I think our world is so different now because of parents. We have a different kind of parent and they are raising (not) a different kind of child. I put not because that's where the problem is. Parents stopped rising their children. They find out how they are during the day with a cell phone instead of going to their children and being face to face with them. It was trying to happen in my home, but I didn't allow it. I was calling my daughter one day and she actually was at home at the time with me and used her cell phone to call my bedroom to see what I wanted. I said no, come here I want to talk to your face. Parents allow their children to see "R" rated movies. I can not believe that. I was in the 12 grade and 18 years old when I was allowed to see my first "R" rated movie and I was OK with that. I didn't miss out on anything, but I did have a chance to remain innocent. My children are now 20, 18 and 8. I will not allow my 8 year old to see an "R" rated movie until he is at least 17 years old, just as his sister and brother were not allowed. It amazes me to see parents taking their children to see movies with an "R" rating. The same goes for music. If it's not appropiate why in the world would you let them listen to it? I'm no prude I just believe in better parenting. I hope parents will change. If they do, so will the their parents. We as adults need to set better standards for our children...

I know what you mean Kim. When I was a teen, we couln't wait to get on our motocycles and hit the woods - scouting out trails, looking for cool rocks to take home - going fishing. The phone, OMG, THE PHONE. It was in the living room and everybody got to listen in. I couldn't call a girl and just chat without getting the 3rd degree from Mom or Dad. Now, kids have a phone, the txt messageing, ability to send pictures of themself (which has gotten somebody in hot water at my house) and on and on. Then there is the iPod - I have one too of course. But when I was a kid, it was LP's and head phones and Dad always telling me I was going to go deaf listening to Ted Nugent. We had 8 track tapes in our car and it cost big $$$ to convert to cassett when that came out. Then one day, all the LP's in the stores just disapeared and only cassett was available. That was a real shock!

And lets not forget the internet!

I know exactly what you mean. I was hanging out with one of my closest friend that I've known since high school. Anyways his lil brother was hanging out with us and some how the conversation turned to classic cartoons and he mentioned stuff like Power Rangers, Yugio, and other fairly new toons. So mentioned hey what about the Smurfs and he looked at me like I was speaking another language. That's the first time I really realized that my generation is slowly losing it's hippness and soon I'll be yelling and some punk kids to turn down the noise blasting from their car stereo. :(