Singer/Actress/Songwriter - Schonte "Tresey" Hamilton guest blogs today....
I was thinking back to my school days and how different the world is now. We didn’t have FaceBook, Twitter, Myspace or sit in front of the computer all day. We went out and enjoyed the air. As a little girl we jumped Double Dutch and when we got mad at each other we verbalized it and after a few minutes we were all friends again. We played hide-n-seek and had races. We rode our bikes throughout the neighborhood and we came together to make homemade go karts. When it was hot outside someone’s big brother turned on the fire hydrant and we ran through it creating our own water park. We played all day and when dinner time came around we went in and enjoyed time with our families. Our chicken, which was the most popular dish back then, looked like chicken. The drumsticks were not so full of hormones that it resembled a turkey leg. Our fruits were not sprayed full of cancer causing agents. Our drinks were not as full of artificial ingredients, fake sugars and acids. The milk did not come from diseased unhealthy animals. We would pray over our food, eat and then return to play outside until the street lights came on. If we were having a bad day and was seen mistreating anyone we didn’t go to therapy or anger management, our parents were the therapists and they taught us that displaying that type of behavior was unacceptable and would not be tolerated.
Now kids don’t have the privilege to go outside and play. Instead they compete in their homes with people around the world playing violent video games and on instant chat. Competition is about slaying the opponent and they carry this over into reality. The fiction they see on Television or in video games merges with their reality. When they see someone that is different from them they feel threatened. They have to be competitive so they slay that person with their words and actions. They become that fictional character. They are in attack mode.
Kids don’t know their neighbors or fellow classmates. They don’t know how to interact with their peers because true socialization is a thing of the past. The only socialization they do is online so they never learn how to deal with opposition or embrace their differences. As a result they display extreme aggression and become bullies. If we continue to support incorrect behavior we are going to continue to produce bullies and the more we produce the more dangerous our world becomes. It starts with us and in our homes. It takes all of us as adults and strong kids like LaNiyah to do something about it.
Now kids don’t have the privilege to go outside and play. Instead they compete in their homes with people around the world playing violent video games and on instant chat. Competition is about slaying the opponent and they carry this over into reality. The fiction they see on Television or in video games merges with their reality. When they see someone that is different from them they feel threatened. They have to be competitive so they slay that person with their words and actions. They become that fictional character. They are in attack mode.
Kids don’t know their neighbors or fellow classmates. They don’t know how to interact with their peers because true socialization is a thing of the past. The only socialization they do is online so they never learn how to deal with opposition or embrace their differences. As a result they display extreme aggression and become bullies. If we continue to support incorrect behavior we are going to continue to produce bullies and the more we produce the more dangerous our world becomes. It starts with us and in our homes. It takes all of us as adults and strong kids like LaNiyah to do something about it.
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