I’ve heard that when people are nostalgic for a particular time, they tend to forget the negative aspects of the era. Case in point: San Francisco in the 60s. Haight Ashbury is remembered as the epicenter of peace and love. People bartered with flowers, and LSD made you an introspective genius. Walk down the street and just try to avoid the free hugs.
Take off the rose-colored glasses, however, and it turns out that most hippies were just glorified drug addicts. And for God’s sake, have you ever smelled a hippie? My mom has. She spent some time in the Haight during the 60s, and apparently it did not smell like flowers. It smelled like pee pee. An influx of hippies during this time had led to overcrowding, crime, homelessness, and drug addiction. That is the Haight my mom remembers and that is the Haight described on Wikipedia, so it must be correct.
So, I’m aware that every era had its downside, yet I still find myself nostalgic for a simpler time—a time I never actually knew. Call me old-fashioned, but I wouldn’t mind living in a time when you could have a one-income family and women didn’t have to balance a full-time career with motherhood. A time when America actually made stuff and loyalty to a company was looked upon favorably. Remember when kids could play outside without supervision and respected their elders? I don’t, but it sure sounds nice. The dresses were awfully pretty too!
I’m well aware of the hardships people faced during that time: women were second class citizens; career changes were practically unheard of; and the Cold War was never too far out of mind. Not to mention women had to wear a whole lot of uncomfortable underthings to fit into those pretty dresses. Yet, compared to forced two- income families; a crumbling infrastructure; and the constant threat of Jihad; Donna Reed’s life looks pretty okay to me. And besides, I wore one of those girdle things under my wedding dress and I looked freaking fantastic!
Is there something wrong with me for wanting that—for dreaming of a slower-paced life? One in which technology doesn’t rule our existence? As I sit here cursing my internet for running so slowly, I also curse myself for expecting everything to be so instantaneous. It’s a learned behavior, and I don’t like it. Yet, nearly all of us have succumbed. I see kids with glazed-over expressions playing on their ipads and it makes me sad. For one thing, I don’t have an ipad. Why does a 6-year old have an ipad? But even more than jealousy is my fear that children don’t know how to use their imaginations anymore. Parents use technology as a way to shut their kids up. I get it, kids are annoying, shutting them up is appealing. But I think it’s stunting them emotionally and socially. In fact, I think it’s stunting us all.
Technologically, we have made a jaw-dropping amount of progress in the last 100 years. Hell, in the last 10 years. We come up with these inspired inventions, but we don’t know how to handle their side effects. People are glued to their technology apparatuses. We don’t communicate face-to-face like we used to. We don’t know how to just be quiet anymore. We always have to be reading or watching something. Not to mention the environmental ramifications of all this progress. A newer, flashier smartphone comes out every year and our old ones end up in a landfill.*
Yes, the internet makes life so much easier. And having GPS means I never get lost. But what’s so bad about getting lost once in a while? I managed to drive across the country twice without GPS and lived to tell the tale (in fact, the best memories come from the times we got lost). But now that every minute of our day seems to be taken up with something. We don’t have time to get lost.
I know I’m glorifying the past (and sounding a bit curmudgeonly about the present), but why can’t we find a middle ground? I like convenience as much as the next guy, but every once in a while, let’s turn it off. Take a break. Go outside. Bake a pie. And for God’s sake, take the ipad away from your kid and play with him!
* Please don’t throw your old electronics away. Either donate them or recycle them responsibly. Here’s a list of places you can contact for proper disposal: http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/donate.htm
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