There is a difference between the “growing up” of today and the same “development” of yesteryear. I am not comparing millenniums or centuries, but merely a few generations. I am not comparing worlds or portions of our universe, but only those in our own little piece of humanity. That being the one in which I was born and reside in to this day.
It was not so many years ago that living in the outskirts of a city often meant the absence of municipal facilities, such as water, sewer and, yes, even electrical service. Most of our neighbors drew all their household water from drilled wells. And most of the water was hand pumped outside and carried into the house by the pail full. Most bathroom facilities consisted of a remote outhouse, strategically located over a deep hole in ground which had been hand dug sometime previously, only to be relocated as found necessary.
As society and mechanical aptitude progressed, some neighbors converted to electrically driven pumps and brought running water into their homes, but that did not become commonplace until into the nineteen forties, when municipal sewer systems started to appear in the suburban areas of Milwaukee.
Sidewalks were non-existent, as were paved roads. Most roads were gravel, as were driveways. Mobility was not a catch phrase and most travel was done, particularly by the younger generation, by foot. Go to school by foot, to church by foot, to the park by foot. And, during those travails, one had no device inserted into the ear providing soothing music or the news (or fake news) of the day.
If you have ever tried to convey a thought or voice an opinion to a member of a younger generation and been met with a “blank stare”, you may comprehend what the preceding thoughts were leading up to. The basic grounding of “reality” was substantially varied, depending upon the “era” to which one’s youth was exposed during development.
I, admittedly, only recently realized that I had slipped into the cesspool of un-realization as to the childhood exposures and experiences to which each generation is subjected. My relatively antiquated generation, for example, could well be left with the same “blank stare” when confronted with the wide proliferation of acronyms oft utilized in our cyber world. AI, IoT, etc. will often result in a sudden scramble for Google (excuse me-search engine), much in the same way our referencing a blackboard and chalk or the back of a shovel and a piece of charcoal results in a blank stare from much later generations.
So, henceforth, let it be known that a “blank stare” from one of the “now” generation, will no longer cause me to wonder if his or her hearing is as questionable as mine, but realize that generational experiences and exposures have merely resulted in a different data base.
