I'm a 90's kid, and I still think those times were probably the best...
Why, you might ask?
Well, here are a few reasons why the new generation kids won't be as social as we were...
1. Music
Back in those days we didn't have internet to download whatever music we wanted, and liked. Back in those days we liked what we could find, and we: a. Listened to the radio, hoping we will be there, when THAT song was on, so we could tape it.
b. Shared tapes with friends, and copied them whenever we had some free tapes.
We also didn't have Mp3 players, mobile phones, and back then we didn't even have CD-players. The best things around the time were Walkmen. These were quite big, and also uncomfortable, but we didn't really care. Also the tapes had 10-15 songs on it at most, and because the tapes took up quite a large space too we didn't really have hundreds or thousands of songs.
And how did music help with being social? Well, for starters we had something to talk about with our friends. We shared the music, we knew how to trade, and we knew how to party. Back then it didn't matter what kind of music was playing at a party. It was music, and we had something to dance to. That was enough.
2. Movies
We were the generation who grew up with good old Disney movies, and with the old Cartoon Network. We were also the generation who later on enjoyed simple movies, with crappy special effects, but, let's face it, with good stories. Back then we didn't have the option to choose between millions of movies. The tellies had the same stuff over and over again, and the best option to look at something new were videotapes.
And we shared these too, we traded them around just like music tapes. We also had some great movie nights, where the whole family and friends just sat together to watch a cartoon.
Back then we had quality stories too, not the violent stuff kids grow up on now. We also didn't need to be told, not to do something we saw in the movies. We weren't total idiots...
3. Letters
Back in those days it was such a nice day to get something trough the mail... We sent postcards and letter to each other, we could actually touch. It made things a lot more personal, since you had your own handwriting on it.
And we could share these too.
I remember times when a letter came to our whole class from an old teacher or a classmate who moved out of the country. We were so happy to hear from them...
4. Imagination
Kids around that time had a lot of imagination. I guess it was needed, since we didn't have computers to take up our whole time. We were never bored. We could more or less play hours with a crappy old barbie doll and some shreds of cloths, or a few Lego blocks. We knew so many games back then, I can't even count them. Most of which could be only played with other kids, the more the merrier. Hide and seek, and catch were the most basic things out there. We even came up with some new games, combinations of all these...
5. Books
Back in those times the kids who didn't like to read were the minority. I remember the times when the best birthday present was a good book. Books were probably the reason kids had imagination. We shared stories, we traded books, and we had a few things to talk about too.
We knew each other so much better people know each other now. We pretty much knew what each of us had, where everyone lived, what everyone liked. And we knew what the others wanted and when we came upon it, we shared it with them.
Now you might be asking me, where am I going with all of this. Sometimes I just sit back and think about where are we heading. It seems so strange to realize that 20 years ago we didn't have half as much we have now, and we were still a lot more happier...
