My 14yo daughter came home from binging 80s movies with friends and wistfully told me, “I wish I’d grown up in the 80s.”
I said, “Why??”
She said, “Because everything was a lot like it is now, but no smartphones.”
It gives me hope.
I think 'we' should, at least to a degree, suck it up and let kids figure things out for themselves. Cable TV didn't give me square eyes, video games didn't turn me into a school shooter, and I don't believe mobile phones fried my brain. I don't like rock & roll though, and free love has never been a thing.
Which is the other thing; a previous generation was throwing a tantrum because the youth was having sex more and more, nowadays people are throwing a tantrum because the youth are having LESS sex. Which one is it? Neither?
Sure, the movies make it seem simple, but... you know, AIDS. It sucked even more if you were queer. "Crack babies" that weren't (that was just poverty we were seeing). Regan starved people with the 'welfare queen' stuff. Misogyny was so much more open.
It wasn't the same. It wasn't better. It was different.
I remember when the restrictions started in many countries and everyone saying it was draconian, but having experienced the benefits of the restrictions, I can't imagine going back to it.
Because that's what the AIDS epidemic was in the 80's.
Edit: I'd add that folks would rather have AIDS from the 80's instead of COVID because for most folks, AIDS wasn't something they thought could affect them.
AIDS panic in the west was dumb. Covid panic has become an endless treadmill of insanity pulling in all directions.
My comment isn't really about smartphones, but the dangers of rose-colored glasses that tint the past in ways that obscure the downsides and make the positives rosier than they really were.
I am assuming it’s the “always on” culture it breeds, but that might be my projection.