A Simpler Time

Last weekend I was fascinated by a retro REAL WORLD marathon on MTV...

I watched the early episodes of the '92 NYC and '94 SF seasons, and it was so surreal to be transported back to that time...
There were so many things that were strange to witness again...rolled up jean shorts, a young Bill Clinton and early, early hip hop...

But the strangest part of seeing the early 90's again was being reminded of a time with no real mainstream technology...no internet, no cell phones, and only 2 beepers made brief appearances...
It was funny to see young tweeters on the crawl below commenting on their disbelief of how we all survived without cell phones back then...

I know, I know...the internet is freakin' amazing, but I just got nostalgic for a day when people weren't being distracted by the shiniest tech object in the room like super hyper puppies with ADD...

It just seems like it was easier back then to be present with each other, listen to each other, enjoy the company of each other...
And I'm as guilty as the next person...
Sometimes it's really challenging while I'm on the phone not to check out The Huff Post or write an email that can wait...awhile...

I guess my generation's version of these distractions was TV...
Parents would say to us, "It's a nice day, why don't you go outside and play!"
And we did go outside a lot, but we also got in our share of Family Ties

But that's the genius of the REAL WORLD...no TVs in the house...
And it was so refreshing to see the early casts interact with each other without a cell phone in their hand or
a URL to look up...
At the risk of sounding real fucking old, there was just an innocence and simplicity about those days...
In one of the episodes, 3 of the girl roommates hang out by the beach with a couple of local guys...
They ride bikes, do skateboard tricks and just enjoy themselves without a single text being sent...
They even do cartwheels across the sand...

It's a simpler time to remember as we get more and more caught up in these...uh...hold on...
these times of...sorry...just checkin' my iphone...um...yeah...what was I saying?