointed. I replied that it was probably for safety precautions, that someone could easily tamper with the candy to poison a child as a cruel trick or worse. My mother nodded, as if this made sense, but then shook her head and muttered about how different things were nowadays. How there are so many over-the-top regulations and precautions. As much as the precautions make sense, I had to agree with her. Because obviously, I had turned out fine (at least I think so), and so did my mother.
Its true. They no longer throw candy at parades. Kids no longer play at parks or ride bikes together on the streets unsupervised. There are no corner lemonade stands, manned by a little entrepreneur, eager to make their first buck to save for a bike or a pet. In some schools, there are metal detectors now. Parents fear more than ever the possibility of their child being taken in a public place. There are more bizarre acts of violence. Like the "zombie" attacks in Miami, where a man attacked an older gentleman. The attacker was naked and growling like an animal, and chewed half the man's face off before the cops arrived. According to reports, they tasered him several times with no apparent effect. It took fifteen cops to subdue another guy who was out of control during a separate incident. Reporters described both attacks as instances of "super-human strength".
Kids AND adults play video games for hours now on a perfect sunny day and God forbid they play online where they learn the worst kinds of language. Most kids have never heard of Pop-Eye, Its A Wonderful Life or Jane Austen. Working at a bookstore is semi-depressing during the school year because of how many kids and teens come through with the new (not classic) literature required for their English classes, or teachers who are bending to the will of students, buying supernatural fiction because "at least they're reading". The few teachers who stick to their guns on classic literature have students who are reluctant or completely uninterested in reading The Great Gatsby or Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson.
Our world is now seemingly filled with more complacency and more horrors than ever before: More horror stories of rape and kidnapping (my mother also watches too many episodes of Criminal Minds, which sparked her and my dad making the joined decision to invest in a 3,000,000 volt taser that I never would have purchased myself), murder, zombies and first person shooter games, Dead Space 3 and World of Warcraft, sexting and texting while driving (more accidents are caused by texting than drunk driving), etc. Girls dress in dresses and skirts that don't even allow them to bend over to pick something up if they were to drop something important. "Whoops, there goes my credit card...guess I'll wait until some guy notices my boobs or butt and picks it up for me hoping for a glance up my skirt." And girls wonder why they can't get a "gentleman" who's interested in their personality and not just their physical assets and won't take them seriously. Ladies, most men will treat you how you advertise yourself. If you're wearing a tube top for a dress, he's most likely going to treat you like a hooker because it looks like you're fishing for extra cash. Present yourself in the way you want men to view you. Don't expect them to see past the cleavage and your apple bottom booty shorts. They won't.
In my opinion, the world is the way it is because we've started to promote negative influences more than ever before. Everyone looks for the next movie that pushes edginess to the next level, introduces new "creative" acts of gore and sadistic violence, shows more skin, has more sexual tension. Video games are filled with monsters and men, and a kill isn't a kill if there isn't some blood spatter or guts pouring out. The language used in taunting other players is unrepeatable. Almost all literature for teens are filled with vampires, demons, and other supernatural beings cast in a romantic light. There are shows like Gossip Girl, Jersey Shore, TruBlood, The Walking Dead...I enjoy the last two listed, but I have a problem with them being so easily accessible to younger audiences, with magazines posting cover photos of Sookie, Eric and Bill wrapped in each other's naked bodies, slicked down with blood.
The bottom line is that we've become numb to these things. We believe they don't influence us, that we can watch without it effecting our behavior towards ourselves and towards others. But the fact that so much of this negative media doesn't bother us proves that it has influenced us. Granted, there are some pretty messed up people out there who could come up with creative ways to kill, rape, swear, etc. on their own among other things. But don't tell me that some of those people didn't have the thought cross their minds that it would be cool to imitate what they saw a favorite character do in a video game or comic book, or a scene in a movie or TV Show. You can't tell me that you haven't been influenced by the media, that you haven't quoted a character, or that your fashion choices haven't been impacted. Whatever you want to compare.
The world is a scary place, its true. Its a constantly evolving creature, and America will always be hungry for more. There's only so much we can shield kids from that they won't encounter on their own. But my generation and the generation after me are in trouble. Education is put on a back burner, we're unmotivated and complacent. We don't use the voice that God and our freedom has given us to impact the world, to spark change.
I'm not the most well-informed. I'm not the most involved with current events, social media or politics. Only recently have I started to really care what direction we are headed in. Only recently have I started to notice these major changes that have developed since I was young and carefree. Only recently have I really developed a desire to be involved.
Simple pleasures of life are very rarely appreciated in full. Anything "fun" costs money (there are so many things in life that are fun and FREE!). The Arts are the first thing to go when there is an economical financial crisis. But the arts are our core of expression! Music brings us together because music is something that we can all relate to. Art is universal, you could have five different people stare at the same painting and they'd each walk away with a different opinion. Theater is make-believe at its best, where children and adults alike can dress up and be someone else. Embody and express a character, convey a message, impact an audience.
Media is great. I'm all for it in moderation and discretion. But over consumption makes people lazy. Spell check allows you to not have to think about your spelling or grammar. Texting has encouraged the use of slang and abbreviation that has evolved into a new language that I can't even begin to understand and will never use (except for the occasional lol, brb or b/c). Video games allow you to become a different character that you take pride in for its strength, tact, the size of its gun, when really, this character only goes as far as your fingertips.
The world is what it is because we helped make it this way. Its not always pretty, most of the time its not. But it has its moments of home town glory and is still the birthplace for our childhood dreams and memories. I wish more people made an effort to protect that. Can we go back? Change is based on a history, sparked by a new idea that bloomed out of an old one. I don't believe in world peace. I don't believe that the negative influences we've nurtured will die out completely since there's no way to keep the entire population from using them. But I do believe we have the power of choice. We can choose to promote positive influences, use our voices to speak out and defend the simple pleasures in life, the positive channels of self expression, the importance of artistic culture, the classic people, characters, TV shows, literature, etc. on which we thrived. I believe without these things, we will become machines, destined to a dark sooty world of self preservation and compliance.
This concludes my attempt at voicing the crazy things that go on in my head, scraping at the surface of the pool of my intelligence, hoping I can get it to thaw out a little and maybe make some sense. Feel free to agree or disagree, to comment or remain silence. It is your choice after all.
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