Bad changes

As the years go by we miss some things that were important. This is inevitable. There is always something gone that reminds us of good times...

Friend @galenkp in his challenge for week 170 invites to comment on three things we don't like that have changed. Let me tell you...

I remember with great fondness the time of the Christmas skate in my teenage days. Every year from the second week of December until the night before the celebration of the Birth of Jesus, there were big skate rides all over the city of Caracas. Drivers acted very prudently and were careful with the crowd of boys on skates.

From seven o'clock at night, large lines of boys would walk through the streets heading to the squares, where we would gather to compete in all kinds of competitions. In those days the squares had a fair atmosphere, they had special lighting, there were security officers to protect the visitors and everywhere you could see a cake or hot chocolate salesperson.

At two or three in the morning people went back home and slept until mid-morning. In those days everyone tried to behave well because the worst punishment was to be forbidden by the parents to go to the patinatas.

In the early seventies these skate parks began to disappear, no more boys on skates were seen in the streets, the city became more unsafe and parents preferred that the boys stayed at home. I would have liked my children and granddaughters to know that experience.

Another thing I miss are the newspapers printed on paper. Since I started my university studies I cultivated the habit of reading the daily press, at the beginning I only read it in the university library, but when I started working I did not leave a single day without buying the newspaper, I kept that habit for more than forty years.

On Sundays I would get up very early, buy up to five different newspapers, prepare a thermos of coffee and sandwiches and lay down on the sofa, where I would spend hours reading the press until the beginning of the afternoon, at the end I would end up with my fingers stained with ink, which gave me great pleasure.

In my country the written press has practically disappeared, I know that in other parts of the world you can still buy newspapers printed on paper, although there are less and less of them, the possibility of reading the news on the internet has become much more practical. But I still miss those old newspapers, when my friends go abroad I always tell them to bring me a paper newspaper as a gift.

The third aspect I miss is the lack of privacy. Before the arrival of the internet, privacy was a very respected value, only famous people were targeted by photographers who wanted to take pictures of them against their will, the rest of us didn't have to worry about that.

But now everyone is taking pictures and filming with their cell phones and suddenly your image can appear anywhere without you knowing it.

A few days ago I was in downtown Maracay, I was in a bad mood, I was very thirsty because the heat was unbearable. I went into a bakery and asked for a bottle of mineral water, one of the salesmen offered me a fruit juice, I told him that I did not want fruit juice but water, another salesman came and scolded him and even slapped him, that new salesman offered me fruit juice again, I repeated that I was asking for water...

I turned around and left the bakery very frustrated, and I realized that in a corner someone was filming me with a cell phone. I imagine that I was the object of some kind of joke and that my face must be circulating somewhere in cyberspace.

In the face of these privacy violations there is no protection possible, it is the cost to pay when we all have the possibility of sharing in virtual space the first thing that provokes us. It would be up to us to be more aware and respectful of the privacy of others.

As always I enjoyed writing the post. I thank my friend @galenkp for offering us this initiative.

Thanks for your time.