Where did the fun go?
When I was a kid, I got kicked out of the house to play with my friends until dinner time, and the streetlights came on. When my son was 10, we called the police because he went to a friend's house after school to see some newborn puppies and no one knew where he was. He was gone for thirty minutes. What happened to us?
Why it Matters:
Without useful information and an understanding of the real risks facing kids, it is extremely easy misjudge the risks kids face. The past has lost its ability to be a useful guide, and the institutions which protect us in the physical world have utterly failed families online. My goal is to help you know what you're facing, and what you can do about it.
Big Picture:
Wouldn't it be great if your child, or the children you looked after had a robust circle of close friends they could hang out with, study with, and build fond memories with? The problem is a decade ago we put a device in their pocket that connected them to the internet 24/7 and let a collection of megacorporations generate billions of dollars in wealth by stealing our kids' attention, and their childhood. At the same time, the attention-grabbing power of news reported about violent crimes against children created a culture of safetyism which scared parents into needing to manage every moment of their child's life in the physical world. In short, no protection online, and too much oversight in the real world. The result? An anxious, depressed, scared generation of children, or GenZ. But there are things we can do. There are solutions available. And it starts with information.
The more parents I talk to, the more I realize there is an intense need to get parents the right information about how to counter the effects of social media, always on internet, and connected casino like games. But it is not enough to remove the threats, we also need to be intentional about restoring the experiences that all humans need to grow and learn. My role here is to be a scout, do share I have learned, and to help sound the alarm bell. We can save our kids; we can give them a play-based childhood if we are intentional about it. It won't be easy, but it will be possible. At a minimum, it must be worth trying.
It feels like the only way to remove social media and the smartphone from her life is to move to a deserted island. -- Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation
Much of the content I will be sharing, comes from the book, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, but it also comes from my 26 years in the video game industry, and 14 years of coaching youth baseball, plus my own research into psychology, rites of passage, and human development. As Maia Angelou is so often credited as saying, "When you know better, you do better." I hope to help arm parents against the unwelcome forces which have intruded upon their children's childhood and are siphoning away the hours of attention kids need to grow with activities that create corporate profits while leaving behind a trail of anxiety, depression, and tragedy in its place. To me, that is a poor exchange.
Takeaway:
- You are not imagining it; childhood is radically different from it was just a few decades ago.
- You can take action to help restore your children to a play-based childhood from a phone-based childhood.
