For good and obvious reasons, Americans have spent a great deal of energy and research in identifying and removing contaminants and dangers from the lives of children. Lead was once a common ingredient in paint for homes, but the danger lead posed to children became known and a crusade to remove lead spread across the country.

Here is yet another sign of the times. The New York Times reports that even the youngest of girls are being targeted as consumers of cosmetics and beauty treatments. The elementary set is showing up in trendy salons for pedicures and manicures. As the paper reports:

When thinking of signs of our times, consider this advertisement from a Nebraska newspaper. The ad was brought to my attention by a helpful listener to the radio program.

Just a few years ago, author Ralph Keyes argued that America had evolved “beyond honesty.” In The Post-Truth Era: Honesty and Deception in Contemporary Life, Keyes proposed that honesty is now “on the ropes” as a virtue.

“What’s troubling about so many of the boys I see in my practice, or the boys I hear about from parents and teachers, is that they don’t have much passion for any real-world activity,” writes Leonard Sax, a family physician and author. Sax is also a researcher who is very concerned about the way that boys are falling behind in school and in so many other arenas of life.

We are constantly advised that this generation of children is growing up in a digital world. That much is pretty hard to deny. Just watch teenagers in the mall, each with a cell phone at the ear. Or observe school kids in the library, who are more likely to be at a computer screen than with a book.