A DIFFERENCE IN HEROES


This column originally appeared on Wicked Local.

When I was 11 years old, I lived for the Red Sox.  I spent much of the summer of 1979 studying the 1^st and 2^nd Edition Red Sox Yearbooks as well as my prized 1978 yearbook from the summer before, and went through my baseball cards – both front and back – over and over again, rearranging them in every possible way.  I was acclimated into the reality of Red Sox lore by Bucky Dent’s home run the October before, and was crushed a year later when Haywood Sullivan let Carlton Fisk slip away to the White Sox and unloaded Fred Lynn, Rick Burleson, and Butch Hobson to the (then) California Angels.  My parents were happy to have me studying statistics and constantly reading about baseball.  There was nothing about it that could be considered harmful.  In fact, it was pure goodness. 

Things are different in 2017.  My stepson is 11 years old, and although he is an excellent student, interested in sports, and a voracious reader, his preferable focus is his phone.  In fact, if you don’t provide him with an activity to get him away from his phone, he will slip away into phone-land for an undisclosed amount of time.  Of course, it is now the norm for our kids to have phones.  We have arrived at the point in contemporary society where a kid who does not have a cell phone is an anomaly, not that this makes it right.  Children are connected in an unhealthy way to the technology market, and their need to have the latest, greatest phone is no different than having to own that hip new pair of Nike sneakers or the latest video game system.  Unfortunately, research shows that this consumer-driven behavior is occurring at the addictive risk of our children.  The cell phone industry is “engineered to be addictive,” according to Joni Siani, author of the book Celling Your Soul:  No App for Life and creator of the award winning film of the same name.  “And we can’t keep continuing to turn a blind eye to this reality.  This is not only engineered addiction, it is engineered manipulation.”  Kids are quick to counter with the conditioned claim that they need phones for emergency purposes, but when you actually attempt to call them they are unsure or hesitant about answering with little understanding of how to actually communicate person to person on a telephone.  Furthermore, I am not so sure that kids are better off with the supposed lifeline that phones present rather than the way that we were all raised prior to the cell phone, learning to be independently safe and responsible based on socially taught expectations and directions instead of clinging to the possibility of a text message.

The most disturbing thing about my stepson’s phone use, however, is what he is choosing to do with his phone.  It seems that kids in his age-group have become particularly enamored with “YouTube” heroes such as Roman Atwood and Jake Paul.  They are impressed with these YouTube celebrities  because of their self-promoting behaviors and what appears to be self-aggrandizing discussion and display of their material possessions like cars, houses, and swimming pools.

Atwood is best known for his vlogs, where he “posts updates about his life on a daily basis.”  He is also known for his malicious prank videos, such as The Anniversary Prank video in which he informs his wife that he is having an affair in order to garner a reaction from a nation of adoring adolescents, and the Killing my Kid Prank, also meant to shock his now (surprisingly) ex-wife but speaks volumes for its lack of both appropriate judgment and comic instinct.  And, of course, he has a rather large collection of products that fans can buy that promote his brand including sweatshirts, hats, fidget spinners, and (ironically) clothing for infants. 

Kids are naturally enticed by the speculation of the commanding paychecks that “YouTubers” such as Atwood and Jake Paul claim to earn.  We are hoping that our young son continues to pursue his dream of becoming a pediatric brain surgeon, his original ambitious goal, but he has recently hinted to us that he might like to become a YouTuber instead.  When asked why, he states that we don’t understand videos and that Jake Paul drives a Lamborghini. 

Maybe I sound like a staunch old parent being vocally critical of Elvis or the Beatles for the effect that they might have over a new generation.  Maybe that is the point of a rebellious youth culture, that older people just don’t get it and simply can’t understand the obvious draw.  

Carl Yastrzemski did not claim to be perfect.  He smoked cigarettes and made the last out against Goose Gossage to end our hopes and dreams in 1978.  He was a real person, and because of that authentic character he was also a real hero. 

Oh, and for the record, Carl Yastrzemski drove a Buick. 

 

-Jay Gillespie has experience as a writer, comedian, musician, radio personality, and is a local history teacher.