10 Differences Between Kids Who Grew Up In The 70s Versus Now

Interesting article by Marco Torres contrasting how kids today are raised with those just 40 years ago. Ahhh, the peat.

1. Our Entertainment Was Each Other
We had no internet, cell phones, computers or video games. Not only were our lives free of close proximity electronic devices and their constant electromagnetic radiation, but this allowed us to entertain ourselves through peer interaction and physical activity. You're talking about a dramatic decrease in the level of physical activity from just 40-50 years ago and it's manifesting itself in obesity, insulin resistance, and precursors to diabetes in children as young as ten years old...

2. Playing Outside Was Normal, Not Prohibited
Most people who pass by a park today and see 10-year old children playing alone, think "why" as fear strikes a chord. Why are they without their parents? Why are they playing alone without supervision? This was normal and just a way of life in the 70s. We stayed outside until the lights turned off in the summer or heard our parents screaming to come inside...

3. Children Were Not Labeled As ADHD, ADD, or Hyperactive. They Were Just Kids Being Kids
Children today are being medicated at alarming rates for what appears to be normal childhood behavior. Yes, there are some children with legitimate behavioral issues but they are an extreme minority and none of these issues are solved by medication. The big problem is that we're diagnosing and labeling common temper outbursts and other disruptive behavior in millions of children as attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). If you took a subset of 3-year old children from 1970 and transported them to our current timeline, you would see that not much has changed, however the way we deal with them has. We are putting kids on long-term stimulants as if it was candy. A nationwide CDC survey found that 11 percent of children ages 4 to 17 have received a diagnosis of ADHD, and about one in five boys...

4. Total Accessiblity To Children Was Not A Need And Neither Was The Incessant Nature Of Constantly Hovering Over Their Safety
If you took a survery of how many 10-year olds today have cell phones, the results would probably shock most people. More than 60 percent of kids between 11 and 14 own a cell phone. The rise in cell phone use by children mostly stems, at least in part, from the incessant nature of wanting to constantly connect with our children. We want to know where they are at all times. This wasn't a problem in the 70s because there were no cell phones. But cell phones are not really the source of the problem. The problem is the parents who operate those cell phones...

5. It Was OK To Get Hurt And We Didn't Call Every Person That Hurt Us A Bully
Not only was it ok, but it was expected. Kids get hurt, both physically and emotionally. Get over it. They're kids. We got bumps, bruises, cuts and were roughed up on a regular basis. Our feelings were hurt and we somehow had the support systems in place to overcome this adversity. We didn't have the need for a closed room meeting with a child, their parents and teacher and possibly litigate because a child was pushed or shoved. We didn't make a big deal about avoiding bullies...

6. The Sun Was Our Friend and We Weren't Terrified Of Being Exposed Without Lathering Sunblock
This is perhaps one of the biggest misinformation components of primary school curriculums that needs reform immediately. We were never taught that sun was the enemy. What a coincidence that the more studies that surfaced on the benefits of Vitamin D from sunlight, the more it was demonized in school curriculums...

7. There Were No Constant Promotions For Drugs and Vaccines For Every Human Symptom That Existed
In the 70s we still had significant trust within the medical and pharmaceutical industry. That's probably because we didn't have a drug or vaccine being shoved down our throats for every human symptom. In the early 70s there were about a dozen vaccines administered to children for seven different diseases in the United States. By 2013, if you followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) endorsed annual childhood vaccine schedule, your child would have received over 36 vaccines by the time they were 6 years of age...

8. We Played in Dirt and Wiped Our Hands and Faces With Soap and Water, Not Antibacterial Nonsense
What ever happened to soap and water? Who was the genius that started convincing parents to keep their children out of the mud and dirt and keep them saturated in chemical concoctions to remove bacteria? Antibacterial soaps didn't exist in the 70s and the incidence of allergies was quite infrequent among children. Today we know that parents who adopt and overly hygienic lifestyle for their children are at an increased risk of developing asthma, allergies and eczema...

9. Chemical Toxicity In Consumer Products Was Still Low Compared To Today
BPA, fluoride, parabens, phthalates, PFOA, fiberglass, oxybenzone, BHA and dozens of other chemicals makes up a very long laundry list of environmental toxins which didn't affect every households in the 70s as they do today...

10. There Was No Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free, Fat-Free, Dairy-Free, GMO-Free, Etc.
...With the advances in modern food technology came extended shelf life which added a tremendous diversity of emulsifiers, preservatives, artificial sweeteners to replace full-fat in dairy products, which led to low-fat and sugar-free products being introduced thereafter at the expense of our health. Only then was there an influx of dozens of harmful ingredients that were incorporated into many foods. It was also at this point when wheat, the world's most popular grain became the deadliest for the human metabolism. At some point in our history, this ancient grain was nutritious in some respects, however modern wheat really isn't wheat at all. Once agribusiness took over to develop a higher-yielding crop, wheat became hybridized to such an extent that it has been completely transformed from it's prehistorical genetic configuration. All nutrient content of modern wheat depreciated more than 30% in its natural unrefined state compared to its ancestral genetic line. The balance and ratio that mother nature created for wheat was also modified and human digestion and physiology could simply could not adapt quick enough to the changes. The concept of gluten being a very dangerous protein was then investigated and hence today, many foods are gluten-free. Dairy-free is another term that was absent from food labels. As milk became more harmful to human health through the introduction of more antibiotics, growth hormones and pasteurization, more people became increasingly ill in the 80s and onwards as factory milk farms created a liquid devoid of practically all nutrition. Besides the popularity of veganism today, more people are choosing dairy-free products due to what is now the inherent toxic nature of all processed cow milk.

Interesting stuff. Maybe some hyperbole, but interesting nonetheless.

And a very related post: how did we survive?