What ever happened to a home cooked meal...

Over the past number of years there has been a huge outbreak in terms of technology within society. The introduction to MP3 players, to gaming systems that are more life like than before, to laptops becoming huge within households. Has this stopped the youth culture from staying intimate with there families, or has it just provided an escape route for the kids to get out of a certain problem with the family. I have seen in the world, especially in the Western Culture, a loss of real family time; everyone is so busy these days and a lot of people don't have the desire to even have a home cooked meal anymore; that's why I named this blog the way I did.

The consumer culture is so much about what can 'I' get out of things and it's all about me, me, me. Even within a Christian culture it is the same thing; what can I get out of the service; this church isn't right for 'me'. Instead of the world being a place where people are giving up themselves to be with other people and such, the world, especially here in the west.

More often than not, families are now eating when they want and families are rarely eating together; they are eating out and not eating together; there is not a big sense of family anymore. I find this the case even more now with both the parents working and not having time to eat a meal together and be a part of the kids lives. The youth culture of today has lost a key and central point to a strong adolescent life, family. Families are just so busy with their lives that they forget about the people within the family that need that quality time.

I don't know if families are doing this on purpose, but it seems to me that it is just turning out this way. There are so many youth in the world today just thriving to be at home with their parents and family and eating together, talking about their days and everything. I don't know really what to do, but I think, as funny as it is, there needs to be a sense of family like "Leave It To Beaver." We need to get back to the point of family and being able to really love being with them. Youth need this for themselves, and I parents need it as well.

"What ever happened to a home cooked meal..."

From Saved by The Bell to The O.C.

Over the past number of years the TV industry has been putting different shows out that are near the unacceptable mark. Back about 10 years ago there were shows like Saved By the Bell, Family Matters, Full House, and Step By Step for young teens and teenagers, now there are shows like The O.C., CSI, 24, and many others. Although the majority of shows nowadays are relatively good, there are shows that come on TV that are very inappropriate for the age watching. I think the TV industry over the past number of years have just become more blunt with what they want to try and portray to kids and teenagers. TV shows in the past may have had bad shows, but the issues were subtle and dealt with pretty well. Now, the media is just so blunt, in everything. Sometimes it's just so tough to really understand the way the media and TV industries work, but right now it seems as though they try to cover up everything. For example, in the past years there have been shows that have portrayed things like, drugs, alcohol, etc., but it is not to the extent that it is used today. I think in most shows there is some form of abuse: drug, alcohol, physical. It's almost like the media has to try so much harder to get kids attention.

I think what I'm trying to say here is that kids and teenagers seem to be growing up so much faster and so the TV industry feels like they too need to grow up faster, by specifically putting on TV shows at certain times to attract the teenagers and influence them, sometimes in worse ways than not. The TV industry has advanced so much in the past 10 years by going from Saved By The Bell to The O.C. This is just an example of the attitude to grow up faster.

This might just go over everyone's head, but it is something that has kind of bugged me within the TV industry and how they are trying to push teenagers to be grown up quicker. It is really an issue, but not at the same time because the world pushed people to grow up faster and the media industries are just going along with the train; I would say they are even at the very front of the train pushing this.

Just a thought.