An interesting metric came out at our family thanksgiving. When did you stop playing with toys (action figures / Barbies) as a kid? It was wild watching how the younger generations grow up faster and faster
Discussion
Well, you probably quit playing with them, but you never stop loving them
i didnt have traditional action figures but did have hot wheels, matchbox cars, gobots, and transformers. stopped playin with em sometime in early high school when i finally got my first IBM PC
This is similar for me! Our close to teenage cousin claimed around 5th grade which has me wondering if tech is a part of that influence that ends that part of childhood.
I guess what amounts to playing with different forms of dolls (yes, matchbox cars are dolls in this context) gets replaced by more creative or active outlets, whether that be code, music, painting, drawing, writing, athletic sports etc
So maybe not tech so much as kids in general are being forced into adolescence earlier. What is driving that speed of aging/society integration (say 9th grade for our age to 5th grade for today's youth)? Is it societal based in some other way or are becoming increasingly good at weening our young into the folds of society quicker? Is it good that they're aging so young versus the added time we had to explore creativity in a less judged way?
Younger generations are exposed to online stuff nearly instantly as phonez and family plans are cheap and streaming video is the new babysitter. I'd be shocked if the average 5th grader wasnt doing one or more of the following
- tiktok consumption or production
- snapchat
- twitch stream/view
- youtube