WhatReallyMatters

WHO ARE WE?

Who We Were Then

In the 1980s, Steven Glenn, author of Developing Capable Young People, observed some trends that most of us have not fully grasped, even now. In 1930, a child spent three to four hours a day with extended family — parents and children plus grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, most of whom lived close by.

This involvement included working together, discussing items of interest with other generations and playing together, which required personal and imaginative interaction.

Today’s extended family has been reduced to what we now call the nuclear family: parents and children. Grandparents, aunts, and uncles now typically live somewhere else.

Within nuclear families with two parents at home, the interaction was reduced to 14 ½ minutes per day by the 1980s. Of those 14 ½ minutes, at least 12 were used in one-way negative communications — parents correcting children for things done wrong.

By 1950, according to the census, 70% of all Americans lived in an urban environment and only 30 percent on farms. This was a complete reversal of statistics!

IMAGE CREDITS: Shown at left: Rockwell, Norman. Freedom from Want, 1943. Painting for The Saturday Evening Post, March 6, 1943. From the collection of Norman Rockwell Museum. © 1943 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Licensing, Indianapolis, IN. Norman Rockwell’s America by Christopher Finch, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., p. 206. Shown at right: “Freedom from Want” by Maggie Meiners.

Who We Are Now

By 1970, 90% of Americans lived in an urban environment, and even those living in a rural environment lived an urban lifestyle. With all its good effects, television had also brought into the average home attitudes, values and behaviors utterly foreign to those exhibited by the parents.

The fact that TV became the hub of social and leisure time in our society had even greater significance. In 1970 the average American watched television for five hours a day.

Add computers, the internet, email, social media, cell phones…and easy access to alcohol, addictive drugs, mass marketing of popular culture, and lifestyles that minimize family and community interactions.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the average American spends at least seven hours per day looking at a screen.

Media of all kinds, however, are not the only influence on our minds. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorism from within and elsewhere in the world, divisive politics, and the adverse effects of climate change further stimulate our anxiety.