Yes, it’s true, times they have definitely changed, but the lament of better times gone by from one generation to the next tends to remain the same. We all long for the softer, kinder, gentler days of yesteryear. Yet it’s possible that our memories are just a liiiiittle bit skewed – who doesn’t want to remember the good and edit away the bad? Regardless, screen time and how much we (and our kids) should or shouldn’t have is most definitely a whole thing these days. Admittedly we had fewer screens vying for our attention in our youth, and technology is constantly growing and morphing into the next big thing, but just how different are things these days? Well let’s see…

• In our day, if we wanted to change the channel we had to get up and drag ourselves (uphill, both ways!) through shag carpet to make it happen…And there were only 4 channels to choose from!
• If we wanted to make a phone call we did it in the kitchen, attached to the cord, for the whole family to hear…
• When you took a picture back in the day, it was a total crapshoot if what you were going to get when it got developed – that’s right, actual film – was going to be anything remotely considered usable. Never mind that you were committed to printing THE WHOLE ROLL!!
• Back in my day we didn’t have all of these new-fangled concoctions – no smartphones, iPads, laptops, and such…
• If we wanted information we went to the library or sifted through the family’s encyclopedia set, not like today when answers to all of homework's toughest questions are a mere click away.

• When I was a kid we played until the sun went down, there was none of this sitting and staring at a screen for hours…
• (You’ve seen that statement before, right? But can we just reflect for a moment that a good many of us spent many an hour playing Nintendo or Gameboys? I’m thinking yesterday’s Tetris addictions are today’s Candy Crush addicts.)
• If you wanted to use the internet (you know, once it was invented and gifted to the masses), you had to wait for the dial-up connection to work its magic and hope against hope that no phone calls would break the connection…
• When we were kids if you wanted to listen to a song again, you had to blindly rewind and fast forward endlessly…
• Never mind that we had to carry around loads of tapes and later c.d.s if we wanted to listen to our tunes in the car – or anywhere besides home…

#TheStruggleWasReal (Oh, and that #hashtag was just a pound sign/shorthand for the word number…) Character-building though all of that certainly must have been, I think we can all agree that all this change hasn’t been all bad…It’s just a matter of what we do with it. #TruthBomb. (Seriously, how could I not?)

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