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U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person

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Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person

#201

Post by dsfyu404ed »

blibble wrote: post #91
Zenst wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK, both are now illegal, can't even sell a knife to anybody under 18, same with glue and many things above and beyond alcohol and tobacco. Equally, having a knife in public, would be mandatory jail in the UK in the current climate. For a child, they would be taken into care and some serious nightmares for the parents from social services and the police. As for explosives, all the above, but far worse. By defa…

tesco sells gunpowder perfectly legally in the form of fireworks (but yes you have to be 18)

Fireworks are not legal for sale or possession in the more "progressive" parts of the US. (quotes added to emphasize the irony)

Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person

#202

Post by philpem »

Symbiote wrote: post #165
_qwfv wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My argument is that it's not anti social. It's maybe less visibly social, but being in a group voice or video chat while playing board or video games is definitely a social activity. Or building something together - computers enable us to engage in storytelling and art in ways our ancestors could only dream of. Yeah, sure, they aren't social in the same way you were. But you weren't social in the same ways your paren…

So then, how does sex happen? (Or any intimacy.) That's the bit the old people don't understand. Board games are fine, as would be video games in the same room as the other players. But online? Note that the same worry would apply to a youth who spent all their free time reading alone in the past.

Online, like it did on IRC? ;)

Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person

#203

Post by RugnirViking »

Zenst wrote: post #81
paulsutter wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely kids still try to make gunpowder, what are you talking about? And for who but kids are pocket knives and chenistry sets made? > there was a time when making explosives was a childhood right of passage along with chemistry sets, making fires, even having a pocket knife.

In the UK, both are now illegal, can't even sell a knife to anybody under 18, same with glue and many things above and beyond alcohol and tobacco. Equally, having a knife in public, would be mandatory jail in the UK in the current climate. For a child, they would be taken into care and some serious nightmares for the parents from social services and the police. As for explosives, all the above, but far worse. By defa…

I was recently a child in the uk only a few years ago (I'm in my early 20s) and got into trouble for having a knife while playing out in the woods. I was sent home with the knife confiscated, and it was later returned to me.

Of course, its entirely possible in other circumstances for it to be less/more acceptable. While at scouts we could of course carry knives without worry, and even met police officers who came to talk to us who had no issue with us carrying it while explicitly using them for scouting.

Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person

#204

Post by RugnirViking »

xNyC wrote: post #190
Symbiote wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back to reality, there's no problem with all reasonable purposes to carry a knife, like after purchase or for cooking. There's no problem carrying a Swiss Army knife. The police aren't looking for knives like this, and if they do find one for some reason, they are very unlikely to arrest you. If you've gone to a bar after your dinner party, and you're carrying the "cooking" knife somewhere accessible (like your pocke…

Perhaps you want to increase survival chances against people with legal weapons (aka dogs): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_dog_attacks_in_England_a... This whole thing is just nonsense and another form of humiliation of the oppressed by "the" "state".

And yet somehow millions of us manage to survive largly without incident into adulthood. Incredible!

It's almost as if this is an incredibly minor consideration.

Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person

#205

Post by technofiend »

Zenst wrote: post #50
Zak wrote: post #14

Part of the issue, I think is that teenagers are more restricted by parents, laws, and business owners than they used to be. As with younger children, parents are less likely now than in past decades to allow their teenage children to travel alone or hang out in groups without adults present. Legal restrictions compound the issue, with curfew laws being increasingly common, as well as increased driving ages and gradu…

So true, in essence driving them into online friend interactions. Makes you wonder what life will be like for children 50 years from now, and how that would compare with today. After there was a time when making explosives was a childhood right of passage along with chemistry sets, making fires, even having a pocket knife. Today, such common activities would not end well at all, however innocent the intention. These…

Estes model rockets still offer a little bit of that wild freedom. You build something yourself and shoot it into the sky on a pillar of flame. And if you're really lucky you get it back in the end.

Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person

#206

Post by ryanmercer »

technofiend wrote: post #205
Zenst wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true, in essence driving them into online friend interactions. Makes you wonder what life will be like for children 50 years from now, and how that would compare with today. After there was a time when making explosives was a childhood right of passage along with chemistry sets, making fires, even having a pocket knife. Today, such common activities would not end well at all, however innocent the intention. These…

Estes model rockets still offer a little bit of that wild freedom. You build something yourself and shoot it into the sky on a pillar of flame. And if you're really lucky you get it back in the end.

