Please. This is some pretty idiotic navel gazing by a guy who obviously has never done anything in the world but has been content to be a passive observer.
I was born the same year as this dunce and I just ran it flat out on all the uphill parts, the good and the bad. Now that I'm on the downhill slide, I've still got the pedal to the metal.
What's this guy talking about? Some mythical world of yesteryear? It never was like that and if all you've ever done with your life is indulge in a lot of chin stroking rather than building shit (ala all the technological marvels that the author apparently assumes just sprang out of nowhere) then I guess one might naturally be attracted to some dream world out of Leave it to Beaver.
Ah, yes. The sentiment at work here is obviously that the America that used to exist never really existed at all. Is that it?
Quite strange, considering that data concerning family breakup and divorce are widely available. That's some "dream world" we're talking about, huh?
I think the author might be saying that the technical marvels have made us more productive, more available to our employers, and more detached from each other.
I can give you a list of things we did as kids that would have neighbors calling CPS today.
I walked over a 1/3rd of a mile to Kindergarten every day. Who in their right minds would risk that today?