The Good Old Days

When I was a kid, I used to play in the streets of the small neighbourhood in Athens where I grew up. We played lots of games like hide-and-seek or thieves and policemen. These games proved to be most beneficial for us kids as they involved a lot of physical exercise. Sometimes. they turned out to be quite addictive to such a degree that our mothers would start calling us to go back home because it was getting dark.

I always obeyed mum and as soon as she called, I'd go back home. All the family gathered around the dinner table. It was a sacred time for the family. During dinner time, we were not allowed to watch TV or play. We'd exchange our news of the day, and, as a family we talked a lot over dinner. After dinner, we were allowed to watch TV for about half hour but, unlike my siblings, I preferred listening to the radio. Then by 9:30 pm we had to go to bed and mum would turn off the light and kiss us goodnight.

Those were the good old days. Nowadays, kids are on Facebook, they gulp down dinner in front of the TV or while chatting to their online friends. Families rarely spend time around the dinner table exchanging their news of the day. And many kids at the age of 9-10 have already a mobile phone or an iphone - not to mention a laptop.  Most of them would rather have fast food delivered for dinner rather than eat their mother's home cooking.

Although I believe in modern technologies such as the Internet and social media, I still miss the good old days and believe that most kids nowadays are mere victims of the Playstation or Facebook.

Modern Technology

Technology has always been an important part of life since the 19th century industrial revolution. Through the years these advances grew until we got to the most important piece of technology in today's society, the computer. Computers are present in every area of our lives. They help save lives in the medical field, they have connected the world turning it into a global village.Our economy depends on computers, cash registers, banks, the stock market. These are things that people in the past could not even dream of. Five years ago, I couldn't even imagine using my mobile phone like a computer or having an ipod instead of a walkman or having an interactive whiteboard in my classroom! The advances of modern technology have definitely transformed my life a lot, mostly in a positive way. To what extent has modern technology affected your lives in , let's say the last 10 years?