Slider Shoes

I was out and about today, and I saw a kid slide past – literally.

This kid had on those new gimmicky shoes that allow the person wearing them to slide on their heal. They have a lot of gimmicky shoes for kids these days. I’ve seen shoes that light up when the kid walks, too – which I guess are useful for parents whose kids run away and they have to try to find them.

When I was a kid, we had our choices in footwear too. White running shoes with blue stripes, white running shoes with red stripes, and for the adventurous – white running shoes with red and blue stripes.

Things certainly change – though I wonder if for the better.

I was watching this kid slide across the street, and thought that was an accident waiting to happen. Then there are all the stories you hear about kids beating each other up over a pair of shoes.

Because all our shoes growing up were pretty much the same, no one ever threatened to kill you for your sneakers.

But kids these days do live in a far more technologically advanced society than we had when I was a kid.

I hear kids talking about their PowerPoint project, or how they have to do some research on the net for their latest assignment.

PowerPoint and the Internet didn’t exist way back when I was a kid. When I had to research a school assignment, I went to the library. I had to look through the card catalogue – they didn’t have a computerized searching system for books either.

I was actually quite good with the Dewy Decimal System – those funky numbers on the spine of the books they use to sort them in the library. I even learned how to use the library of congress system when I got into university.

I was mightily impressed with myself for mastering the numbering system they used in the library. These days, I just use the computer catalogue like everybody else, but I still remember being able to find things without that – years ago.

I think technology is a good thing and a bad thing for kids these days. It is good, because it makes some things easier. Instead of having to learn funky library numbering systems, they just do a search on the computer at the library. It is bad, because they can do that search from home on their computer over the net.

Kids these days spend too much time in front of computers, and not enough time out in the real world.

Growing up for me was fun. I got to know all the kids in the neighborhood, because I played out in the street with them after school and on weekends. We played ball, or street hockey, or tag or anything – the point was, we played with other kids in the real world.

These days, kids don’t experience reality because they spend so much time in front of computers. They sit in front of computers at school and at home.

Playing in the street with the other kids is not only good exercise, and fresh air, it gets you out in the real world with real people. It allows you to experience what it is really like being with real people – not just chatting with someone in an electronically created chat room.

Sending someone a smiley isn’t the same as actually sharing a smile with someone. And you never have to yell “CAR!” because someone is driving through.

I wonder where today’s kids will be in the future, when they look back on what their kids are doing? At least I had a childhood in the real world. These kids don’t.