I'm not smart enough or informed enough to write a big Post about this and connecting all the dots, but I kinda just feel bad for kids these days. Partially inspired by those recent Disney D23 and Cartoon Network headlines.
Stuff like...
- Anything that's still left that represents a physical "third space" you can hang out at outside of school usually requires money, especially if you want to do something as luxurious as "sit down" or if you want to not get yelled at by adults.
- A lot of towns, at least in the US, have completely relinquished outdoor space to cars. So it's barely even safe to run around or play near streets, and it's more of a hassle to find a safe walking/bike route to a store or park.
- Toy stores are all-but-gone and a third of the toys are blind boxes anyway.
- Video game stores are on their march to extinction.
- Cartoons are great but half of em get cancelled after their first or second season, and don't really get a bunch of marketing or toys/merch.
- Companies like Cartoon Network are getting stripped down for parts, reducing the amount of cool new projects or characters we're going to see in the next few years.
- Flash is "dead", making it harder to find free games to play online.
- Most free games these days are on mobile and have microtransactions to get the full experience.
- Half of pop culture is just your parent's nostalgia being rebooted infinitely instead of helping the things that would actually resonate with you succeed financially.
- You can't even go to CARTOON NETWORK DOT COM anymore because apparently that wasn't worth paying to keep up, so you just get redirected to HBO Max. No more games, character bios, things to read or art to look at.
- Companies like Disney and Pixar have resigned themselves to just pumping out lifeless spin-offs, sequels, and god forbid...live-action remakes.
- Even if there is a game or game character you love and click with, you probably won't even be a kid anymore by the time the sequel comes out
- Connecting with your friends requires an internet connection
- Learning to draw and sharing your work online is drowned out in a sea of industry professionals and AI sludge.
- Depending on where you live, your school's budget for doing fun stuff and expressing yourself probably sucks ass.
I know this is just cherry-picked doomposting but it just bums me out.
Of course there's good stuff happening too...I know there's parents who use new tools like Facebook groups to connect with neighborhood parents and arrange fun stuff for their kids. I know that there's some pop-up events and interactive experiences that are great for families and aren't always scams. And I also know kids these days are into programming, romhacking, making music and games and cool little things on the computer, and that's great.
And I know there's thousands of people out there these days, making work for children and families, who DO really care and want to make respectful and resonant stuff. It's just...they get drowned out or their show gets canceled.
I just worry because like...if Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite vanished off of the face of the earth tomorrow, what spaces would kids have left? Youtube and TikTok rabbitholes? I don't even have kids myself, I just keep thinking about this stuff. Feels like it's snowballing in a depressing direction.
