The word "family" originally meant a band of slaves, people who worked, lived, and played together. Family is associated with people related by blood, marriage, or adoption that have a strong bond and mutual trust between one another. The family for centuries has been the basis of life. However, it seems as time goes by, that the family, American in particular, is falling apart. People in general are changing their ways of life. We as a society are becoming more independent, and family is not quite a necessity any more. In many civilizations, a woman depends on her father to marry her off into another family, and a son depends on his father to teach him the skills that he will use throughout his life. However, currently in America, we have computers to do all of that for us. Online, we can fall in love, learn how to fly an airplane, or even buy a shiny new family on eBay. It almost seems there is no need to have a family to come home to when we have a computer, game system, and flat screen TV there waiting for us. .
The values that families held in 1950 were much different from traditional values of today. Spending quality time with one another was the most important aspect of 1950's life. Dinner was usually eaten in the same room, served on the family's fanciest china, and not in front of the television until the invention of TV dinners in 1954. The only time we seem to eat in the same room anymore is occasionally on holidays and sometimes when the cable is out.
In the 1950's the child usually stayed at home until they started first grade. Since most mothers were not yet in the workforce, they raised the child. Without many shows on television, children used their imagination to create games to entertain themselves. Children could be found spinning the hula-hoop around their waists, dressing up dolls, and playing cops and robbers. The television and computer predominantly raise the 21st century child.
