What Exactly Is The Reason???

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The other day, we all made a post on the topic Back To Life where we talked about the things that we would love to bring back if we had the chance. And for many people, they talked about how they wanted to bring back the days of their childhood and how things were so easy and so innocent back then. After all, many of us kids enjoyed so many things that kids of today would never get to enjoy due to how far the world has come.

But then, is it really that simple? Maybe we’re the only ones who see it like that because it was simply a period where we literally had no care in the world, and our parents and guardians were in charge of taking care of us. If we had no knowledge of how ‘good’ the world was back in the day, we would still find a way to enjoy the world of today exactly as it is.

I’m beginning to think that the reason we love that period of time is because information didn’t flow so easily back then, and people didn’t have much reason not to trust their neighbors. In the past, unless someone actually did something bad and was caught at it, you would have no reason to suspect otherwise. However today, the reverse is the case. For your safety and that of your child, you have to suspect the stranger until they prove that they don’t mean any harm.

Because when you look at it, the time period that we talk about is even somehow worse in a way. This was a time when serial killers, kidnappers, and rapists were more rampant than they are today. If you go through history books, the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s were the years when the world had a large number of serial killers and rapists. It was also the period when there were a lot of sexual crimes, many of which the perpetrators were never properly punished. I’m not saying such things don’t happen these days; they very much do. However, only those in close proximity actually knew of such things, especially when they were serial cases.

Yet, despite all this, those of us who experienced childhood in those years still count them as safe and free. Now, is this because there was no social media back then? We only ever listened to news that had to be filtered by the government first, and as such, if they didn’t want us to know certain things, then we wouldn’t have known it. Happily living in a bubble while our neighbors in the next town were going through hell.

Because I’m sure if you ask anyone who grew up in an area where such atrocities happened, their childhood experience would be vastly different from yours, even though you’re both from the same time period. Furthermore, if you check it, it’s due to the advent of social media that parents became more strict, because people were now allowed to tell their stories themselves without having to go through traditional media.

So, coming online and seeing people who trusted their neighbors, their brothers and sisters, and then how such trust cost them the lives of their loved ones. With social media, the world shrank in size, and all of a sudden, what was happening in America could very well happen here in Nigeria. What was happening in Venezuela could very much be a problem in Canada. And just like that, people started taking steps to protect themselves and their kids. And that birthed the kind of parents we have today who prioritize the safety of their children over everything else, even social skills.

Does this mean that if social media had never happened, kids would still be running around freely playing without a care in the world? Parents would not be so worried about the well-being of their kids. I don’t know, but I believe strongly that the reason we all lost that ‘innocence’ from our childhood is simply because of our easy access to information. Both the ones we needed and the ones that we didn’t need. And that ended up shaping the rest of our lives for us.

But then, I could be wrong. It could also be that we simply lost it because we became adults and we realized what responsibilities were, and now, we crave the freedom that being a child provided. Maybe… however, whatever it is, it’s a nostalgia that’s hitting all of us. I’m sure there will be a study on it eventually.

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_{Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, I would love to know what you’re thinking. Till we meet in the next post.}

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_{N.B: All images used in this post are mine. The thumbnail was designed using Canva.}

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