Comment by ChuckMcM

> This might be too deep for this thread, but... does it ever get better?

If I had to point to a single thing that is most indicative to the change-over from 'child' to 'adult' it would be the thought behind this question.

The answer is "it always gets different." Which is dissatisfying to the child who yearns for a parent to make things better, and engaging for an adult that realizes that nothing is forever and things change but they can be an agent for change.

That last bit, owning ones own agency, is where "it gets better" comes from. When you are a child it got better because your parents worked to make it better, their vision of what better was meant they were willing to invest their time, effort, and resources into changing things for the better. When you are the parent, then its on you.

They key difference between nostalgia and maturity is that the former works to recreate what had been before, where the latter works to change what is into something better. One of the services you can do for your child is to show them how "adults" make things better.

So it's interesting to look at "What gets better these days?"

Modern video games are way better than the video games of the 90's.

Putting together a complete computer you can learn to program on can be done for < $100 if you're willing to use used keyboards/monitors/mice.

Making things out of plastic is accessible to everyone either by owning a 3D printer or borrowing one at the library or social club.

On line resources for learning any topic including taking college courses are free and easy to find.

Keeping in touch with your friends in "real time" is both trivial and multi-media.

Shopping is different with much of it online rather than in person. Is that better? Is that worse? Kind of a bit of both, but definitely different. The Internet is full of crap ads, which is different, but its a lot faster than it used to be, is that better? Is that worse? A bit of both and definitely different.

I was joking at a conference I attended last week that I remember when grown-ass men could make a living wage developing database software written in BASIC on what was essentially a giant Arduino with an 8 bit processor. Definitely different, and it was fun for them, but it wasn't necessarily different then grown people getting paid to write code in Javascript to make web pages look nice.

Here is the bottom line: Things get better because you, as the adult, work to make them better. The more effective your efforts, the more people will join you in helping you make things better. Conversely, if you do nothing, then things getting worse is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Change is endemic, without effort and maintenance, change tends toward decay.