Dig it or Ditch it

Inside the generation I have grown up in, a lot of things have definitely changed faster than I ever thought they could. Remember the music we grew up listening to, the toys we played with, what games were played during our recesses and the shows we watched on the weekends?
It’s amazing to think that so much of that has changed in the last decade. A huge part of me feels some sympathy for those younger than me by a couple years that were born into a culture of technology and cyber worlds.

Music has always been something that morphs with time and changes constantly. But holy wow has it gotten terrible in my opinion. Where did all the bands go? Why has everything replaced electronically with Midi and auto-tune?
Being raised on CCR, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and ZZ Top to name a few, and forming my own favorite genres and bands throughout the years, I couldn’t feel more fortunate to have had the exposure I have had to real, raw and determined music. Before toys went psychotically electronic, there were slinkies, kaleidoscopes, boomerangs, building blocks, Rubix cubes, Jacobs’s ladders and board games like Othello, mancala and regular checkers.

All of those seem to have been replaced with phone apps or programs on the computer, and a lot less interactive amongst others. Four-square was a pretty big hit during those school recess times, and jump rope even had books on different kinds of jumps you could learn, along with the different chants you holler out through the challenge of not getting slapped with the rope that usually left a pretty decent red mark.

To think that Boy Meets World, Rugrats, Angry Beavers and so many other shows are barely even aired anymore just kills me! Well, not literally, but emotionally it’s about as depressing as a wet cat. What has media done to our future generations? Why have they been deprived of such greatness? I feel it’s our responsibility to bring back some of the flare we enjoyed as kids that the generations below us were so wrongly deprived of.

Remembering how much fun we had as kids is pretty bittersweet, but I wouldn’t have wanted to grow up any other way, shape or form. Looking around at how society is and what consists of television and the radio is probably one of the most depressing things I can think of happening to people in future generations.

Maybe if we bring back a little of the simple beauty of soda pop or homemade lemonade in the sunshine, chalk drawings, old school punk and classic rock, or even tents in our living spaces made from sheets and blankets, life could be sweeter and classic again, college or not.

Suzy is a junior majoring in journalism.