general media The Death of Your Childhood?

[Fractured 2,683]

What particular scene or scenes caused the end of your childhood? This can be from anything; I know for a lot of people, it was Mufasa's death in Lion King. I was more of a comic book person, so it was Gwen Stacy's death for me. What's yours?

[Jeric 46,834]

Interesting topic. I am curious as to what others have to say about this. I do believe that media can impact how to perceive the world around you, especially at a young age. I read Enders Game when I was young. There was something about Graff's actions (and inaction) toward Ender, and the Bonzo Madrid scene that was jarring. I suppose this may have been the moment that my evaluation of adults as flawed individuals started to form, and the idea that in the end, you may be left to your own devices. This can be a sobering concept for a child.

 

That is the closest to what you might call the Death of Innocence. Though I am still young at heart, I can no longer see the world through those same eyes.

[Banul 3,831]

When I was a kid, I could build anything out of Legos. I would sit in my room for hours and just build shit. I never had to think about it, I just did it. As I got older, it got harder and harder. One day, I sat there with the Legos in front of me and realized that I couldn't spontaneously build things anymore. I had to think about it.

 

That's when I noticed my childhood slipping away, more than any piece of media. It was kind of sad seeing some of that imagination go away. At the same time, the things I was able to make after I thought about it were of better quality that the stuff I made when I was a kid. I guess that has less to do with the media, but that's what I remember more than anything else.

[Zer0xxPony 1]

For me it was when i got my PS2 i knew then my PS1 would never be touched again and my childhood just slipped away.

[Nulln 754]

Mine wasn't taken away by the media, but it was taken from being in an abusive home around the age of 8 is as far back as i can remember when it started.

I've always held onto cartoons and games as an escape, and I guess just a chance to get back what I missed out on from having to grow up so fast.

[DubWolf 16,604]

Mufasa's death? I understand it's a rather sad scene looking back at it, but...well I suppose if you define your childhood as when you believed "nobody died", then I guess I see what you mean ...or when you thought..bleh, I'm tiring myself .

 

As for myself, I define my childhood as how long I was "innocent". I was always the kid asking people what the F word meant, or what all those derogatory words people always said meant (I didn't know what a q***f was ...then again, how was I supposed to know that, and why would I want to know that?!). I also remember saying that I loved everyone since that's what I learned from my church school days .... oh the judgements...

 

I probably lost mine (innocence) in the 10th grade (yeah I know!); I started to learn too much . I could be wrong, but that's what first came to mind...

[Vox 870]

The death of a family member, i was present at the time of death.

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

I made the mistake of getting into a van that read "free candy". Turns out it was organ harvesters that were working for the reptilian aliens. After they took my kidney, they shot me in the head and left me in the desert as buzzard food.

 

That is when I realized that my child self had died.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for a real response. I grew up in a very poor neighbor hood in Yakima. I was ill at the time, and was staying in my parents bedroom watching tv, I heard a fight start outside, and looked out the window just in time to see one of my neighbors (who I never really had contact with) get jumped by 5 people, and then beaten to the ground, and then as he lay there they shot him.

[Scrubbed user 3,415]

I don't believe my childhood ever "died", it just evolved as I gotten older.

To explain why I think this, I will tell you a story about a racing game that was released in the US in 1998. That game was Gran Turismo. I was 7 at the time. My mind slowly began to swirl around motorsport and cars. As the series progressed throughout the years, so did I. As the series evolvolved, my needs for hardware also changed. I only just recently (December of last year) when I finally was able to buy a racing wheel, a Thrustmaster T500RS. I have since then switched to a Fanatec Clubsport Wheel and pedal set and a proper cockpit setup and I love that more.

 

I never really had any interests in other types of games until about 9 years ago when I decided to branch out into other genres, mainly FPSs (because gun = fun). But racing games had always been at the forefront of what I wanted to play. But I always did stick with GT. Even at the age of 23, I still am as much of a fan as I was playing a demo of the game in 1997 on the PS1.
 

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Actually, no, fuck that, My childhood died when Ed, Edd, 'n Eddy ended. I hate that it's gone, but we all have to move on at some point.

 

However, I think Cartoon Network would make a killing if it was brought back, or at least a show in the same style.

[Gravelord Neat-O 305]

i never had a proper childhood so i cant say when it officially died.

