I was looking at a website that deals in nostalgia, and I realized some things: 1) every generation of children is defined by the toys, games, television, and other forms by which it is entertained, and 2) this sucks. Don't get me wrong, I love to reminisce and remember Saturday afternoons with Mario and the Ninja Turtles. But now I realize that part of my childhood was decided in business meetings and designed by nerds in Asia. Thank God for cookouts and power outages. I think life without electricity is good for a person every now and then.

Back on subject. Oh, there wasn't one.

Wait! yes there was. So much of my generation's youth was shaped by cartoons, action movies, Disney, sugary cereal, designer waterguns, wacky videogames, neon notebooks, velcro folders, 6-foot-long pieces of gum, and all things Nerf. It has progressed in a similar way. Now we have sexy music videos, DVDs, gadgets galore, and endless name brand apparel. Do we buy culture? If so, then we renew it frequently. In fact, our parents bought our identities until adolescence, at which point we went out and bought our own definitions and characteristics. Maybe I'm going overboard, but isn't this at least partially true? I think it's because we are so individualistic—we don't care about communal welfare, how our neighbors are. Unlike the villages of the past, we dwell within our houses, where the endless expanse of television and the Internet become our exploration—where we find our ties in the very most convenient way.

To end this in punky, dramatic fashion: Kill Your TV!