Translated…
“On the Ficus Tree by the Pond, the Cicada Called Out to the Summer; on the Swings of the Field, There’s Nothing But the Butterflies”, this was, the start of the song, “Childhood” by Dayu Lo, and, so many things were slowly, getting lost, the lyrics of the song had turned into, a “mirage” in this day and age.
then…
The ponds, turned into those tall, tall edifices, the cicadas, turned quieter; the swings, diminishing by the numbers, butterflies are now, playing that game of hide-and-go-seek; there’s probably, that lonely old ficus that’s, standing tall now. The things from the earlier years of childhood, already gone now, and, what remained, for the childhood of children today?
and now…
Comparing to the parks of over a decade ago, the playgrounds were, altered, in the past, where there were only, Stonehenge slides, now, replaced with the colored plastic slides, in the forefront of safety, the slides, the swings became, more boring and more individualistic, and, the children couldn’t find that element of surprise in playing now, don’t interact with the other children either, and naturally, they’d lacked that sense of achievement from being challenged in the games.
And, comparing to how the older generation grew up, sure, the times were harder, there’s not very many choices in playing on the playground, having any setting of equipment, was perceived as a blessing; and the parents weren’t as attentive as they are now, the kids back then cracked their skulls, broke their bones, it’s normal. But the times had changed, the parents became pickier at the safety concerns of their young’s playing environment, and, if someone’s child got hurt, then, someone was to blame; being overly protective of the children, it’d lowered their threshold for the trials in their lives; including making the demands to the public and private schools, to take good care of their young, the parents had, forgotten their roles in their offspring’s coming of age.
Cell phones, iPads, handheld gaming devices, became babysitters, and as the parents are sitting by their young in the living rooms, they are, sliding on their cells, and the coworkers at the adjacent cubicles would rather chat using the computer keyboards, but became awkward when they engaged in face-to-face conversations; those online communities, when interacting through the screen, very active, but, as their lives returned back to the realities, they couldn’t hold a three-minute long conversation. The inability to cope with being a member of the public, inability to deal with defeats, this, was from the lacking of the experiences in childhood, and the responsibilities shouldn’t be shouldered by the younger generations, or the government either.
Games of childhood, hide and go seek, tag, building of sand castles, catching the mudfishes in the pond, getting dirty before going home, all of these became, a distant dream now, we can’t get it back again, and we all, eventually, need to, march forward with time, but technologies, they’re, merely things that made our lives more convenient, and, childhood should NOT be consisted of just cell phones, iPads, or toys made of tin cans.
So, so much is lost to children now, versus the past, because of these modern day technological advances, and, parents are using those electronic devices as the babysitter more and more, plus, it’s easier to keep a child quiet, while the parents work out whatever, and so, those better days of playing in the sun, running down to that creek, to swim, playing in the mud during the rain, are all, gone…