[Snow Frostflame 3,567]

me and my sisters matured early all for different reasons and we are all scar'd by our childhoods my older sister was when she was left alone in the house with baby me while my mother went to go cheat on my father

 

for my younger sister it had to of been the moment she saw our mother attempt suicide

 

as for me it had to of been when my mother married a former U.S. Soldier he was extremely strict he didn't like immature children so he made me strong while I was 8 (he didn't abuse me don't worry he just didn't want me immature so getting yelled at was common)

 

so long story short my mother fucked all of our childhoods

 

I try to forget my childhood because of my mother and being 17 I'm learning all the horrible things she has done to her family, my dad, and my siblings including me.... as of now I couldn't careless if she died .... I hope nopony else has to feel the same about their parents what my mother did to us is unforgivable

[Everleaf 541]

I'm still fairly young so I can't yet call it (childhood)

 

 

however it was the death of my beloved cat Jake....it just...changed me....I love animals even more than I used to but....it's just changed for me...I just feel empty...that cat was with me all my life...he cared....I don't care if people say cats don't care because after this cat I understand he DID care...after I lost him well....it's just scared me.....

 

 

 

 I think he sadly died about two years ago...but it HAS made me become more social for one I miss Jake dearly and I will never forget him...as he changed my life...

me and my sisters matured early all for different reasons and we are all scar'd by our childhoods my older sister was when she was left alone in the house with baby me while my mother went to go cheat on my father

 

for my younger sister it had to of been the moment she saw our mother attempt suicide

 

as for me it had to of been when my mother married a former U.S. Soldier he was extremely strict he didn't like immature children so he made me strong while I was 8 (he didn't abuse me don't worry he just didn't want me immature so getting yelled at was common)

 

so long story short my mother fucked all of our childhoods

 

I try to forget my childhood because of my mother and being 17 I'm learning all the horrible things she has done to her family, my dad, and my siblings including me.... as of now I couldn't careless if she died .... I hope nopony else has to feel the same about their parents what my mother did to us is unforgivable

 

Wow...just wow....it would suck to lose your childhood like that...I understand you fully...

[Snow Frostflame 3,567]

Wow...just wow....it would suck to lose your childhood like that...I understand you fully...

yeah... thanks I feel you as well I know what its like to be attached to an animal wishing their life cycle is as long as yours then it dies

 

Level up to Phoenix yay

Edited September 19, 2014 by Snowflake Frostflame

[Fractured 2,683]

Mufasa's death? I understand it's a rather sad scene looking back at it, but...well I suppose if you define your childhood as when you believed "nobody died", then I guess I see what you mean ...or when you thought..bleh, I'm tiring myself .

 

As for myself, I define my childhood as how long I was "innocent". I was always the kid asking people what the F word meant, or what all those derogatory words people always said meant (I didn't know what a q***f was ...then again, how was I supposed to know that, and why would I want to know that?!). I also remember saying that I loved everyone since that's what I learned from my church school days .... oh the judgements...

 

I probably lost mine (innocence) in the 10th grade (yeah I know!); I started to learn too much . I could be wrong, but that's what first came to mind...

For me, I always believed that, no matter the circumstances, good guys always win. Even moreso, it was the faith I had in parental figures, since I associated Mufasa with my father in some ways. His death hurt both of those ideas.

[The Last Derp 113]

I sorta lost my childhood when I was 8 i realised Santa wasnt real T_T

After that, I wasnt really my childish, immature self, except for a few times where I burst out into random randomness.

[Malinter 3,064]

Mine never died,

 

Just pop sonic 1 in the ps3 and i'm all the way back to June 1st 1991. XD

[HoopHoof 137]

Well I recently moved into a new country and I've been going to the same school since preschool until High school. Now I'm college and it's seriously my first time being a new student. 

 

I guess you can say my childhood is died when I started college. Plus the I had to give away my dog at the beginning of this year. I guess that's an extra kick in the gonads 

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,298]

Well, let me think...  I watch an animated series about colorful talking equines, I play video games with ceaselessly enthusiastiac, high-jumping mustachioed plumbers, I enjoy ridiculous food combinations that gross some people out, I draw and write crazy things for my own amusement, I collect toys and read comic books, and I sleep with a plushie.  Yeah...  My childhood's still going strong lol, and I'm nearing thirty-two.  If anything, I might have some manner of emotional Benjamin Buttons deal.

 

Sometimes I feel like some bitter, curmudgeon-y old man (you dern kids an' yer confusing modern music and cat-centric internet memeses), and sometimes I'm a kid in a candy store.

[Treble Bolt 1,122]

I never really had a childhood that involved the media (didn't start watching TV until about middle school), let alone a decent childhood at all....

