INTRO
Over the last couple decades there has been a gigantic technological boom. It has resulted in things ranging from from the first man on the moon to the creation of the worlds first computer. Before all this technology, when people wanted to do something they would go outside and play sports. Instead, most people now play video games or watch TV instead of doing an physical activity.
The effect on my Parents

My dad grew up as a little kid with a black and white TV that got maybe 3 channels. My grandpa was a teacher, a basketball coach, and a baseball coach, so my dad had to do his homework after sports practices, and then he would go do other things with friends after wards. Pong, Donkey Kong, and Pac-Man all came out when he was in college. Back then too, people would actually talk to other people over the phone or in person rather than through IM, Facebook or texting. Another giant thing for people back then was a music player called "walkmans". (Basically a thing that plays mixtapes that you can wear while running).

My mom grew up in a farm family with 3 older brothers so she never had a chance to watch TV or any of that. Instead she had to do chores without pay (something that kids today would kill themselves if they had to do), and go run or bike a couple miles to friend's houses.

The effect on me
Infant-Age 6
Growing up the first video game system I got was the Super Nintendo back when I was around 3 or 4. I had a couple of games for it, and they games were actually about as big as the system. Back then I thought NBA Jam was the shit. You had a 2 vs. 2 game of basketball with pro players that would consistently drain full court shots and rip off ridiculously amazing dunks. Then later I got my first madden, madden 96. The game even then I thought was very frustrating because of how they make the people move, people playing MW2 now with not even half as bad of lag throw giant tantrums. And by far my favorite game for the super nintendo was Yoshi's Island. I don't know why, but I just loved that game.

Then around 2000 I got the Nintendo 64, and also two games for the PC called Baldur's Gate, and Age of Empires. On the Nintendo 64 my parents got me only 2 games: Wrestle mania and Major League Baseball. Wrestle mania was very fun for me as a kid since you could run backstage and smash the other guy with chairs and stuff you find back there. Major League Baseball for me was fun since I liked the sport, and it was the first sports game I played that actually somewhat resembled the real sport. The two PC games I mentioned, for those of you that don't know, where basically the best games I ever have to this day played on PC. Age of Empires is a game where you build an empire, and defeat other ones, and Baldur's Gate was the first game where what you do can actually cause a different outcome for the game.

During this period I just played the games I had, and then when I turned eleven I was constantly going to my friends house and playing his madden 2004 for PS2 . I thought that game was amazing, but hated when my friend was a douche and chose the falcons, and did that Mike Vick sideline glitch which confused the hell out of me since I couldn't figure out why he couldn't be stopped. For my 13th Birthday I got an 1GB Ipod Nano as my birthday present from my mom and her family. I thought this was amazing, but had no songs since I actually thought I HAD to BUY songs off itunes instead of getting them from limewire. I recently looked at the cost of Ipod's now where my Ipod at the time cost 150$ and held 250 songs, and didn't play videos. Now you can buy an ipod nano that has 32 gigs for 100$ that plays videos, and even takes them. That year for christmas also me and my brothers got as a combined present a ps2 with madden 2005. I thought that was the best gift ever then. I never really got many other games than that, the ones I did were call of duty 2, NBA 2005, and Tony Hawk underground. I hated call of duty 2 vehemently, but NBA 2005 became my favorite game for the PS2 since I could create myself into the game (which I loved doing), and making the timberwolves not suck in franchise mode like they did in real life.

For christmas when I was 15 I got a PS3 with two games, Motorstorm and Call of duty 4. I never really liked motorstorm, and I almost didn't even play call of duty 4 since I thought it would be like call of duty 2 for the ps2. Call of duty 4 was the first fps game I ever played seriously. At first I would go over to a friends house to play him 1 vs. 1 in splitscreen since my dad wouldn't get wireless internet for me to play. I got my ass WHOOPED every time I played him, and then when I finally did get internet I SUCKED online and had a k/d of maybe .4. Eventually I got better, but I still only would raise that account up to about a .8 k/d.
Conclusion