[annexrichmond]

I think this take is a little extreme. I grew up in a very small town. You couldn’t get to the city without driving 30 minutes to a bus stop. I didn’t like it very much, and really looked forward to moving to a city.

However, there were a plethora of parks, ponds, baseball and basketball courts, skateboarding parks, and an ice rink nearby that were somewhat walkable.

Yeah I spent a little too much time on the computer but I did have a social life and went outside a lot doing all kinds of fun.

I think you are underestimating how much fun kids can have with not very much. I agree that we have serious cultural problems but I think urban planning is the wrong culprit here.

I think at least some of it is lazy parenting who are content with just giving their kids an iPad or throwing them in front of the TV for entertainment.

You know what my sister did with her friends for “fun”? They wrote and acted out plays. This wasn’t that long ago, it was in the 90s.

[sodality2]

The issue is that it's too easy to forgo all of that and scroll through tiktok for 12+ hours a day, per day (school days included). I'm not exaggerating with that number, either. When you literally have nothing else to do, you'll find something enriching to do. But when there's an easy, lazy outlet, kids will go to that. We literally cannot say the same about kids a few decades ago, either. No one spent every waking moment watching Sunday cartoons or reading the paper, and reading that retort of "well we've ALWAYS done things like that" is so off-putting because it's NEVER been this extreme.

[adnmcq999]

So will adults. We’re here on hn

[sodality2]

That's very true! It's not just kids. However (and maybe this is disingenuous) I believe that HN is both more enriching (I learn new things every single time whereas tiktok is mostly mind-numbing videos that no one will remember in six months) and less addictive (relative to something like tiktok). It's still social media, but it really is nothing like tiktok. Ask your kids for their screentime, or ask which of their friends has the highest. I bet it's at least 10 hours, and the likelihood of it being tiktok or instagram is very high.

[kzrdude]

"more enriching" is how we fool ourselves to continue diverting our attention - speaking for myself - it's just math on youtube, it's just stackoverflow/programming, etc. Unfortunately the cycle of infinite information needs to be throttled I think.

[sodality2]

Again, maybe this is just me being disingenuous, but I'd disagree - while your examples may be used as a time sink, I believe there is definitely a difference between scrolling on tiktok, and watching math on youtube. You're probably far more likely to use and improve your brain and its critical thinking skills.

[kzrdude]

Maybe, I hope so, but I have identified my problem as a problem too (so.. I need to do something about it :)

[kzrdude]

And it's not great. The loss of attention in general.

[nosianu]

Funny thing is I just had to scroll back to the top to remind myself of what the subject of this discussion actually is. Because I was looking at a Discord chat in between reading comments here. Ahem...

[watwut]

Issue here, imo is also the supervision requirement. The kids are not allowed to go outside independently without parent until they are basically teenagers.

Parents have stuff to do and also nothing to do on playground. So they stop taking kids there once those are over toddler age and won't destroy house put of sheer energy. Playgrouds are boring and 9-11 years old truly have nothing to do there without friends group.

So 6-10 years old kids are rarely outside. They know how to have fun at home and school, but they have no community in park and don't know games. Then they are 14-16 and everyone is like "why don't they go outside? there is basketball court". But shooting balls alone is fun for like two days and they don't known to have fun there.

[cabalamat]

> The issue is that it's too easy to forgo all of that and scroll through tiktok for 12+ hours a day

That's because social media is deliberately designed to be addictive. Zuckerberg et al know this, but don't care, because all they care about is their proftis.

[Wiseacre]

How close to you did those friends live? Did you need to drive in order to spend time with them?

[annexrichmond]

Had many friends in my neighborhood who either went to the same school or played the same sport that were walking distance. But yeah there were a few friends who lived on the other side of town where I’d need a ride to get to

[refurb]

Similar experience. Grew up in the suburbs. Was outside every with friends.