“I found an emulator online that lets you play classic text based computer games from 1980’s…. It runs on the world’s most powerful graphics chip: imagination.”
Fantasies shaped us in one way or another to be who we are today. There are times that I actually envy the kids of today because they have such cool, modern toys. When I was a kid, my joy was up to high heavens when Santa gave me a robot/jet transforming toy, even though my brother got the same thing. These days, a kid would throw a fit if he didn’t get a PSP or something.
As the year 2010 ended, I came across an article that enumerated what kids born today will never know (for the sake of those interested to take the trip down memory lane, http://www.moneytalksnews.com/2010/12/29/30-things-babies-born-in-2011-will-never-know/). Then Che and I watched Beauty and the Beast on Disney Channel on the last day of 2010. It made me realize how much kids of today are missing.
Fantasy. Imagination. Today, modern gadgets do the imagining for you. Fantasies are now either too absurd to even listen to, or something not impossible to happen. My thoughts on fantasies and how it affects us:
Disney Flicks
I can't even remember the last Disney Movie that I watched that could probably be clustered in the "classic fairy tale" category. All I know is, I stopped watching when Pocahontas, Hercules, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame came out.
They don't make it quite the same as before. These flicks had little girls wanting to be princesses. And as they grew older, they wanted to have a fairy-tale ending with some prince charming they drew up in their minds, hidden behind the names "Mr. Right", "The Right One", "The Ideal Man", etc.
Kids of today have talking cars, talking toys, and talking animals that are loads of fun, really, but not "magical" like the Disney flicks of the past. They deprive kids of today the chance to dream of being a princess or becoming the prince that saves the princess.
On the plus side:
Those kids will grow up not waiting for "Mr. Right" or something because they never drew him up. They can be just kids, enjoying the colors of the animated cartoon offerings of Disney, and later on in life, be practical about choosing their partner of choice.
On the minus side:
Everything is becoming too casual these days. By the time these kids hit puberty, they won't be thinking "this isn't right, you're not right" when some moment consumes them. There are no Mr. Right or Ms. Perfect, only a person and another person who'd like to try stuff they don't know about.
Superheroes
These are for the young boys. Everyone wants to be that hero who saves the day in a
mysterious mask, but lives a normal life when he doesn't wear the mask. No boy wanted to be the villain if they had their way, they always wanted to be the good guy. It shaped us kids to avoid what bad guys would do. It paved way for the nice guys. Or the nerds.
See, as kids, the non-athletic/non-talented kids stick together and find stuff they can do without embarrassing themselves in front of people. They don't want to dance on stage, sing, perform, or play sports for school glory. These make them either more attached to people because they meet so many of them, or too detached from reality because they don't meet other people anymore. Those athletic/talented kids? They grow up to be the jocks, the center of attention, the class clowns, who either wouldn't have a future or be real assholes and jerks. Of course not all of them. But most of them.
We still have superheroes today. It's not like it's been ages since the last Spiderman or Batman movie came out. The difference probably, is consistency.
When before, we had comic books that we read and wait on the story on week after week, kids of today have the convenience of watching them on the big screen, in full motion. Problem is, the people who play the parts usually aren't there for the long haul, or management wants to go another direction or something. It messes the whole story up.
On the plus side:
No more geeks! No new generation comic book nerds who collect comic books they wouldn't open without plastic gloves or something. Everyone will just be waiting for the next movie to come out.
On the minus side:
No more geeks. No more butts to kick in class, no one to throw stuff at just for fun... No, seriously, these ever-changing stories are just no good. They mess up the concepts/stories that there's no common truth. Everyone has their version of what the origin of this hero is or what that hero is. They don't give kids something common to look back to when they grow older because they had different ideas of how their heroes came to be. It wouldn't eliminate the "escape" the kids create for themselves, but it opens more debate than fun stories.
Drama Series
I just had to insert this. I watched an old movie of Cesar Montano (well, part of it. Watched it while driving) where he's somewhat of a vigilante. He's poor and with a kid brother. He's a good guy doing bad things (like shooting people) because that's what he needs to survive. These kinds are not fantasy movies, but are works of fiction drawn out from reality.
Too many times, we've seen drama series drawn out from stories of poor people who suddenly become rich because of some twist of fate (i.e. switched at birth, orphaned who actually has rich parents..), or good people just trying to make a living, and are pushed to do illegal stuff like drug dealing and stealing.
How many times have we seen snatchers caught and when interviewed by the media, they appeal to the public that they only did it because they need it badly? In movies, we understand their predicament. But if there comes a time that you're the one they steal from, all you want to do is kick their ass.
On the minus side:
Poor people strive less, because they see their lives played out in movies, and they realize that they're not alone in suffering what they experience at present. They cling to the hope that they'd meet their rich parents or meet someone who can alleviate them from poverty, much like the girls who are waiting for their prince charming.
On the plus side:
Those rich people who don't mingle with the commoners get an idea how they live their lives and maybe, just maybe, spark a fire in the philanthropist in them. Slumdog Millionaire comes to mind.
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(I just had to change the title of the blog at the last minute. Apparently, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to talk about, but it's been hanging over my head over the past couple of weeks, so I just had to write it already.=P)
