Are things really that different today...
From 1965
What a drag it is getting old
“Kids are different today,”
I hear ev’ry mother say
Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she’s not really ill
There’s a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of a mother’s little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day
Well, that’s kinda what I’m thinking.
Every generation’s elders think their offspring are being ruined by “something.” Alcohol. Tobacco. Comic books. Rock n’ Roll. Hot rods. And then those same offspring proceed into life, have kids, and then too think that their young are being ruined by something new that they don’t understand. Rinse and repeat. Over and over. Generation after generation.
Lots of things aren’t good for kids (or people in general for that matter.) But those things don’t automatically and universally ruin them for being exposed to them. I remember that too much TV would ruin my eyesight as a kid in the 1980s. No, it didn’t and it seems silly to think about today.