seniors does one think we had more freedom when younger than today?

Question

kids have more material things now but they are tethered to to some kind of monitoring device
like cell phones and email devices that their parents and others can keep track of them
I rode my bike to school and went where ever i pleased on what ever adventure i was on without contact with anyone monitoring me
i think we had a more sense of freedom than now
what are your thoughts

Answer 1

I had far more freedom as a youngster than today's kids have. We would pack horses with camping gear and be gone for a few days. If my folks worried, I was unaware because as long as we checked in they really didn't say too much. (probably 3 days was max) Of course this was summertime and we would let them know where we were headed. Another favorite was piling bunches of friends in the back of some old pick up and going fishing or in the dead of winter we would snow mobile into the mountains and turn off the engines and do the coyote yelp. We had to do this in the middle of the night to get the coyotes to answer us. My childhood was the greatest adventure!

Answer 2

There was a lot more trust between the parents and the children back then. We knew if we got into trouble it wouldn't just go away. We'd be reminded, if not by our parents, by the community, forever. The cops would turn us over to our parents instead of taking us to the cop shop. It was a far worse punishment. We were as free as our sense of responsibility would allow us to be. It was something earned. We weren't simply "entitled" to it.



Today's kids are taught to fear everything from strangers, to drugs, to booze, to cops and authority in general. They are not allowed to become part of the surroundings, but something to be preyed upon. They can't figure out how to keep from putting themselves in harm's way, only how to dial 911 so someone else will come and rescue them. They don't know how to interact with others because they aren't allowed to talk to strangers. They are tethered to, and monitored by the parents.



Even as infants, there is a monitoring device within the home. Instead of spending time with the child, we can be on the computer or watching TV and also keeping an eye on them without actually being there. We pop in a CD and they watch it rather than interacting with humans. It's not a great trend.



We're all being monitored whenever we are out in public. I definitely feel "big brother" watching my every move, just like the kid in the crib.

Answer 3

well I know for a fact that in the 1950's and the very early 1960's when I was out and about as a school kid my parents had neighbors and church people "always" looking out for me and reporting back to my parents as to when I passed their house, who I was walking with, and what I was doing so although I felt very free I had no reason to stray from the usual walk to either of the schools I attended. Years later there was such a thing (I think even now) as a neighborhood watch wherein these folks would watch out for the kids and the kids knew they could knock on any door with the neighborhood watch sign and know they would find solace there. Solace meaning that person would call their parents, would call the police, got bullied, or they would help them if they skinned their knee or whatever.

Answer 4

I had heaps of freedom in my young days - the oldies were not strict, just wallowing in their own dysfunctional state. So I did pretty much what I liked, and enjoyed my life. These days, kids are tied to cel phones from primary school onwards, parents can even track where the car is going when the kids are driving it. No wonder they never leave home - they never get the taste of freedom or independence.

Answer 5

I did have a lot of freedom when I was young. That was mostly because my parents didn't know what a hellion I really was.



As I grew and gained responsibility, I was tied down by my job, my kids, my mortgage, and the wife.



I think that computers, cell phones, and better transportation actually would have made me a lot more free, during my working years,



Now, retired, they are indispensable parts of my freedom from schedules, and deadlines, most time based responsibilities.

Answer 6

We were talking about this the other day. My two-year-old great-grandson spent two weeks with us and will be back for a month's visit in June. He can't go outside and do anything without one of us being with him. Of course, neither could my 23 year-old granddaughter when she was a child.



Like you, we rode our bikes to school and home. And it was a mile away. When we didn't ride, we walked. Mom didn't get the car out when it rained or snowed. We wrapped up and hiked.



In the summer we left after breakfast on our bikes and were gone all day. We played ball in the field behind the house. We went to the park and raced down the steep hill we used for sledding in the winter. We went to the library. We went to the drugstore for a coke. We played.



