Assignment 2-Eliot Smith

How would your life have been different if you'd grown up 20 years earlier?  How would you interact with others? Do you think your relationships then would differ from your present relationships?  Which time period would you prefer and why?

     I would like to think that if I had grown up 20 years earlier, I would be more active, go outside more, socialize more, and just be a more outgoing individual.  However, this is probably not realistic.  Even twenty years ago, I most likely would have just stayed inside playing the latest game of the time leaving only on occasion for a trip to the store or a small get together. This is not to say that my upbringing would not have been different, though.  All of the efficient conveniences enjoyed by the regular citizen would be impossible considering the lack of current technology.  Ordering a pizza through the internet? Nope, I'd have to take out the 100-pound phone book to find the number for the restaurant and endure the awkward conversation with the employee manning the phones; an act currently thought of as ancient. Streaming my favorite movie through Netflix at 20 megabits per second? Of course not, I'd be forced to sit through the excruciating BEE BOO BOO BEEP BOOP SCHHHHHHH EEEEE UHH EEEEE UHH EUHH SHHHHHHHH PFFFFFFFF of dial-up internet, after which I would have to search if any movie theaters were showing the film because, Netflix? What is that?

     I would have to live with the inconvenient fact that if I wanted to talk so someone, it would either be face-to-face, on the phone, or not at all.  With no texts, instant messages, or tweets, the only way to communicate with a peer would be a full-on engagement; something that many teens these days are bewildered by, that was the sole way of talking 20 years ago. This would definitely improve the interpersonal skills of the current adolescent, although the ease of shooting a quick text to a friend would be lost.
     Regarding relationships with others, I believe that I would have less friends, but better friends. The only way of "hanging out" 20 years in the past was, well, actually hanging out.  Playing a sufficient amount of games of Call of Duty with someone to call them a friend is just something that wasn't possible back then.  It was either you went to each other's houses, the mall, a football game, or you interact .  The action of befriending whoever you wanted was difficult, but the bonding of two already-made friends was strong.
     I would prefer my current life.  Our modern technology is just too much to pass up on, and, in my opinion, the positives outweigh the negatives. A glance at my life reveals to me that none of my problems would be solved by living 20 years ago; and besides, there's no way I could live without Halo.