cross-posted from: https://feddit.dk/post/9969468
From the article:
Risky play is associated with greater resilience, self-confidence, problem-solving and social skills such as cooperation, negotiation and empathy, according to studies by Sandseter and others. When a study in Leuven, Belgium, gave four- and six-year-olds just two hours a week of opportunities for risky play over the course of three months, their risk-assessment skills improved compared with those of children in a control group2. In this study, the risky play took place at school, in a gym class and in the classroom.
This seems like a really dated take, overall.
You grew up in a time when you could make mistakes because your mistakes would be forgotten. That is no longer the case. Everything they do and say is recorded and distributed for later scrutinization.
It’s not 2004, being criticized on social media can be career ending. They constantly watch beloved celebrities get raked over the coals overnight because they said or did something 20 years ago that society has since decided is wrong. Who knows what society will retroactively demonize in 20 years?
The job market is competitive, good luck getting a corporate data entry job without a Bachelor’s, and college is competitive. The wrong mistake can snowball into life changing inconvenience. Or life ending, police absolutely do get called for minor things, and if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time that can be the end for you.
They’re living in 21st century reality, not an 80s comedy. There are more consequences than a curmudgeonly principal shaking his fist. Everything is being watched, recorded, and scrutinized, by everyone, all the time. A few laughs are not worth the possible consequences. Why stand out? The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.
Uh, all of that is addressed, in depth, in the post I linked. Hell, I pretty much said it in this post:
The post you linked was primarily about the direct fallout of COVID. They very directly said what they were talking about was a basically overnight charge.
My point is about societal change. The kids aren’t “wusses”, they’re reacting rationally to a changing world. You grew up with much lesser consequences for the risks you took. Those are no longer justifiable risks. Even flipping a lightswitch can trigger a devastating chain of consequence if you have a crazy power tripping teacher, so why bother? Phone screens are backlit anyway.
I take opposition to the way you’re framing this. Are you a wuss because you didn’t work 16 hours a day in a coalmine as a kid? Every generation thinks the next is too soft. The world changes, and the skills and techniques to successfully navigate it change.