Bring me back to the glory days, when playing outside was cool

Seeing middle school students walking around with cell phones, 2^nd graders listening to iPods and having to be taught how to use my laptop by my 13 year old sister make me nostalgic for the time when media didn’t control children’s lives. I grew up in a neighborhood where kids played outside together, getting fresh air and exercise. We played games such as capture the flag, tag, soccer and wiffleball, and not the version that kids today play in their video games. Nonetheless, media definitely played a role in my childhood, but not as dominant a role as it has in children’s lives today. Media can definitely be an incredibly educational tool for children, but it is so important to maintain proper balance in terms of media.

This is a video of Putt-Putt Joins the Parade, which used to be my favorite computer game

One particular memory I have regarding media is the first computer that my family ever had. Prior to getting the computer, I had never used one before; I think I was about 5 or 6 years old at the time. We received the computer in different packages in the mail, each arriving on different days. Each time a package arrived on our doorstep, it was an exciting family time to figure out what the part was for, and eventually we had pieced together a whole computer. My mom mostly used the computer for work, but it was always exciting if I got the chance to play a game on it. I remember playing games like “Putt-Putt Joins the Parade” and "Jump-Start 1^st grade." I did not play on the computer very often, but it was a special treat that I enjoyed when granted permission. Looking back it is funny to think about how big and clunky our computer was, and how it is rare to see a monitor that is not a flat screen these days, and even desktops are rare in comparison to the convenience of laptops. The games I did play were educational, and they were always balanced with time outside. Today parents have to get their kids off the computer to go outside and play, but it was always a struggle to get me to come inside for the night. I can still hear the dial tone of logging onto AOL, and checking my first email account, that received messages solely from my parents and aunt. Everything seemed so much simpler then

My mom took this picture of me reading the 7th Harry Potter book on our neighbor's boat

Another memory regarding media I have is the time I would spend with my parents reading books. Every night before bed, they would read me a book or two, and this was always one of my favorite times of the day because I got to spend time with my mom and dad and I loved immersing myself in the stories. I have always loved books and reading, a lot of which stems from my early exposure to reading as a child. There were favorites that I would want to read every night, but we did rotate a lot. Some of my favorite books included Stan the Hotdog Man, Tacky the Penguin, and all of the Madeleine books. Sometimes we would take the plots from the books and use them to make up pretend stories and put us as the characters. Reading allowed me to foster my creativity at a young age. I loved how my dad would always use different voices for different characters; he would do that so more than my mom would. To this day, I find it relaxing to be read to, and I love reading aloud when I babysit children.

This is a picture of me reading on the steps of the National Archives in Washington DC, taken by my friend Nancy

As I grew older, there was a shift in the reading, I would read aloud to my parents or we would have reading time where everyone in my family sat together and read our separate books. My mom and I read through the first three Harry Potter books together as well as reading Little House on the Prairie, where I can still remember an entire chapter dedicated to building the door of their home, and we still laugh about how the author spent so much time being so descriptive about a door. I used to get in trouble for sneaking my light back on and reading into the night after my parents thought I went to sleep. My sister is similar to me in that way; she loves to read, though she flies through books faster than anyone else in my family. One of our favorite things to do on vacations is to relax and read on the beach. My mom takes forever to read a book because she always falls asleep while reading, and my dad is only recently getting back into reading novels. I think that growing up in a family where reading for fun was a norm has also helped me academically, my reading scores have always been above average, and I owe a lot of that to my parents for raising me around books.

I had my fair share of cartoons and Gameboy Color games that I played and watched, but in general, I don’t think my life was consumed by television and movies and video games like so many children today. It is so crazy to think of how much technology has changed since I was a child, smart phones compared to my mom’s first cell phone, which didn’t even have the ability to store phone numbers and was nicknamed “the brick.” There have been so many advancements in technology since my childhood, and some of them have had incredible advancements and advantages, but many have had negative impacts, especially in regard to children’s health, I am glad I grew up in a time when playing outside was still cool.