Please define that generalization.
The kid of the 50s knew the neighbors. The kid in 2002 on the computer playing interactive games with people around the world is less likely to know, or care, who his next-door neighbor is. He is less likely to be able to organize and play a simple game like "Hide and Seek" much less a ball game. He is more likely to die early from inactivity.
Obesity in children was not a problem in the 50s. We knew how to run and skip. We rode bicycles. In the summer we went swimming in the creek (we had pools; preferred the creek) played baseball; in winter, football. Boys and girls played all of it. Before government mandate. Two of our boys went on to play in college, one was the starting half-back in the Sugar Bowl as a soph and went on to play third base for the Cleveland Indians. Today he is president of a local bank.
Kids today don't have the common sense to know they're ruining their hearing with boom-boxes that rattle house windows when they drive down the streets.
I would take Elvis over Eminem anyday, any year, past or future!
I live in a small Texas town and thinking about the kids I played with growing up I realized another thing in common. We all graduated from high school and many moved on to other places with our lives and careers, etc. Now, almost 50 years later, so many have come "home." Maybe that's what was special about the 50s. We had and felt our "roots."