This is my post for memoirmonday #32 How has your worldview evolved over time? hosted by @ericvancewalton
The one big thing that has changed the most since I was a child is children can not play outside like they did when I was a child, we had the freedom to go anywhere within reason without adult supervision, you could go alone or with a friend. Now children need to be watched or someone will snatch them. I had never heard of Human Trafficking until I was in my 40s, it was not common. Now this goes on all over the world.
When I was in my teens I was glad I did not live on the other side of the big pond. I would see on the news that people were being killed on the streets by bombs exploding. Back then they showed the people who died lying in the street and the blood coming from their bodies, it is forever etched in my mind. This is one thing I am glad the news no longer shows. I always thought about how lucky we are that that sort of thing did not happen here. How things have now changed. I think the people who live over there are now saying they are glad they do not live over here with the school shootings and bombings we have, and I do not blame them.
I always wanted to travel, to see a castle, to see Petra, and the pyramids but now since 911, I have no desire to get on a plane and fly across the world. The world has changed, nothing is safe anymore. Now I see little difference in the violence I saw on TV compared to what goes on over here.
Everyone knows how technology has changed the world. It is good and bad. The bad is people do not interact as they used to, they sit with friends and stare at their phones. We used to have long conversations, play games, or watch a movie when we got together. Now this seldom happens. Kids do not play together, their faces are planted in their phones or some other electronic.
Money rules now, nowadays if you ask someone between the ages of 10 to 30 to give you a hand doing something, the first thing they say to you is how much are you going to pay me? If they live in your home, this is on top of getting an allowance. I believe if you live in a house and do not pay rent and are asked to mow the yard or help with something, you should not ask to be paid for it.
I never got an allowance and I worked my tail off, when told to do something, I did it without giving grief. I wonder what my Dad would have said if I told him I wanted to be paid to help him.
Over time people have lost respect for our President. I remember my Dad not liking who was elected but never would he do or say the things that people are saying today. If your guy lost, you still had respect for the one in office, because he was our President. It has not been that many years since that changed. Maybe technology did it.
There were drugs when I was a child but they were not used by as many people as they are today and they were not as bad as they are today. Once in a great while you would hear of someone dying from drug use and it was a celebrity, not someone you knew.
I look at all of the homeless people we now have. Many are young and are on drugs, I ask myself what happened in our society that caused so many to turn to drugs. I know not all homeless are using drugs, but I think a big part of them are.
All in all, I think it is a sad world we live in.
photo is mine