Candy Cigarette by Sally Mann

 I'm not in any way trying to make this a 'photography' blog, but I'm trying to put a visual with my words. And when I saw this photo, I of course thought of this next post. What does this photo show? What is the story behind it? When I look at this, I view the difference in kids today from kids in say the 60's. It sounds like a rather 'old' thing to say, but I believe its true. While I could still be viewed as a kid at 18 years old, I think this photo shows the obvious visual of a child. A child holding a cigarette, that is.
I remember my parents always referring to 'the old days', when kids would stay outside 9 hours of the day and just 'hoop and holler'. But now most children/kids are inside playing video games, while their teenage siblings are drinking, using drugs, and having sex at local parties. I guess my question is: Where is the innocence? I have a 11 year old niece and when I compare her to even my 11 year old memories, I'm intrigued by the difference. I drove her to school last week and when she started to get out of the car, I told her to have a good day. Her reply? "Oh, I will. Jimmy said we could kiss at lunch!" and she ran off. What? 11 years old and 'kissing at lunch'? 
The point of this post is to say that innocence is slowly leaving kids at the ages of 7-8 now. It was different in 1960, but why? I guess kids have evolved. Parents have evolved. And America has certainly evolved.