The hardest thing to explain to younger generations about growing up in the 1960s and 1970s isn't the lack of technology - it's the specific quality of unsupervised time, the slow afternoons, the boredom that produced things, the freedom that came with no adult tracking your location - and most of those conditions have been correctly retired, but the people they produced are unlikely to be replicated - Silicon Canals

"The thing is, I get why things changed. I understand why parents today wouldn't dream of that kind of hands-off approach. Too much can go wrong, too many dangers we know about now that we were blissfully ignorant of then."

"But sitting there watching those boys navigate their tracked and scheduled lives, I couldn't help thinking about what gets lost when you never have the chance to be truly, completely alone with your own thoughts and the empty hours ahead of you."

"We were bored a lot back then. Not the kind of boredom kids talk about now when their tablet needs charging or the WiFi goes down. I mean the deep, existential boredom of a Wednesday afternoon in July when you'd already been to the corner store twice."

"Sometimes that boredom produced trouble. We'd dare each other to climb the water tower or sneak."

Children today are constantly monitored by their parents through technology, requiring them to report their whereabouts and activities. This contrasts sharply with past experiences of freedom, where children roamed without restrictions or communication devices. The author reflects on the value of unstructured time, which allowed for creativity and self-discovery. While acknowledging the reasons for increased parental oversight, there is a sense of loss regarding the deep, existential boredom that once encouraged exploration and imagination.

Read at Silicon Canals