Parents today are not much different than parents from the past when it comes to worries they have about today’s generation of kids. We share many of these same concerns over generations, like making sure our kids are safe, and that they have the tools needed for life happiness and success. While many things are the same, there are new, contemporary issues that impact kids today but were not around with previous generations. Specifically, I am talking about omnipresent technology that kids interface with throughout nearly every moment of the day, from Tik Tok videos to gaming systems to social media pages. While kids are chewing up endless amounts of time with technology, it is important that we note what they are not doing as a result, and how the increase in time with technology directly effects kids and their mental health.
The value of pickup games & spontaneous play
When we examine how kids spend much of their time these days, we quickly see that a lot of each day is quite sedentary compared to generations of the past. An entire afternoon of video gaming today would have been an entire day of playing sports at the local park, starting up pickup games, and even creating brand new games to pass the time. If you extrapolate over a summer and add up the hours where kids are left to make their own decisions, you can quickly see how many real-life, physical activities are lost as a result of being idly tethered to their phones and video games. Interestingly, these changes from active lifestyle to lethargy can continue to compound, and over time a strong argument can be made that kids today are living an entirely different life than their parents just a single generation ago. And there a human development costs associated with these changes with how kids spend their time that directly impact mental health.
When meet up with friends to play together, they get to do so many important life experiences that simply cannot be captured in the same way while wasting away in front of a phone or video game, including:
- Physical activity. First and foremost, there isn’t a tech-option that makes up for the time kids would be devoting to running, jumping, and playing. These missed physical opportunities result in obesity issues, poor stress coping, anxiety, and depression, as physical activity is arguably the best thing we can do in order to live a happy and healthy life.
- Communication skills. When kids meet up in person (without phones), they are forced to talk, listen, laugh, and ask questions — all examples of healthy communication. Today, however, virtual relationships fall short of providing kids those very experiences, leaving an entire generation lacking with communication skills. When kids gather together they learn how to verbally communicate, as well as read non-verbal behavior (body language), skills that are invaluable for life success.
- Problem-solving. Again, kids playing out in the real world often come across people and situations where they need to stop, think, and work out solutions to a problem. Learning how to solve problems promotes independence, confidence, and helps with self esteem, and helps prepare kids to succeed in life.
- Creativity. When kids decide to make up a game (i.e. homerun derby) they have to decide the rules, how the field will be set up, and who will play on what team. These creative decisions helps kids develop the confidence needed to figure things out and come up with fun and interesting solutions — just like in the real world.
- Reading body language. Picking up non-verbal cues is a lot easier to do in person than it is by means of a smart phone or gaming device, but many kids today are lacking these very skills with so much of their time in solitude.
By putting down the phone and playing outside it provides countless fantastic life growth opportunists. For kids who enjoy sports, creating pickup games (defined as simply making up teams with the kids who show up at the park) allow for great physical activity, fun, teamwork, problem-solving, and creativity — life experiences that can really help improve mental health. Sadly, with every week that passes it seems as though increasingly more kids are leaning in to the newest phone or video game, and not making the time to meet up with friends and spontaneously create fun activities to do.
Final thoughts
Developing self-confidence, problem-solving skills, and learning how to communicate are just a few examples of things kids today are struggling to do, and it appears as though technology may be the #1 reason (and by a lot) that accounts for this dramatic paradigm shift in human development currently being witnessed. Allowing kids to brain rot alone in a room with video games for hours on end is not healthy, and will almost certainly lead to countless missed real life opportunities, as well as mental health issues stemming directly from so much time alone. Remember, kids can’t just go back and re-do childhood, meaning every day where they disengage from the real world is a day you cant get back.
drstankovich.com
