A Beer and a screen
Playgrounds, dirty. Trashcans, overflowing. Beer cans and bottles, scattered throughout. Oh, did I fail to mention the sprinkled cigarette butts here and there? Can't have a playground without them.
Is this a societal decline? Or just tired parents during the day, rowdy teens during the night?
I wanted it to be the big thing.
I wanted to spot something that most people didn't. Maybe because I want to see myself as better than the rest. As someone who cares about his child more than "try to be quiet and don't hurt yourself, while I finish my beer after this long day".
And maybe because I've actually seen the parents drinking beers and smoking on the benches around the playgrounds? I've seen them stuck to their phones,
necks craned,
eyes jittery,
mind blank.
Yeah, probably I did add some drama. Are they that bad? Is it a crime? Would it destroy a child's world? Fuck no, I'm not that dramatic.
But it compounds.
You can be tired from the day's work and you "just need some time to wind down", so you open some short form content platform. You open a can. You mindlessly scroll while your boy or girl want you to see them climb that castle, or make a cartwheel... or eat sand, whatever.
And they see you there, but you aren't.