I think that our society is worried about desensitizing our children to the wrong things.  I know there is the occasional crazy kid who thinks that the big battles on Star Wars are real, but I think for the most part kids only have healthy imagination and don’t actually feel the need to kill anyone after seeing a movie or playing a video game.  I do however think that we are doing our children a huge disservice by sheltering them from the realities of the real world and giving them more chances than anyone will give them as an adult.  Kids today get to go to summer school, or protest their grade, or have their parents protest their grades, or do online make up credits, all sorts of things, simply because they didn’t feel like doing the work the first time around and failed.  I don’t understand why we keep giving chances like this to children, it would be different if they were actually trying and just didn’t get it, but the ones I know will tell you out right that they simply didn’t feel like it.  Too many young people think that the world will bend to their whims and desires…it’s kind of scary when you think about a future of an entire generation that will be shocked when the realities of adulthood hit them…if they hit them….they might just keep going not understanding why things aren’t working out or letting their parents and grandparents continue to shelter them and do all of the work for them.

But life isn’t like that, and I think it’s hard sometimes for some people to realize that, or come out of denial and accept that fact.  I think that sometimes it’s easier for people to believe that like in the movies, your best friend will always have the perfect timing and show up right when disaster strikes and they will help you overcome whatever overwhelming odds you seem to have come up against….but in reality, friends come and go, and many times they don’t magically reappear down the road….sometimes they are gone forever, sometimes they simply don’t care, and sometimes they are there…but you never know for how long or for what purpose.

It’s always great to see an uplifting movie, sometimes they even make me cry…..I do wish that real life could be like that, where friends stay friends for life and are always there to look out for each other…but it simply isn’t so many times in real life.

Some people have emotional breakdowns over what is posted on facebook, or someone’s blog, or God forbid, there is something wrong with their internet and they are cut off.    It’s funny when the power goes out and you see people look at each other in wonder, asking what are we suppose to do, as if there are not activities outside the world of technology.  It gets even funnier when someone does come up with something and they think, I’ll just message someone on the computer or email them or some other form of communication that doesn’t work, instead of simply calling them or going over to see them.

Actually going some place just to visit with people seems to have almost completely disappeared.  I have to wonder why we allow ourselves to rely on technology the way we do.  What is so important about checking our email as soon as it comes to the inbox, or feeling lost when we have no signal on our cell phone and can’t receive the text messages?

I’m not denying that communication and technology are important, I use them all of the time, in fact, I am one of those people that feels lost without access to the internet, even though I don’t use it every day, there is some type of comfort that comes with knowing that it is there if I want to be able to use it.  We expect communication to be instant these days, I can’t remember the last time I actually sat down and wrote a letter, even birthday cards are becoming fewer and fewer, when you can save the postage and simply send an ecard or message them on facebook or send a text.

So is it better to have instant communication or more heartfelt conversation?

I have to wonder how often it is that the media gets people all hyped up about the wrong issues and how often people are pulled into the drama of the media craze….How often do people put their own priorities, thoughts and feelings aside because they have become caught up in the media frenzy and are now stuck on the point that has been driven into their head every time they have turned on the news or looked at the paper.

I wish our country would go back to thinking for themselves instead of being programmed into thinking whatever other people want them to think.

Normal is some type of thing that we have fooled our society into believing.  Normal is a fake term that is used when people expect the other people around them to understand what is going on inside of their head.  The truth is that nobody can really be inside your head, and it shouldn’t be assumed that other people know your thoughts as if they are being broadcast on the wall behind you at all times…like the people you are talking to have cue cards.

I think that a lot of misunderstandings could be avoided if people were more open to the fact that not everyone has the same background, the same beliefs or the same views on things…and that is ok.  So many people get so defensive like their livelihood is being challenged simply because someone else has a different thought about something.  So instead of opening their mind up to a new experiences, they lock it down and dig in their heels to argue, when no argument is necessary.

“Normal”….that is something that doesn’t exist and probably never will.  What is normal is what the media tells the younger generations to believe is normal…but then what media are we talking about?  What stations are people watching?  What magazines are they reading?  What radio stations are they listening to?  All kinds of things define “normal” for our society, but in reality it is all a matter of perception.

I think it’s interesting to watch things evolve from one thing to the next.  To watch something take on a whole new persona with each new passing group that experiences it.  One word can transform and then you ask someone about it and their response is always interesting.  Some people will tell you that they remember when the phrase was made popular and that it didn’t mean the same thing then that it does now.  And others will tell you that they don’t know where the phrase come from…and yet it keeps getting repeated and taken from generation to generation without much explanation, if any. 

These unexplained phenomenons in culture slowly but surely spread their way across the country and then across the world.

I know that my personality changes and people notice it sometimes too…if they see both personalities, but I think it’s just the way certain situations and groups of people make me react.

It’s weird to find the balance of always being yourself but being what people expect of you in certain situations as well…I think that we start this struggle at a very young age.  having to be this while knowing it doesn’t quite fit with who you are as a person…so trying to curve it to make the square peg fit in the circle hole by smooting the edges a little…even when it takes a lot of force.

Some people will argue that you shouldn’t change who you are for any reason…but I’m not sure you are changing who you are…I think it’s more of a action and reaction kind of thing…I think that certain situations simply cause people to act differently….

Why is it that people spend so much time trying to prove themselves that they look plain stupid because they look like they aren’t even capable of doing the position that they are already suppose to be doing.  They try to increase their position by sabotaging those around them, or by stepping on toes and trying to do jobs that belong to other people.

I don’t understand people that don’t want to go through the proper channels of things, who can’t simply feel good about doing a good days work and know that they are doing the best they can at what they are suppose to be doing.  Instead they are fighting for something that might not even be in the cards for them ever, much less right then at that moment.  Just because they want to skip steps to get to the top of the pyramid faster, doesn’t mean that it’s right.

The struggle in the game of tug-a-war played by the adults of our society is obvious…and annoying.  Sometimes the adults I observe act more like children than the kids I know….you want to tell them to stop trying to grow up so fast and enjoy what they have while they have it…because when you get to the top you might be disappointed with the view.