Rose-Tinted Spectacles?

Just recently a friend and I were reminiscing about our formative years, and waxing lyrical about how idyllic things were "back then", meaning specifically the period from the early 1970s to the early 1980s. Although my friend is about four years older than me, she recalled many similar experiences, and harbours the same cynicism about the problems encountered by "the youth of today". Our shared conclusion was that we were glad that we were born when we were.

In the past, I have probably been guilty of slipping casually and lazily into "it was better in my day" mode, without giving the matter balanced consideration, or indeed defining what constitutes "better".

During our philosophising, my friend and I placed particular emphasis on a perceived loss of innocence generally, and a decline in the variety, aesthetic quality and social impact of children's television! Later, when analysing the conversation, I came to accept that these were scarcely adequate criteria on which to form a fair and balanced comparison of eras. Indeed, were such comparisons even valid or feasible?

When recalling the glories of our childhood, and bemoaning the supposed plight of today's kids, there is an understandable tendency to highlight the areas in which it can be plausibly argued that things were better in the past. Hence our focus on Mr Benn and The Magic Roundabout. By the same token, the less agreeable aspects of growing up in the 1970s were obscured and overlooked. Neither of us made mention of power cuts and wildcat strikes, for example!

Every generation defends and cherishes its own achievements and virtues, and such talk also betrays an insecurity and jealousy concerning the advances made in later decades.

So, although we children of the 1970s revelled in Fingerbobs and Trumpton, and played outside with our friends until all hours, we probably had a lower quality of life in other ways, not benefitting from the advances in technology and healthcare which were to come later.

In addition, as the youngsters of the early 21st century have no conception of what it was like to live three or four decades ago, how can they feel a sense of being deprived? They simply adapt to the circumstances with which they are confronted. Similarly, people of my generation have not known what it is like to grow up in the current epoch, so direct comparisons are pointless. This process will go on ad infinitum, and can be filed under "progress".

I think the moral of the story is that looking back on the glories of one's childhood is very healthy and heart-warming, but it is also worthwhile to think in parallel that today's children are also enjoying and reaping the benefits of what the modern world has to offer. Human nature remains unchanged.