Where Do the Children Play? – by Eli Stark-Elster
We can complain about their screen time, lament the anxious generation, scoff at how ‘unnatural’ this brave new world has become. Simultaneously, though, we should do our best to understand why kids are behaving this way.
Rather, I think we should be super fucking active to get back to what we know is good.
I’m generation I-had-it-all. Wood sticks, dirt, doing nothing around an electric box by a sodium lamp, 8-bit consoles, bicycles, porn in gif files, 32-bit consoles and the internet. I’m part of the very few who got it all.
We went too far. We all know this. We need to cut down screen time. Cut down brainwashing through hours and hours of nothing-ness. We need to go back to doing nothing outside. The real nothing.
digital space is the only place left where children can grow up without us
That is not the case! There are tons of adults in those spaces since forever wtf? That is one of the main issues with digital spaces: you cannot verify who is behind that username, you can’t even less today and probably never ever will be able to thanks to AI now.
When we were up a dirt hill and couldn’t hear anything, we knew we could do whatever we wanted. No adults disguised as trees. Sure, we wouldn’t do much as it would be cold in November and after throwing some rocks or whatever, there was nothing much to do. But it was real: we were truly by ourselves. Left with our thoughts. Getting more honest overall. Pondering more. Taking our time. Setting some shit on fire and laughing. Understanding accountability. Real.
Digital spaces do not allow that. They are fake as fuck and that’s a massive issue in terms of trust in your environment and yourself. All this time and energy spent trying to decipher BS and bullshitting left and right on phones while growing up is probably destructive.
Because digital spaces are so good at hooking up people thanks to the ability to make filthy money selling our info, giving up on them being the only spaces left for children is an absolutely fucking not for me.
Send the kids out. Trust the process.