technology

I'm actually really mad about this. The PM put out this smarmy video being like "go take up and instrument ($$$) or read that book" etc but like ok, I'm a book worm I was one as a kid.

As a kid there was a local used book store, run by a wonderful woman. She was a local, it was a safe place watched over by friendly eyes. I was allowed to spend a lot of time sitting on the floor in the corner of her shop just reading books finding what I liked. That was great! Yeah there was a library but I had to be on "good behaviour" there and the librarians were more concerned with school assignments they weren't massive fantasy dorks motivated to feed me a steady diet of beloved classics.

I visited my home down a while back, guess what's out of business? This is a pattern seen in everything. The spaces for kids to have idyllic little childhoods are gone, they are paved over, owned and fenced, or regulated away. You can't build a treehouse as the trees got cut down, there are no hobby shops anymore, there are no skate parks etc, people call the cops on unsupervised gatherings of teens, there aren't as many bush reserves and they're smaller, pools cost more and are rarer, roads are more dangerous with new cars and more of them, businesses feeling the squeeze are encouraged to move on unprofitable lingering kids, net cafes are closed, if you let yourself into a school playground to use the equipment the cops get called.

It's complete BS to just magically expect kids go have wholesome childhoods we've made difficult.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxRB5qWphJE