Tricycling on the cloudless streets of Santa Clara, California, a little girl looks up to see a modest playground in Bowers Park, the recreational grounds right behind her single-family home. As she glances around the park, she is unsurprised to see children who don’t look much different from her. Their tiny, brown hands playing on the same, run-down swing sets that she does, every day. To her and them, life is satisfactory and managing to slide down the big slide five times or making it all the way across the monkey bars are their means of happiness.
This is the typical life for a four-year-old in California, where a child finds joy not in luxury, but in simple activities. While in California you may find a child enjoying a playground, the same aged child in Alaska per se, would not be encountering a similar experience. That child might, enjoy skiing or snowboarding. Climate, people, and culture create the environments that we grow up in.
One of the unique things about the 50 states is that they are so diverse, we would not get a similar story of growing up from two people living in two different states. This is because of the wide set cultural and historical aspects tied to the United States. While prominent Hispanic flavors roam the country in the Southwest, we see a strong development of African American culture in the Southeast, and moreover, we can also note the European ethnicities scattered across New England and the Midwest. The assortments of culture and ethnicity across the nation make living in each one very different.
Another important factor that has changed the ways children grow up today are the developments of technology and social media. According to the Common Sense Media, the average teenager spends an average of nine hours a day online. 50 years ago, the internet wasn’t invented yet for those generations to experience going “online.” For example, if your grandparents settled and lived in the same state as you do right now, their teenage experiences probably consisted of listening to music on cassettes or spending time outside of the house. Children today hardly know what a cassette is and don’t prefer to spend much of their time out of the comforts of their homes. As we have grown technologically as a country, many aspects of maturing into the real world have changed over time.
I personally believe that living in a different state in the United States is like living in a different country. Religion, prominent ethnicities, and even language are all things that typically change as you move across the borders of the states. Additionally, many people that are from a particular place define themselves differently as a person based upon where they belong. For example, someone from Florida might say that they enjoy going to the beach while someone living in Kansas might say that they prefer to go camping. Someone living in Hawaii might say that they grew up next to palm trees, while another person from Louisiana might say they grew up with the influence of French culture. Our views of the world are shaped by the place we live in, and since no two states are the same, our views of the world vastly differ over periods of space.
However, our cultural background is not the only factor that affects how children grow up today. Another thing to note is the poverty rates that are evident across all 50 states. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, over 21% of all children live below the poverty threshold today. When accumulating these statistics, we often overlook these numbers. The idea of “being poor” can have a profound impact on a child’s mental health. Families without a steady income are unable to provide for their children, and this often results in their children dropping out of school and giving up some of the toys that a majority of children have the ability to enjoy.
Growing up in the United States today is different than it was 100 years ago, ten years ago, and even just one year ago. Constant change occurs on a daily basis that changes the situation that we are living in on a daily basis. Our 50 states create a unique place for our future generations to grow up in and this is a quality worthy to preserve in the years to come.
Article by MoCo Student staff writer Sangeet Anand of Churchill High School