We lived in smalltown USA. I've walked to school as early at 6:00 a.m. for a band function. I've walked home as late as 10:00 p.m. after a basketball game and a sock hop. It wasn't a problem.



Our mother wasn't hovering over us with juice boxes, band-aids, and cereal snacks. She didn't get involved in our fights. She did mother stuff while we did kid stuff.



Talk about the good ol' days!

Answer 7

Yes. When my sister and I talk about how we could go anywhere when we were young, we cannot believe it. It was when we moved to a different city and became teenagers that my mother wanted to know where we were going and why most of the time. However, we didn't have the modern gadgets which could follow us or phones that could trace every call we made, when we were allowed to use the telephone, that is.

We managed to stay out of trouble during those years, but sometimes I wonder how we did it.

Answer 8

Yes - it's one of the paradoxes (pandora's boxes ?) of modern-day life that supposed freedoms, rights, etc - engendered in the abandonment of old 'restrictions' back in the 'swinging 60s' - seem to have saddled the younger ones with a whole set of new clamps.

Freedom of speech is severely curtailed - lest a member of some well protected 'minority' ethnic or religious group is offended.

City streets can no longer be wandered freely - without observation from all angles, by an array of CCTV cameras, tracking every footstep.

Telephone calls to suppliers/providers are 'recorded' (for management training purposes, etc) - and even private calls can be 'tuned-into' by bugging devices, NOTW reporters and others of ill-intent.

Cars have 'tracking devices' lest stolen, bicycles need 'invisible markers' and pet animals are best served with 'implant chips' to speed their way through air-ports, etc.

ID cards are stolen, copied, misused/abused - faster than monitors can 'pick up' on such and report to the legal owner and/or the local police constable.

Indeed - one's very own Identity can be stolen, duplicated, misused etc - and one can be 'found' to be in 5 different places at any one time - buying counterfeit goods with fake credit cards @ 5 different Super-markets - and taking 10 times 'cash-back' amounts the bank ever agreed to.



As you suggest - many of these monitoring measures are self-imposed - as kids feel obliged to report their every movement to others - be they worried parents or interested friends, keen to stay in constant touch - via text, voice-mail, tweet or twitter.



Sadly - bereft of those halcyon days of just 60 years ago - when a kid (like me) could get on a bike and cycle his way to wherever.

I think it was back in 1953 - when, with nothing better to do with my time - feeling a bit bored - I thought I'd ride my bike somewhere beyond the horizon. Ilford, Seven Kings and Romford were easily encompassed - I'd probably been there before - on a bus.

Beyond that it got a bit tricky - without a map or compass (or much of a clue where I was heading) it was all brand new terrain. Cutting to the quick - I found myself in a place calling itself Hornchuch - which even as a 10-year old I found rather nondescript (bordering on the 'boring' tbh).

Luckily, local residents had erected road-signs - pointing the way back to Romford etc - so I found my way back home.

Getting a clip round round the ear - not for having gone roaming, but for being 15 minutes late for tea - sardines on toast, due to be dished up @ 4-30 pm - and it was then 4-45 pm !!!

The Q "Where the hell have you been ???" had little or nothing to do with my somewhat pointless bike ride to Hornchurch. But much to do with my lackadaisical sense of time - my absence from the table - when expected to be.



(Can't remember what excuse I gave - it was probably 'chain broke' or 'puncture' - whatever.)



Different age - different times - different sense of 'freedom' and self-sufficiency/responsibility ?

; ))

Answer 9

Yes, we did! Freedoms are being taken away all the time while we sit back and do nothing! So much for preserving what is good and right for the future generations!

Answer 10

Oh, without a doubt, I used to be out the whole day, and nobody ever tracked where I was, nowadays, you can see where the kid is by their cellphones.

Answer 11

No thinking about we did have more freedom. The 50's were the best.

Answer 12

I agree with you. I think it would be better without so much tech devices.

Answer 13

I am not sure about freedom, but I do know we had more respect for life, authority and our elders!....