It's hard to believe that childhood was so long ago for me and my friends. Sure most of us are still kids at heart but our biggest concerns are no longer the first day of school or getting 100 percent on a spelling test. Now we're either raising families, working on our degrees, working a job, or some combination of all three. As a I think back to what it was like for me growing up I can't help notice the difference with how kids today are growing up.
This thought came to me as I watched an old episode of one of my favorite cartoons "Hey Arnold." Like me the kids on the show had a lot of freedom, fewer worries and not a lot of technology, and we were all perfectly happy. Here are some differences I've found between growing up in the 90's and early 2000's versus today.
First of all is the difference in technology. Back in the '90's cell phones weren't anything like they are today and it wasn't likely for a '90's kid to have one. Cell phones also weren't common in all households then, all we used were landlines or maybe a pager or beeper. If we wanted to get a hold of someone and we weren't at home we carried change for a payphone. Computers were also vastly different. Usually a family had one or two computers, mostly desktops. Internet was fairly slow and you couldn't be on the phone while being online. We had CD-ROM's and floppy disks instead of online gaming and USB drives. Instead of Facebook or Twitter we had chat rooms. Television and movies were different too. There was no such thing as Blu-Ray or DVD, just good old VHS tapes. If you missed a show you'd have to wait for it to run again rather then stream or DVR.
There's also a difference in how safe we all felt. Growing up I never had to worry about a gunman coming to school. We did have annual assemblies after the shooting at Columbine but we all still felt relatively safe. Now some parents don't even want to enroll their children in public school because mass shootings are so common.
Another major difference is how we interacted with our friends. The only time technology came into play was to play a computer game for about half an hour or watch a favorite cartoon or video. As long as the weather was good playing outside was a standard thing. Kids today still do it but they're also glued to their phones. When we out the streetlights coming on was our curfew and most of us had a watch of some kind to keep track of time.
Yes it's funny to see how different things are. Almost everything now is a click away and there is a lot more fear in the world. It's always interesting to see how different generations grow up. It also serves as a reminder of how we grow and change over time.
