I'm not really sure where to put this thread, but consumerism and the media seems as good a place as any.
I've been asking this question a lot lately, largely as I have moved away from social media, cell phones, etc.
I was born in 1966 - I feel I don't quite fall under the "OK Boomer" group, but I don't quite feel like a millenial.
And of course my life was largely shaped by television. I admit it. I loved Gilligan's Island. As a child, the first "hero figure" I remember from television is Billy Jack from the movie of the same name. I liked the martial arts, but I liked the gentle ambiance of the film. (As a little boy, I didn't pick up on the sexual violence.) I also loved St. Francis from the Zeffirelli film Brother Sun, Sister Moon. Maybe that's my early drive toward simplicity. So, the ongoing boomerism certainly affected me.
I think, as a child, I wanted to grow up into an adult surrounded by nature. I wanted to own few things, do something creative every day, stay out of debt (an early influence of my mother), travel, and be kind. Largely, I've always valued time over money, and I love reading.
I have managed most of that, but the degree to which computers and the internet and, to some degree, the smart phone, has intruded into my life does somehow distort the person I wanted to be on the inside. My brain feels like it is given over to shuffling data and shuffling information - sorting, categorizing, passing along. In some ways, that summarizes my job, but I find I'm doing the same sort of thing when I'm not at work.
I don't think the blame can be laid squarely at the feet of technology - I am responsible for my own actions - but I don't like my technology use, by and large. So, I keep asking myself when I find myself looking at my Google news feed when I'm waiting for water to boil, "Am I living the life I wanted when I was a child." Google news feed? No. Facebook and Twitter? No. Slowly, I've been cutting all that out of my life. I did delete my Facebook and Twitter accounts. I look at Instagram every couple of months to see what my daughter is up to, rather than every day. I keep my Google Fi phone on pause when I'm not traveling and, more or less successfully keep it off and in a desk drawer. (It's been in this time for three whole days running.) And so on.
But I'm sure others of you dreamt of a life with just such technological innovations as we now have. At any rate, are you now living the life you wanted when you were a child?