Compare-Contrast Essay:
Danica Williams
Proff. McGriff
Comp 1
Revised: 4/14/2014
Children’s Pastimes - Then & Now
Children's pastimes start out as simple activities you find to stay busy and keep out of your mothers hair, or ways to keep cool in the summer's intense heat, or even just things you do to say that you did them. As a child, you never realized that the simple and fun activities you enjoyed would eventually turn into cherished memories. Children's pastimes of yesterday were usually simple and lesson-filled activities that would be remembered by many people, for the rest of their lives. As this generation evolves with the oncoming storm of modernization and the rapidly growing advancement of technology, its pastimes compared to the ones of yesterday are less memorable, more secular, self-absorbing, and less educational.
Children’s pastimes of yesterday are important parts of the lives of our older generations, which is why they were easily created and easily remembered. Most childhood activities of the past were simple games and involved very little to no technology. Not only were children’s pastimes of yesterday remembered easily because of its simplicity, they were also very memorable due to the nature involved. Most activities were performed outside and were weather-permitting. Because of this, most neighborhood children were often doing the same things together. In the past, neighborhood children became friends with each other, creating friendships that they would remember for the rest of their lives; this is because of how much time they spent together doing the same activities. Due to the activeness with the local children, yesterday’s pastimes refrained children from participating in self-absorbing actions. The easily memorable activities became easy ways for parents to connect and relate to their children because those activities were the same ones the parents did when they were children.
The simplistic pastimes of yesterday became an important part of history because they were from a time when the World was alike and religion was decided necessary by society. Children’s pastimes of yesterday became what they were because of the religious and spiritual integrity behind it. In the past, it was more common to find a religious family then a secular family without any beliefs. Because being religious was the more traditional way of families, many people felt a perpetual sense of trust and security. In earlier years, people were able to do things like leaving their door or windows open in broad daylight or even in the pitch-black night and even have a single doubt about it. The trusted that everyone was the same as them and would never perform any acts of unjust or wronging.
The times spent by children in the past were daily lessons that would be cherished or reminded forever as permanent educational lessons. Past times of yesterday taught the children about real-life situations, this gave them an advantage in life because they were able to experience the situations as children. Most experiences of the children of the past were very educational and were useful for their entire lives. The simplicity of daily life and the lack of difference between the life of a child and the life of an adult during that time created educational understanding on the developing and future circumstances of life.
Pastimes of a child of today are insignificant to the development of a person and do not relate to the daily life of an adult; because of this, the activities become less memorable. Childhood pastimes of today are usually effortless, simple, and technology consuming activities that neglect on the learning experience of a child. Because of this ignorance towards the important lessons of life, the pastimes of today in children are not very memorable. Most activities include repetitive games and online conversations that bring no sentimental value when looking back from a future perspective. The activities of a child in present time pressure them into staying indoors; this prevents the creation of critical friendships that could potentially be a necessary transitioning factor from child to adult lifestyle. Because technology has recently inhabited the lives of a typical child, the parents of today are unable to relate to the children of today. Unfortunate circumstances and a sense of “judgment” by the child occur because of the parent’s inability to relate.
Children’s pastimes of today are very secular and do not create any sense of value or priority to a person’s life because they are activities that only bring selfishness and laziness. The activities are secular and don’t have any relation to religion or fight against religion. In the World today, there are so many differences in people it is nearly impossible to find a group of people with at least 3 similar beliefs or traits in common. People don’t find trust in each other anymore which makes it difficult for countries, states, neighborhoods, and people to develop. Because people do not find trust in each other, they relate by finding trust in the Internet. The Internet gives our secular world a sense of false trust by promoting the idea of hidden identities and deleting the idea of meeting people face-to-face.
The pastimes of children today are too self-absorbing to educate children in their development to adulthood. The involvement of technology in the childhood past times of today has a negative effect on our society because the activities with technology do not help prepare children for the oncoming future. Most technology involved activities are video games and instead of teaching the children real-life scenarios, it shows the children synthetic scenarios that promote acts of violence and even drug-abuse. The pastimes of today do not help educate the youth for the future and negatively impact everyone.
Yesterday’s pastimes and children’s pastimes of today are very different from each other. Yesterday, memories were made by the simple games outside that made people the way they are now. Today, Parents struggle to relate and find understanding in their children and in their children’s problems. In the pastimes of yesterday, trust, safety, and security was created by the similarity of people and their equal stand on justice. In the pastimes of today, people fear of theft, assault, and even death every day because of the lack of justice and relativity among the people. In the pastimes of yesterday, cherished memories that taught the lessons of life become laziness and selfishness today by the works of technology. Today’s pastimes compared to the ones of yesterday are less memorable, more secular, self-absorbing, and less educational. Today’s pastimes need to be changed into more similar and substantial memories, and lessons. After all, there is nothing truly like the past-but the past itself.
