I am constantly being made fun of for not having seen certain movies that are ‘defining of my generation’ or ‘must see films’. I like movies, but never really went out to see them when I was a young kid. My parents had three of us, and movies are expensive. Plus we lived in a town that was probably 30 kilometres from a movie theatre so… needless to say, we didn’t take many trips to the cinema.
Even as a teenager, though… the only movies I really remember going to a theatre to see were the Matrix, and… uh… the Matrix (I saw it twice). It’s the only one I remember having to buy tickets for, and watching in a theatre between the ages of 12 and 18. I’m not totally movie illiterate… I just haven’t seen as many as other people my age.
The other day, I had a Toffifee for the FIRST TIME EVER IN MY LIFE! It was delicious! So good in fact, that I had four. I couldn’t believe that I had lived my life until that moment without something that good! But I had, in fact, lived my entire life without ever tasting that candy. And I survived!
The fanciest toy I ever had was the Barbie Ferrari. I asked for it one year as my birthday or Christmas gift… or maybe I begged and begged to have both my presents combined into one magnificent, white, stallion-emblazoned glory. It was huge! And the doors even opened and the steering wheel turned all four of the little black tires! There was nothing electronic about it… it didn’t need expensive batteries or even a functioning top (it was a convertible). I used my imagination and made it an awesome toy (much to the chagrin of my mother, who found Ken and Barbie having a tryst in the back seat one evening).
These little things sometimes make me wonder if having the latest and greatest toys and gadgets, or going out for expensive movie outings, or being ‘up’ on all the latest things is important in any way to a great childhood. It seems like kids growing up in Generation Z are bombarded with messages that they have to have a certain toy or piece of clothing or something or other to give their existence meaning. I obviously disagree with this kind of thinking.
Now that I’m approaching “that age” when one begins thinking about marriage and procreation, I hope upon hope for my little nieces and nephews and friends’ kids that they’re able to escape the materialistic thinking that is perpetuated in the media. Their cute little heads are being filled with messages that their lives just can’t be complete without a laundry list of consumer goods. Most people my age have (I hope) realized that material goods aren’t what define a person’s life. Material goods are good only insofar as they perform their intended function well. Just having something really doesn’t help you much. Things don’t define who a person is. And the pursuit of things is a horrible waste of a life.
If I do end up having kids, I hope I can explain to them that their worth as people is defined by their strength of character, their abilities, their compassion, and their actions. Even though peer pressure is hard to ignore, and kids can be cruel, I don’t think that parents should buy their kids tons of stuff to make them ‘popular’. It just feeds the consumerism that ad companies and toy manufacturers are banking on. To that end, I will endeavour to stop excessively buying things for the kids in my life unless they’re educational or absolutely necessary. Instead, I’m going to start investing in the complete works of Tolstoy and Hobbes for them. Hopefully, they’ll be so wrapped up in reading and deciphering the 1900′s prose that they’ll never see the tv ads for the latest inappropriate toy. Fingers crossed!!
