What happened ?

Being an observer in life has it's advantages, in the fact that I can watch the madness unfold from the sidelines. However I feel it also comes with a responsibility to report what I see, sort of philosophical journalist as it were. Looking back 30+ years ago seemed like such an innocent time. No computers, no cell phones, and cable TV was merely an experiment with a channel called "ON" TV for those who remember.<br> <br> <br> Being a child in those days meant curfew was when the street lights came on, playing kick the can and baseball. Star Wars was the greatest film of all time and finding a lawn mower engine to fix for a go cart was considered the holy grail in the neighborhood. <br> <br> I can't recall anyone being medicated for depression or any attention disorder. I don't remember kids wanting to kill their teachers or students or wanting blow up their school. I do remember saying the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school and can still do it just as well today.<br> <br> <br> Fast forward 30+ years, we have cable with hundreds of channels of crap to keep us complacent. Cell phones that keep us in touch with people we don't want to hear from in the first place and computers that allow us to scour through the seemingly endless piles of digital garbage in the world.<br> <br> <br> Kids no longer play outside all day like I once did, they are to busy being consumers. They are to engrossed in their voluntary training by corporate America. They want game consoles and cell phones and any other blinking beeping electronic trinket that the TV tells them they need. We allow them to be trained by these corporations, we allow them to be programmed as we are programmed ourselves. <br> <br> We try very hard to give them what they ask for because that's what a good parent does. We medicate them at an early age because there hyper or depressed or obese or diabetic. We give them access to the digital world and all it has to offer good and bad at a very young age. <br> <br> By the time they reach puberty they know of greed, hate, violence, drugs, sex, racism, consumerism, capitalism, and a plethora of other offerings from Pandora's box, and that Pledge of Allegiance I happily spoke for years in school is a foreign and silent song to them. <br> <br> So realistically speaking, why the dramatic and frightening change in our youth ? our future ? <br> Is it the marvel of our technology or the misguided implementation of it ? <br> I tend to think the latter, but then again I am just an observer Your thoughts ?