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Back in my day

Kids nowadays have it so easy. Everywhere I turn there seems to be an eight year old with the newest iPhone. This is absolutely baffling. How is it that kids these days are learning how to update their iPhones before they’re learning how to read.

When I was eight years old, I was cool for owning the 64-pack of crayons with the sharpener. The days of tearing off the label to my favorite indigo crayon just to get a half inch more of color are long gone. My adolescent mind couldn’t even fathom owning a device as complex as an iPhone.

Who else remembers the old Fisher Price dial up telephones? My girlfriends and I used to have serious conversations over those. No touch screen, no apps, no selfie ready cameras, only the dial and the full handle phone. That was the definition of conference call in my day. We used Pictochat on our Nintendo DS. That was so much fun. Pictochat practically lets you create your own emojis. I feel like these were the days that we kids actually had to flex our imagination.

Then if my parents got sick of me playing make believe in the house I was told to go outside and play. Imagine that! Being forced to go outside and be in nature, to feel the warm sunshine on my skin. There was a time when my father would actually turn off the internet to force us out of the house. There would probably be mass riots if parents did that to their kids nowadays. There would be herds of zombie faced kids wandering the streets mourning the loss of their beloved computer games.

Although going outside was fun, I knew the rules. Being outside when the streetlights came on was forbidden. That was a whooping worthy offense. I also wasn’t allowed to wander too far from the porch. If I was caught across the street, there’d be trouble waiting for me at home. So there was no such thing as turning up on a party bus all night. My parents had to know where I was, what I was doing, who I was with and my curfew was set in stone at 8:30.

Although we were on a tight leash, we always had it easy. We never thought about all this newfangled technology. To be completely honest, it’s hard to keep up with all the new social networks and devices. From the very first iPhone in ’07 to the newest iPhone 5s technology is always changing. But the one revolutionary technological advancement that never changes is the good ol’ fashioned pen and paper. I’ll never know why that seems so archaic to our youth. babipad

Written by Dominique Barrett

Dominique was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas. She moved to San Diego her freshman year and started off high school as a Sundevil. She's played volleybal for the school since she's been here and is now on Varsity, she also joined staff as a sophomore. By her junior year she was appointed to the News editor. Another accomplishment would be when she was chosen to be a Sundevil Standout her sophomore year. Dominique has had a colorful Sundevil experience and looks forward to many more.

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