Last night, as Ry, my 9yo daughter ran out of the room to grab a blanket she yelled, “Mom, press pause, OK?”
“Um, I would … if we weren’t playing cards.”
Did she really ask me to press pause during a game of UNO?
Kids are so used to being able to can control anything with the push of a button –they can “stop,” and “pause,” and “delete,” and “restart” pretty much anything, including their toothbrushes. It makes playing a game like UNO in this day and age seem pretty archaic.
As a child, I recall hearing Baby Boomers talk about watching black and white television, listening to radio soap operas, or playing 78rpm records … and thinking how totally obsolete those activities are to my generation. As an adult, I realize there were so many things Gen Xers did as a children that my children would currently find beyond antiquated and obsolete or better yet, wouldn’t even understand the need for in the first place.
Here are just a few things my kids will never have to do (some of which I enjoyed very much):
- Ignore the B-side
- Mail a letter
- Use all their fingers to type
- Fill an ice tray
- Get up to turn the channel (while possibly walking across static causing shag carpets, no less).
- Survive with only 4 channels
- Blow on a video game cartridge. I still do this with scratched DVDs — it makes my kids laugh.
- Write notes in class
- Learn to spell
- Get information from reference books
- Be a part of a family decision in which you decide whether to buy a Beta or VHS player
- Write a check
- See #11 but sub in Atari and Coleco vision Continue reading
