Today, more and more kids seem to "think" that video games are somehow "real" and spend far more time being solitary, playing these games, than we ever did just playing...plus we played with others. Face to face reality keeps kids grounded, but also helps to keep a child's imagination alive.
When we were growing up, even with movie newsreels about wars, we weren't bombarded by images of killings of any kind. There were ADULT movies ( and I'm not talking about porn! )and then there were movies that were fine for kids to see. Parents used to be VERY careful about what movies kids saw; ditto for T.V. shows.
The vast majority of kids, from all races, religions, social strata lived in two parent ( a biological mother & father ) home. That's sadly no longer the case.
THERE WERE RULES!
But there weren't "helicopter" parents.
Pop culture was vastly different back then! Can you remember any songs that promoted killing cops? I can't and I have an excellent memory.
Back then there were still insane asylums and yes, there were kids in them. Now? Now they live at home and sometimes shoot up other kids & teachers.
Cowboys and Indians, brings back memories.
We also played world war 2 , in which we divided into teams, and there would be teams of “Japs” and “Jerries”.
Holy crap, do that now, it’s time for school detention/intervention.
Add to that - that death is paraded on the internet and people have become numb to it. For example, the popular YouTube guy showing the body hanging from a tree.
When did it become okay to flood the world with images of dead or dying people?