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As time goes by I find the "quality of life" is slowly eroding. I am not talking about things costing more, but cheapened or disappeared entirely. Family life and the kids' contact with their parents, another. What happened to front porches?
I've noticed this too; in some respects, its a symptom of the two worker household. This for some folks is necessary just to keep afloat and doesn't leave alit of time or energy for other things. That and the relentless media bashing every frigging thing on the planet. I have a front porch and use it a lot in the summer, its relaxing.
It's the brave new world. We've traded that lifestyle (which of course, most modern folks would call mundane, archaic, and boring) for our modern technological miracle life. How could you even question that? What, do you want to go back to the stone ages?
For those who didn't catch it, I'm being sarcastic. In reality, I've had that same question in my head for... well, since probably sometime back in the 1980s. There are a few of us (myself included) that would gladly teleport back to those obsolete days of "front porches" (let's say pre-1920, and preferably back to sometime in the late 19th century) and far simpler technologies/lifestyles.
Okay, technophiliacs from the brave new world... burn me at the stake for saying so! It wouldn't be the first time I've gotten my feathers singed here. Don't forget to ask me if I want to die over a hangnail. Or if I want to feel lucky that I made past 35 years of age. Or if I'd rather have a ruptured spine because all the backbreaking work. And certainly don't forget to remind me that everyone back then was filled to the brim with hatred for... well, just about everybody and everything.
I hate to be the debbie downer, but as a 24 year old female I feel that if I spend a lot of time on the "front porch" or wherever- I feel guilty because society has been pushing my whole life, "if you don't build up your skill-set and get out there and get that high paying job, you won't be a productive and worthy member of society!" So to build a better quality of life my parents bust their paychecks to make sure I get through public school and college, and then it's time to get out there and find that job just so I can survive. In elementary school it was a dream of mine to thrive- now it's kind of just down to survival. Sure I can grow a garden or raise animals, but how long till that becomes illegal? To society "front porch" time = welfare citizen, though I wish this weren't the case. I would have loved to have that experience.
I hate to be the debbie downer, but as a 24 year old female I feel that if I spend a lot of time on the "front porch" or wherever- I feel guilty because society has been pushing my whole life, "if you don't build up your skill-set and get out there and get that high paying job, you won't be a productive and worthy member of society!" So to build a better quality of life my parents bust their paychecks to make sure I get through public school and college, and then it's time to get out there and find that job just so I can survive. In elementary school it was a dream of mine to thrive- now it's kind of just down to survival. Sure I can grow a garden or raise animals, but how long till that becomes illegal? To society "front porch" time = welfare citizen, though I wish this weren't the case. I would have loved to have that experience.
What you are basically saying, then, is that you are not "meant to be" a person, but a "function to/for society."
I hate to say it again, because I really LOVED the episodes of Star Trek Next Generation that involved them, but we have aspired to become the "Borg." They were never meant to be role models. They were supposed to be scary and 180 degrees out of phase with our ideal existence. But, unfortunately, I see our species getting closer and closer to that Borg existence--the Borg Collective.
It is sad. But it is what it is, until someone a few generations down the line realizes that it is not a satisfactory existence and largely a waste of planetary bandwidth and that "rebel/defective unit" garners a following among the other "units" of the time. Then the pendulum will swing back the other way.
Mass production has enhanced our lives while cheapening it at the same time. We have more stuff with less value. Creature comforts are nice, and I for one enjoy having access to a power grid for example (I prep in case it goes down!).
However, there is a balance that needs to be acheived between work, family and spirituality or internal harmony, and perhaps we as a culture have gone too far on the materialist aquisition scale, and are now slowly swinging back to valueing family, friends, time, and an examined purposful life (central limit theorum at play in our culture?).
By the way, we are currently building our retirement home, and it will have an 8 foot covered porch running along the front of the house (for extensive use, not just for show) .
OP, I don't know if this is what you are getting at, but I see this on a regular basis and it really annoys me, and that is a couple sitting in a restaurant, and each one is looking at their own little electronic gizmo sending text messages to whoever is seemingly more important than who they are with. People go out to dinner and don't even talk to each other; they sit there for twenty minutes looking down and moving their thumbs while they wait for their food to appear.
I hate to be the debbie downer, but as a 24 year old female I feel that if I spend a lot of time on the "front porch" or wherever- I feel guilty because society has been pushing my whole life, "if you don't build up your skill-set and get out there and get that high paying job, you won't be a productive and worthy member of society!" So to build a better quality of life my parents bust their paychecks to make sure I get through public school and college, and then it's time to get out there and find that job just so I can survive. In elementary school it was a dream of mine to thrive- now it's kind of just down to survival. Sure I can grow a garden or raise animals, but how long till that becomes illegal? To society "front porch" time = welfare citizen, though I wish this weren't the case. I would have loved to have that experience.
I'm glad you chimed in. Some of us that long for the past, when life was slower, forget that the youth today have pressures on them that we can't understand. If your child isn't using a computer by kindergarten...well, then they are considered behind in some places. There are many more pressures and worries for the next generation that weren't there when we were growing up.
Thank you Bailey for reminding me that I can't compare my ideals to the realities of growing up today.
I think all of us who are older think back to earlier times and miss some of the things we took for granted. When we came out of HS we pretty much could find a job immediately, and if we worked hard we could afford a new car and a home. Women, for the most part, were able to stay home and raise the kids, and Mom was always waiting there with cookies and milk when we got home from school.
Crime was always there, but never like it is today. The worst that would happen was a fist fight, and someone shot was unheard of. We respected our elders, our teachers, and the police. Most of all, we were optimistic about the future.........we were always striving to better our living situation and get a bigger piece of the American pie.
I didn't know many people who were divorced because Moms and Dads hung in there, even if their relationship wasn't the best. They sometimes did it just for the sake of the kids, but that isn't all bad, if you think about it.
Today parents and kids seem disconnected somehow. It could be technology or simply the way people think today, but I don't like what I see. Personally, I am so glad I grew up when I did and if someone waved a magic wand and let me be born later I would have to turn them down.
As time goes by I find the "quality of life" is slowly eroding. I am not talking about things costing more, but cheapened or disappeared entirely. Family life and the kids' contact with their parents, another. What happened to front porches?
They still make those. A bunch of new houses near me with porches. Or you mean you don't see anybody sitting on theres
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It wouldn't be the first time I've gotten my feathers singed here. Don't forget to ask me if I want to die over a hangnail. Or if I want to feel lucky that I made past 35 years of age. Or if I'd rather have a ruptured spine because all the backbreaking work. And certainly don't forget to remind me that everyone back then was filled to the brim with hatred for... well, just about everybody and everything.
