Phones Versus Play

childhood meant playing on the street, riding my bike, hanging out with friends. Most kids now experience a different childhood. Jonathan Haidt’s bestselling book, “The Anxious Generation,” talks about that. He calls it “a tragedy in two acts.” “Act One, we lose the play-based childhood. We stop letting kids run around outside. We’re too afraid they’ll get abducted. ... We get gradual loss of play from the ‘90s through the early 2010s. ... That sets kids up to be weaker.”

Because kids who don’t have real experiences are less resilient. “If you have a play-based childhood with no adult supervision,” says Haidt, “you learn to be self-supervising. Sometimes you get lost and you’re scared, but you find your way back. Sometimes some mean kids threaten to beat you up, but you either talk your way out of it or run away. ... Those sorts of things toughen you.” Today’s kids face a different reality. “If all you do is sit inside on a computer, you’re missing out on your childhood. That brings us to the Second Act of the tragedy, which I call the ‘great rewiring of childhood.’ Between 2010 and 2015, everything changes ... you get higher video speeds, ondemand porn. You get everything in this little box ... If you spend five to 10 hours on your device, there’s a lot of things you’re not doing ... Sleep goes down, time with friends goes down, exercise goes down.”

In 2010, he says, people ages 18-24 spent a couple hours a day hanging out with friends. Not today. “Once they get a smartphone ... time with friends plunges. But one of the best things you can do as a kid is hang out with friends, joke around, have adventures.”

Haidt proposes four things to help reduce the damage.

No. 1: No smartphones before high school.

No. 2: No social media before 16.

No. 3: Phone-free schools.

No. 4: Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence.

This is needed, he says, because “Kids have been shifted from ‘discover’ mode into ‘defend’ mode. They are anxious; they’re not risk-taking. Kids need far more independence, free play and responsibility in the real world.” He’s convinced many parents and governments. “All around the Western world, people are acting on the first three: Parents are fed up with phones, teachers are fed up with not being able to reach kids.”

Recommendation No. 4 is tougher, he says. “Convincing parents that they need to back off, send their kid out to play, not monitor them every moment, is a much harder sell.”

To promote his recommendations, he’s partnered with “Free-Range Kids” author Lenore Skenazy. “She and I cofounded an organization called Let Grow. We’re advocating for giving kids back independence that will lead to them becoming competent, capable, happy young adults. We propose that schools and families work together to give kids a lot more unsupervised time.” “Let them play freely and maybe get hurt?” I ask. “The world is much safer now than it was when you and I grew up. Drunk driving is way down. Crime is way down. Kids are much less likely to be harmed.”

But parents and kids don’t realize that. MAGNOLIA GAZETTE “ERROR OF OPINION MAY BE TOLERATED WHERE REASON IS LEFT FREE TO COMBAT IT” ...THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1801 LUCIUS LAMPTON, M.D., Editor-in-Chief MARK I. LAMPTON, Business Manager ALYCE SIMPSON, Managing Editor NANCY MORRIS, Office Manager, Osyka Reporter, Publisher’s Assistant NANCY LEBLANC, Contributing Editor JAMES HARRIS, Contributing Editor DAVID MORRIS, Contributing Editor CARROLL CASE, Contributing Editor DWALIA SOUTH, M.D., North Miss. Correspondent MELISSA JOHNSON, Social Editor STANLEY HARTNESS, M.D., Natchez Trace Correspondent SCOTT ANDERSON, M.D., Fine Arts Editor TOMMY YOUNG, Sports Photographer CHARLES W. “TREY” EMERSON, M.D., Poetry Editor LUCINDA LAMBTON, European Correspondent BENNETT SIMPSON, Digital Editor FREDERICK W. REIMERS, Outdoors Editor FORD DYE, M.D., Oxford Beat Writer TERRY JACKSON, City Editor JIM MCELWEE, County Editor JUDY CAUSEY LOVE, S.E. Alabama Contributing Editor MAC GORDON, SOWEGA Bureau Chief CRAWFORD D. LAMPTON, Gazette Photographer GARLAND D. LAMPTON, Gazette Autos Editor CATHERINE BROWN, Columnist BECKY NELMS CURRIE, Political Editor/Photographer (Ming Dynasty Cotillion Queen) IN MEMORIAM: Literary Ed. Richard C. Wood (1925-2014) Louis J. Lyell, Contributing Editor (1925-2023) Guy Geller, Contributing Editor (1936-2024) Tommy Covington, My Mixed-Up Files Editor (1943-2024) Published by THE MAGNOLIA GAZETTE PUBLISHING CORPORATION on Thursday of every week at 280 Magnolia Street, Magnolia, Miss, 39652 Phone (601) 783-2441 Fax (601) 783-2091 Email address: magnoliagazette@bellsouth.net nancymgazette@gmail.com Office Hours: Mon., Tues., Wed. 9-5 Established December 7, 1872 by Captain J. D. Burke Periodical postage paid for at Magnolia, MS Post Office Member, Mississippi Press Association Member, National Newspaper Association Subscriptions: $25 in Pike, Amite & Walthall Counties, & Tangipahoa Parish $40 Elsewhere PUBLICATION POLICY All interested individuals are invited to submit letters, articles, opinions, cartoons, photos and other material of general interest to this publication. Submissions must be accompanied by a signature and bear the mailing address and phone number of the author. Letters to the editor will be edited for space and clarity, and the editor reserves the right to reject letters due to length, available space or libelous content. Deadline on all copy will be 12 noon Friday. The views expressed by the articles in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or publishers. POSTMASTER: Please send changes of address to 280 Magnolia Street, Magnolia, Mississippi 39652 web site: www.magnoliagazette.com PHONES VERSUS PLAY