Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

I believe that childhood still exists today. However, I think that it is definitely not as long as it was when I was growing up. Childhood for me was playing outside or playing with my barbies and not worry about anything. I used the computer to play games, not worry about facebook or emails. However, as I look around me today, children are walking around with iphones instead of barbies and checking facebook every two minutes instead of playing outside. I do not understand what an eight year old child needs an Iphone for considering they are not outside by themselves, but yet parents buy them anyways. I also think that because of facebook, kids think they are older than they actually are. they put up very racy pictures and use language that is not appropriate for a child. Besides the internet, I think media and tv ruins childhood. They barely censor the things being said so almost everything on tv has curses. When I was growing up, shows like Maury used to bleep out every curse. However, it seems to be that “bitch” is no longer a curse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RswGpv3As3U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RswGpv3As3U (3 min 50 seconds). The same problem exists with the radio. So yes, although I believe that childhood does still exist, I don’t believe it’s enough.