Why Old School Is Still Cool
Analog Mama In A Digital World
So……I’m an 80s baby. I grew up when cassette tapes were cool, you could only rent movies at Blockbuster, and side ponytails were LIT! (I just learned that word last year. Thanks new age kids). In school, I wrote papers using Encyclopedia Britannica along with note cards of my research from the great card catalog and actual books from the library. My first phone was a Nokia I received my junior year in high school with the caveat to my friends to “call after 9 pm when my minutes are FREE.” I grew up in a world where you didn’t know what someone thought unless they told you, and actually talking to people face to face was normal.
Fast forward to today. 2018.
An era where the world is literally at your fingertips. Use a dictionary for what? We have Google.
Analog clocks? That was so four score and seven years ago. Want to be famous? Just start a YouTube and you’ll be on Ellen before you can blink. When I was younger, I thought living the life of a Jetson was pretty far fetched. However, we seem to be closing in on flying cars and dinner that cooks itself (the Instapot is pretty darn close). While all of the advancements and access are great, I can’t help but to be a bit nostalgic and long to raise our son like it’s 1989 (I actually sung that to the tune of Prince).
I realized the other day that 80s babies are one of the last generations of parents that will know what life was like BEFORE and AFTER the big tech boom hit our world. We’ll soon be like prehistoric dinosaurs with a story to tell through our artifacts of VHS tapes and dial up internet.
I remember once having to show my 7th grade class a picture of a floppy disk because they wanted to know why they had to keep “clicking that square” to save their work when using Word. They just couldn’t fathom a world where Google didn’t automatically save your work for you.
We actually watched TV commercials, listened to songs on the radio, and called people on landlines.
Why does any of that even matter? Because we learned to be in the moment. We learned that attaining anything took effort. We learned to exercise patience and determination (like when you had to wait for your favorite song to come on the radio, so you could record it). And this is why I think old school is still cool. All the while, our children can access the world with just one click. While our parents may laugh at our version of “old school”, we find ourselves in that exact place……far from the world in which our own children live. Can we still raise kids who appreciate life and ones who know the virtue of patience and value of the simpler things? Yes. Do we have a challenge on our hands as the digital age envelops their world? Definitely.
So, here are 12 “old school” things I’m pledging to keep in our son’s upbringing:
- Classic books and library trips.
- Writing. Allow him to write, scribble, draw on paper with pencils and color with a 64 count box of crayons.
- Analog watches and telling time.
- Math facts. Yeah, we have calculators but I’ve seen 8th graders try to divide 3 by 3 with a calculator…..and folks, that’s just painful to watch.
- Talking. This seems to be harder to do these days with cell phones. We even have to catch ourselves because nowadays phones seem like everyone’s central headquarters, and talking face to face seems foreign.
- Playing outside. Being creative.
- Getting involved and volunteering.
- Creating a bucket list and doing all the things. With so much at our disposal in this day and age, planning adventures and organic experiences sometimes falls on the back burner.
- Taking photos and getting pictures developed. There’s something about having actual photos in an album that’s special.
- Watching classic shows. Remember when TV had a lesson at the end of an episode? Shout out to Punky Brewster, Full House, Family Matters, A Different World, Family Ties, and the myriad of shows that helped reinforce being a good human.
- Using an actual dictionary. My teacher heart just can’t let it go.
- Writing in cursive.
What are some “old school” elements you’d like to infuse into your child’s life?
