Ah, a peaceful time where social media and technology did not consume our lives, those were the days. Honestly, think about it, life as a kid was so much better. You had no worries, no expectations, not a care in the world, people actually socialized, and all you had to do was play and love. Having your mom schedule play dates and RSVP for birthday parties at Rainforest Cafe, Build a Bear, and Libby Lu were your only concerns. Things have obviously changed a lot since then, and these are just a few:
1. You could care less how you looked in pictures.
Taking pictures as a kid was OUT of the picture. You dreaded it. You just wanted to play with your friends
You just wanted to have fun. And today, taking photos has become a newfound pain, where there is always someone bombarded with orders consisting of: "Can you take it from __ angle?", "Wait, can you retake this... five more times?", "This picture better not be going anywhere," and having hour long photo shoots with your friends doing 1,937,392 different poses just to post only one of the pictures taken out of the five billion. At this point, you have your friends hanging from the ceiling by one limb and angled at exactly 40 degrees just to take the right picture.
2. Answering the door
Back in the day, it was the greatest thing when the doorbell rang. You would slide up to the door in your socks and peek through the window to see who it is. Even if you didn't know who it was, you would open the door anyway because YOU HAD COMPANY! Someone you barely knew would just so happen to be in the neighborhood, so you would yell to summon your mom, who was in the kitchen quickly whipping together food for them. And now... it's: "HIDE YO KIDS, HIDE YO WIFE! SHHHH, GET DOWN, AND DON'T MAKE A SOUND! SOMEONE IS AT THE DOOR, OH MY GOSH! GET THE SWORD OUT! DON'T LET THEM KNOW ANYONE IS HOME!"
3. Relationships
Since you were a kid, you most likely grew up with the expectation that the boy is always supposed to ask the girl out in person, or maybe call her. The classics: boy throwing a rock at the window to tell the girl to sneak out with him, coming to the door to pick her up and meet her parents before taking her out, taking her out on a real date- the classic relationship scenarios every girl dreams of. But nah, nowadays its: a text message: "yo wya," "wyd tn," and "come outside," Late-night swiping on Tinder seems to be the idea of "dating" today.
If you do see people on a date, I bet you $10 the boy and girl will both be on their phones. No phone calls, or in person encounters- just text or Snapchat streak. Also, now there is the "game" and horror of leaving someone on "open" and ignoring them to play hard to get... Nope... Seriously? What has happened though?
4. Going on vacation
Going on vacation as a kid was the best feeling in a world. You actually got to enjoy activities without feeling the need to tell the world what you are doing every two seconds. If your parents took a photo of you doing something, great- no big deal, you'll see it in a few years. Today, everyone feels the urge to upload Snapchats and Instagram posts of every activity that they're doing. People seem to be too caught up in what others think of them as they "enjoy" their vacation, instead of actually having a good time on their trip.
5. Expectations of being a teenager
As a kid, you grow up watching movies about high school and college thinking to yourself, "Wow I can't wait to look like that one day!". It does not help that these movies cast people who are in their twenties. So when you got to high school, and everyone still looked 12, you were utterly confused as to why everyone did not miraculously transform over the summer. Why are people not singing? Kissing in the hallway? Dancing on the tables? Automatic high school sweetheart? "High School Musical," and just about every movie about high school ever, was a scam.