>Estes model rockets still offer a little bit of that wild freedom

Until you get arrested for trespassing launching or retrieving, or you take out someone's drone and they sue you, or it lands on someone's property and they sue you, or someone calls protective services because "a couple of yutes were playing with 'explosives', no parent in sight".

Sigh. :(

Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person

#207

Post by swiley »

RobLach wrote: post #58
Zenst wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true, in essence driving them into online friend interactions. Makes you wonder what life will be like for children 50 years from now, and how that would compare with today. After there was a time when making explosives was a childhood right of passage along with chemistry sets, making fires, even having a pocket knife. Today, such common activities would not end well at all, however innocent the intention. These…

50 years from now teens will have a subscription to curated experiences for them to get together in-person for while their typical interpersonal interactions will happen over the Internet where it’s nice with a relatively null marginal cost.

I’m pretty sure we’re already starting to do this.

Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person

#208

Post by ryanmercer »

RobLach wrote: post #58
Zenst wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true, in essence driving them into online friend interactions. Makes you wonder what life will be like for children 50 years from now, and how that would compare with today. After there was a time when making explosives was a childhood right of passage along with chemistry sets, making fires, even having a pocket knife. Today, such common activities would not end well at all, however innocent the intention. These…

50 years from now teens will have a subscription to curated experiences for them to get together in-person for while their typical interpersonal interactions will happen over the Internet where it’s nice with a relatively null marginal cost.

So, escape rooms?

Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person

#209

Post by Kye »

Pfhreak wrote: post #46
bobthepanda wrote: post #15

There's also the fact that when you're in the suburbs, you need a chauffeur until you can drive. American adults are working more and more, and thus less available to take children to outside activities, which these days are also further and further apart.

I grew up in the suburbs. We took this thing called a 'bus' into the city when we needed to.

NIMBYism in metro Atlanta keeps the mass transit lines from expanding. They're afraid more consistent buses and trains will bring inner city drugs and violence to get in the way of good, wholesome suburban drugs and violence. Way too many people grew up on and internalized '80s movies. Real life cities in 2019 USA are not like Robocop, but try telling that to the people around here.

Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person

#210

Post by ryanmercer »

cududa wrote: post #119
brightball wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, Cub Scouts / Boy Scouts are a pretty great place to get those same skills and experiences. Great opportunity to get a well rounded childhood.

Dunno, when I did cub scouts / Boy Scouts even 20 years ago it was basically glorified arts and crafts

Agreed. I'm 34, I quit scouts at 13 as my father died just before I Turned 13 and everyone was treating me like a leper because they didn't know what to say or do BUT scout camps were:

- stamping pre-cut leather and using vinyl cord to 'stitch' it together to make wallets

- shooting splintered fiberglass bows at targets 5 feet away

- shooting bb guns older than my father 5 feet away

- singing cadences about "Uncle Dougie" the head of camp Belzer

Scout meetings were:

- carving soap into eskimos

- painting pinewood derby cars

- making a toolbox from pre-cut wood

- making model airplane from pre-cut wood

- doing idiotic skits that in hindsight were wildly innaporpriate like when I had to stand in front of everyone and go "When I grow up, I want to be a baker. Don't, eclaire turns and grabs butt buy my buns!" while others said things like "Be a surgeon. Needle, thread, stab him in the head" and "Be a girlscout, Heya mister, hiya mister *pretends to raise a skirt and show leg" wanna buy a cookIEEEE"?

God. I need therapy don't I?!

Camping trips were:

- Dads that have never camped, trying to drag full kitchens into the woods and burning every meal (my father refused to go on scout trips because he was a proper woodsman and they'd all be like "Mark can you help us with our tent/where's the bathroom/is this poison ivy/oh my god is this a tick/can I eat this/how do I start this fire, where's the gasoline"

- Visiting the visitor's centers in state parks

- Walking on, often paved or drastically improved, par trails

- Group trips to the general store to buy ice cream and candy

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