I read with great interest that a recent study by Unicef has concluded that parents and their children are locked into a ‘compulsive consumption cycle’. It found that British families often co-exist under the same roof, rather than sharing time and space together, and that children have ‘media bedsits’ with their own TV, internet and games consoles.

The contrast with my own childhood is staggering – but of course it would be, with my childhood happening such a long time ago! Quite understandably, my grandchildren have no real comprehension of what it was like to be a teenager in the 1950s. Lots of things that are taken for granted today simply did not exist. For example, there were no:

• Mobile phones, Ipads, Blackberries, CDs, DVDs
• Computers, emails, the world wide web, search engines, computer games
• Ball point pens (we used pens you dipped into ink wells)
• Jeans, trainers, denim clothing
• Plastic toys
• Obese people
• Dishwashers, microwave ovens (and very few washing machines/fridges)
• Gyms, health clubs, exercise bikes (and very few swimming pools)
• Supermarkets, plastic bags, teabags, bottled water and packaging
• Fast food outlets
• Sunday opening of anything - except churches
• Motorways, traffic jams, sat navs, speed cameras, parking problems
• Major concerns about drug abuse (except for tobacco and alcohol)
• F words (bloody was the worst swear word)
• Men doing housework or childcare
• Single parents, cohabitation (there must have been – but it wasn’t obvious)
• Vandalism and graffiti.

There were also very few televisions. We didn’t have a TV at all throughout my teens and when we did acquire one it was self-conscious, masquerading as a cabinet with doors that opened to reveal the small screen that showed flickering pictures in black and white. Neither did we have central heating which, certainly in the winter, meant that the family was forced to spend time together in the only room that had any heating; a coal fire. Spending time alone in a cold, spartan bedroom was unthinkable. As a teenager I had lots of freedom with endless, unsupervised hours out in the open. I built dens, rode my bicycle everywhere, swam in rivers (I learnt to swim the Thames) and the sea.

So, my life as a teenager has few parallels with that of my grandchildren. But are things worse for kids today, or just utterly different?