Steve, I am right there with you man, except I keep up with the technology a little better then you. However, I don't really don't get into all the new gaming systems except for when I want to play Guitar Hero.
I grew up in a rural area and I had three cousins and a best friend all my same age that lived around me. We were always outside and our parents had to make us come inside. When were not playing a game from our organized sports leagues or having to do our chores around the farm, we were either playing wiffle ball, tackle football (in our pasture full of horse poop), fishing in our pond, playing war, riding horses, riding 3 wheelers or dirbikes, catching crawdads in the local stream, or finding something we can jump our bikes on. Nintendo came out when I was about 14 or 15, but still was not enough to keep us in the house on a nice day.
We (me and the other two guys I coach with) were discussing the other day on how kids these days are supposed to be more intelligent, yet it seems like they don't have the self-awareness and initiative we had at their age. Our coaches rarely had to tell us how many outs there was, what the count was, where the play was, or when to tag up on a fly boy. However, with this 11/12 year old boys, we are having to hold their hands and constantly remind them of everything. Heck, in the game we won today, our first two batters each had a 3-0 count on them to start the game. Since the opposing pitcher was struggling to throw strikes, we told them both not to swing, but what did they do? They swung! Heck, the second batter had just saw us jump our lead off batter for swinging at 3-0, and then he gets up there and does the same thing! We have one kid on that team, out of 14, that we never have to remind of the game situation. He also would happen to be by far the best player on our team. For some reason, when it comes to presence of mind during the game, the other 13 seem to lag very far behind compared to that kid.
We play the O-zone rules for our age group which allows playing of the base and stealing. It really kills me when I am coaching bases and I tell my runner to go, and he just stands there and looks at me like a dumbass. Since the can get a lead off the base in this age group, we tell them over and over that if it gets past the catcher, they better be gone and not even wait for us to tell them too. Yet, there is no telling how many times a ball has rolled to the backstop with one of our runners still sitting at the same base the were on when the pitch was thrown. Then again, the give you that big dumbass look like they had no clue what they were supposed to do.
I do blame technology for some of it. These kids don't get outside and work as much at their game as we used too because they have to get to the next level of the current popular game. Hell, I used to toss a tennis ball against the barn, actually pretend like I was pitching a game, when my dad was at work and I had nobody else to throw too. When I suggested to our team they could do the same thing, they looked at me like I was crazy. Also, playing video games all the time does not help develop any social skills at all. The kid does not have to learn to interact and play with a real person when they are playing that video game.
Like some others said, today's environment has a lot to do with it also. Just like some of you other guys, my parents did not have to worry about what was going to happen with me when I jumped on my bike and took off for the day. Despite the stupid stuff I may do, for the most part they knew I was safe on the rural dead end road I lived on. Everybody knew everybody. When I was not at home, I had dozens of other "parents" on that road that looked out for me. The did not have to worry about somebody that lived on our road causing me harm. I also knew that if I got out of line too much, my parents would probably know about it before I even got home, which really did suck sometimes. Yet, even though I am now back living on what was part of our farm where I grew up, I can't have that same trust that my parents had. I really wish my son could have the same type of upbringing and environment I had, because I know he would probably be a better athlete and also probably a more well rounded kid.
The puddification of our nation, especially our kids, has ruined that for them. The irony of the whole thing is the fact that it is my generation, people in their 30s, are the ones that have promoted the softer image, especially for our sons, the most. They try to teach our boys that a macho image of a man is wrong and instead they promote an image of weak, whipped man. Am I wrong?
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