We've come how far?

Class of 2003, do you still recognize these tubes, what they hold inside? I do. Pogs. I saw these sitting on my desk. Do you still have yours? How old were we when these things were popular? Fourth or fifth grade maybe? Anyway, I've kept mine all these years, and they've just been waiting for the muse to inspire me with some pseudo-ironic-retro project to use them in. Until that time, they sit alone, and unused and unwanted, like so many fads.

The point of all this is that seeing these Pogs today made me think of elementary school fads in a broader sense. It was about 15 years ago, when *everyone* I knew just had to have these things. Even then I rarely bought into fads like these (lack of funds), but this one was different. Despite my meager allowance (I recall receiving $5 every 2 weeks), I could still afford pogs. They sold for like 10 cents each in a bin a Marc's. Finally a fad that even the poor kids could take part in.

I recall that pogs even received some national media converage, just as mass media was really coming into its own during the early to mid-nineties. The coverage was pretty evenhanded as I remember, some focusing on the origin of the fad (I think it pointed to Hawaii, but i was like 10 at the time. No memory from that long ago is untainted by the lens of the present). Yet other coverage focused on the negative aspects of the fad, things like it being a intro to gambling (you could "play for keeps"), or fighting over who-stole-who's-10-cent-disc-of-cardboard or some other inane garbage like that (some kids are extremely possessive, going even the step further to attempt to possess the unpossessible. Thanks a lot consumer culture). But largely it (being pogs) was a safe and inexpensive fad.

Today however, look at the current fads among school-age kids being covered in the media. The choking game? Raiding mommy's medicine cabinet? Are you serious?!? We had pogs! Pogs! Or toward the end of my school-age years, Pokemon cards. Either way simple pieces of cardboard. What has happened to us?

Not to mention that the media fuels all of this. I know that parents need to be informed about the threats that their children face, its a legitimate concern. But frankly, its irresponsible . Take the choking game for example. I found out about it for the first time talking to a swim team parent back home after I had blacked out briefly on the pool deck. She said the way I looked reminded her of what would happen when they would purposely help each other to blackout (for the purpose of a "high") in girls scouts when she was younger. The point of that story is this: I was 20 at the time. I had lived 20 years of my life at the time, and never even new that "the choking game" was a thing. And by the time I knew about it, I was old enough to know that purposely causing yourself to blackout was, to put it mildly, a stupid idea.

Back to the irresponsible media. Its irresponsible to broadcast these pieces during the evening news because there are kids watching. And sure the news focuses on the negative aspects of these trends (risk of death, etc.), but they always mention why these negative behaviors are being performed in the first place, to achieve a perceived high. Many (I suspect most) kids think in terms of pleasure, not pain. What I mean is that even though the news report said a dozen times that this activity is dangerous and shouldn't be done, the kids mind shut down the moment he heard the single potentially fun thing about it. The purported high. Once that happened, the kid's mind shut off all the negatives, and started thinking about all the fun he could be having. OK, thats kind of a "choking-game" orientated response, and in no way absolves parents of their parental duties, but lets consider the recent trend of prescription drug abuse among minors.

When I was younger the thought had literally never occurred to me that sneaking a few of daddy's pain pills could make me feel gooooooood. But if there
had been a had report describing (please read the following with a sarcastic tone) the all encompassing pleasures of prescription meds back in 1995, things could have been different. I don't think these things things come naturally to kids. A two year old may eat some pills and die, but the toddler ate the pills because it puts literally everything in its mouth (seriously, you've got to watch that), not because it was looking dull the pain of its new molars coming in, or mommy no longer paying so much attention to it because of the new baby. Did you just read the last sentence? That notion is insane. Sure, I've already claimed that kids are just looking to have fun with the decisions they make. But look at it this way. Does choking yourself or taking medicine appear fun on the exterior?

NO! So lets leave it that way. We do not need to suggest that it could be.

I got here from pogs, POGS for crying out loud. But it all comes to this. If I get any, any choice at all in the current fad sweeping through our school systems a few years down the road when I have kids, I choose pogs. No matter how stupid or inane they may be.