Getting arrested.

I know I’ve gone on about TV before, how sitting and watching a picture on a box for 1,700 hours each year might curtail young peoples experience of doing things other than sitting and watching a picture on a box but something else just struck me. When I was a kid I collected cards of aeroplanes and cars. Other kids collected footballers but I wasn’t into football. My cards showed top speed, max altitude, armaments etc. I guess the other kids cards showed team, position, goals scored, that sort of thing. It palled once I started bike riding, building stuff, fishing, playing in a band and drawing. But while it lasted we were experts on Spitfires, Aston Martins and Aston Villa. Today it’s still about football and sports for boys and celebrities and soap stars etc for girls. They too have encyclopaedic knowledge of all these things, their career, past roles, sexual inclination, hook-ups and breakdowns, missed penalties and sendings off. Pretty similar really. The only difference is my conversion to bike riding etc took place around twelve. Today it can be twenty and counting. When will they stop reading OK magazine, watching TV and Facebook, and make the transition into doing real things? It worries me. This interest in ephemeral things and other people’s lives is fine but it doesn’t open doors. My mother never learned to swim as a kid and was then too old. Of course she got along without it but she missed out. Not learning to ride a bike is not life threatening but you miss out on that bit of enjoyment. It worries me if you miss out on all the real stuff you could do as a kids and watch a box instead. What are you going to do when you get older? Well I guess it’s not a problem because you don’t know about what you've missed out on, so just get back on that couch and enjoy. Gymnastics when you’re 35? Volleyball when you’re 28? "Nar, I’m OK thanks."