Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2023-10-14 01:02
Is it okay if I speak up for today's teens a little, just to give some context for those who don't currently live with one?
I live around teenagers, and life is very very different for them these days.
When I was a teenager, we didn't have the internet or tv on demand 24/7, and that did mean that we did a lot of different things.
However, we also didn't have nearly so many child safety rules. Kids at even age 5 could play down at the docks, or on building sites. We ran free outside after dark, and played inside derelict buildings and on overgrown abandoned estates. We could play in old quarries. 11 year olds smoked cigarettes, and 12 year olds got pregnant (at least where I lived). We didn't worry about "stranger danger". We played musical instruments badly, and that was fine, because it made a change from listening to that one cassette again for the 40th time.
These days kids have so many safety rules about what they must not do outside and at home. They now are so disciplined about following rules, that there is practically nothing left that they can do, except school work, computer games, social media, and being depressed (check the statistics if you do not believe me).
If they do have the courage to try playing music, then there is huge pressure to be brilliant, rather than to just play for pleasure. Because otherwise you would just listen to spotify, right?
I think this is part of the reason why they play video games. Also the video games are very very good these days. A lot of them have plots on the scale of the Lord of the Rings, and newly commissioned orchestral music, with amazing art. They really are quite an art form in their own right. I have a sense that these days playing a good video game is not a million miles from settling down with a Tolkien novel, except that the player is also right inside the novel, with a feeling of agency and adventure, and the power to change things that they can't change in the real world. It is adventurous, but it is also physically safe, unlike playing on a building site.
The downside is that young people are now not getting to live their real lives, and develop as people in the real world. But I don't think it's the fault of the video games. I think the problem is that the world has changed and they are stuck.
I suppose the question is - how do we open up the real world for teens these days and make it a land of opportunity, rather than an endless list of rules, and pressure to be excellent?
I am working very hard on figuring that out here, but I haven't exactly got there yet.
SquidwardOnDrugs - I would be interested to know if you think this is right. I only see it from my one pair of eyes to it may be different for you
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