But I will say I never lost my sense of curiosity and wonder with the world. It's one of the few things that make me happy when I think about it. As you get older and learn more, you naturally lose that wonder because "life" gets in the way on top of answering the simple questions you had when you lacked understanding of the world. By the time you are an adult, your questions become "who am I?" and "what am I (will be) doing with my life?" You focus on social norms and where you fit in with society, no longer stopping to not just smell the roses, but wonder about the process in which they came to be and why they are the colors they are. Yes, you learn a lot to answer many of those kind of questions in an abstract way (remember biology and those punnet squares to answer the coloration question?) but just to SEE a flower grow, to WATCH it mature and go from all green to a beautiful vibrant color is Fascinating (at least to me).

Why just this morning, I was thinking about walking. When you are a toddler, you learn how to walk....but when does it become something you can do without thinking? Which made me think of my hands, and wonder how my body knows what I want to do with them without consciously thinking, sometimes acting without any thought at all (like you are startled and put your hands up). I know science can answer this, and have a basic understanding of how the human brain controls our bodies, but it's still fascinating! 

Just because you know something, even in great depth and detail, does not mean whatever it is that you know is now boring or no longer amazing. I believe as we grow up, our focus on the world shifts (as i mentioned earlier), which leaves us with a semi-broken perspective on wonder this world contains, right at our fingertips. Why are people now so easily bored? Why are so many people content with ignorance? I wonder that a lot. I am not saying that everyone is like that. But in my own life, I do blacksmiths demonstrations, people "Oooh" and "ahh" at what I do, but very VERY few (maybe 1 per show), ask a real question (not, "Is that real fire?" seriously, people ask that all the time). and even fewer want more than a simple textbook answer. Most people just gawk and move on without a second thought. It saddens me, because although most people come to shows to see living history, they do not really get anything out of going, because they are content with seeing and not digging any deeper than that. Not many strive to understand what they see, and thus it is ignorance....I am getting off topic a bit, but it all stems from our worldview's as children and how it changes (or "dies") by the time we become adults. Although a small part will always be there (allowing for further learning in areas that already interest us or spark creativity where it may not have been before), it is highly dwarfed by "adult" problems and "adult" mindsets that really narrow our perspectives on the world around us. It's not all that hard to grow that part of you, that part of you that was so prevalent as a child, even if you never had a decent childhood. It takes conscious effort though, willpower, and an open mind. Overall though, it takes a change a perspective. To look at something, no matter how simple it is (like a doorknob), and look at it from a different angle (I use it everyday, yes, but I wonder how it's made today...what are the machines used to make a doorknob, what about historical doorknobs designs from around the world), and BAM!!!, you not only learned something new, but it could lead into further learning and exploration into things you never thought about before.

 

So yeah...childhood, it's not gone, just dwarfed....

[Darker 1,351]

Very good question with a very clear answer. This still puts me to tears. Take your Mufasa, your Bambi or your Littlefotot's mother.SPECIALLY Ellie from Up. That was never sad to me.

 

This Big Guy was the one that made me cry more than anything. EVEN outside of my childhood.

 

 

 

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,151]

My childhood never died. As another person stated; it pretty much evolved.

 

I mean I am known for having a fairly mature mindset as a youngster. Death on-screen never bothered me as I knew at that age that death was an everyday thing.

 

Likewise things like sex, violence, and other things never fazed me either. I mean at a very young age I've lived through parents having very bad arguments, fights between other family members, being taken advantage of sexually at a young age by a family friend (not raped, mind you), living with the fact that I was adopted by my grandparents, and other things.

 

Don't get me wrong; I've had a wonderful childhood. My family has been MORE than good to me and I have had plenty of great experiences as a youngster (went to Disney World & Daytona Beach in '93, for instance), but at the same times I've lived through things that caused me to mature at a young age.

 

Again my childhood never died; it just evolved.

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,329]

Well, technically I'm still a kid being 16. I will say, my childhood died when I was told there was no santa. I was in tears that day. It also kind of takes some of the childhood magic out of Christmas.

 

Also when I truely saw people's attitudes on the internet.

[ThatOneComrade 1,091]

I'd been lead to believe the US was the fairest country of them all, without any faults whatsoever.

Ignorance was bliss.

[Tao 6,719]

Strange thing is my childhood never went

boom!   Yah we loose some of the allusions

of childhood,  see the world for what it is

but its also up to the said person if they

let their inner child dye.

[SparklingSwirls 21,261]

I can't think of a certain moment; for me it was just kind of gradual. I like to think my childhood hasn't died completely