How are children different than when I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s? They don't know who they are.

 When I grew up you were often defined (in your own mind and others) by what you had already survived.

So, experiences like bicycle accidents, being thrown into the front window of a car (without seat belts) at age 6 by my mother learning to drive) where things that helped define my reality. Walking home from school at age 6 and having a bully bang my head together with my friend and then deciding to avoid that bully by walking across a busy 4 lane highway at age 6 without dying and then a teacher from my school asking why we did that and us telling her about the bully and then him being expelled from school was part of what defined me as a human being.

Growing up often was like being a little soldier from age 4 on in my life. I was trained to fight or die growing up because remember the draft was still on since World War II then. So, all boys were defined growing up as soldiers unless you are referring to the very rich that often found ways for their boys not to get drafted. But, for average people we all were thought of as soldiers (at least until we were 26).

So, the lack of this kind of thing for most people now makes then infantalized sort of like pets are often infantalized and this prevents them from knowing who they are because they haven't survived any threats to their lives or serious traumas where you might need God or religion to survive and stay sane.

So, this is what I see of young people today. They have been so coddled and protected they have NO REAL IDEA WHO THEY REALLY ARE! There is no definition because it is like they are living in a cartoon or something. Do I blame social media for this? This and parents coddling their children like pets I likely blame the most for this.

Did I spoil my children too? Yes. I'm likely as guilty as all you are out there too in this. Because parents of today would likely be put in jail en masse today for treating their children like we were ALWAYS Treated.

So, what's the answer?

I kind of see life as a science experiment and what people are presently doing just is not working at all.