Technology vs. Nature

Earlier in the week, I posted this Psychology Today article about how depression and anxiety are on the rise among America’s youth compared to generations past.  The article discusses reasons for the shift including a decline in young people’s sense of personal control over their fate and a shift towards extrinsic rather than intrinsic goals which the author speculates as stemming from a lack of free play and coercive schooling (it’s a really long article, but well worth taking the time to read.)

Usually when I post these sort of things, I don’t get much response, maybe a few likes but that’s about it.  This time, however, I got some really intelligent comments but one really stuck out to me: “And sadly, I think my son and his friends were the last generation who had the freedom and imagination of playing in the woods before technology took over.”  This was from my mother-in-law and she has a point.

Hubby grew up on a large wooded property.  He spent his childhood running around unsupervised, building forts, chasing “bad guys” and entertaining himself in the woods.  My mother-in-law is very proud of the fact that hubby was a “child of the woods” (and she is a big fan of the book The Last Child in the Woods.)

But my childhood wasn’t much different, I was still very much a child of the woods.  While I didn’t have acres and acres of woods to explore, I did have an extremely large yard and spent much of my childhood playing outside in the grass and we spent many of our summer weekends boating with my aunt and uncle and camping where we swam in the lake, made mud pies on the shore and collected firewood.  My sister and I would spend our evenings and weekends playing games, riding bikes, make believing in the yard.  And even once my sister had moved on to bigger and better things, I continued my nightly outdoor play, rolling my baby doll in my mommy’s doll buggy down the path to the grass and having tea parties, taking care of her and just being outside while my daddy did his gardening (I did this well into my pre-adolescence years, probably much longer than is “normal”!)

But what struck me most about the comment was the part about technology taking over.  And I’d like to dispute the fact that technology has reduced children’s freedom and imagination.  I think it’s the parents who have reduced these things.

It is us, the parents, who have not only allowed the shift but have created and encouraged it.  Instead of sending our children outside to play while we make dinner, we set them in front of the TV.  Instead of taking them out to collect things in nature, we give them an iPad to research nature.  Instead of having a picnic at the park, we sit them down in a restaurant and let them play games on our phones.  Instead of letting them climb trees and play at the park, we give them a Wii or Kinect.  We replace the real world with a virtual one.

And sometimes too much knowledge can be stifling.  Going outside has become a great ordeal for many as we worry about the dangers of the outdoors.  Sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, “proper” shoes, bug spray (but not the dangerous chemical filled kind)…  Just going outside can be more trouble than it’s worth.

And many people don’t have the option to just send their kids outside.  Hubby and I were lucky that we had large private properties to run around on but much of today’s young children don’t have that option.  Parents are much more cautious about letting their kids outside and out of sight (and I don’t blame them).

But my family is proof that it doesn’t have to be that way, we do not have to let technology be our children’s baby-sitter and we don’t have to protect them from the great outdoors.

We are lucky that we had the option to move houses so that our kids can have a safe place to run around where I don’t have to be outside with them every second.  They are tucked into our backyard where I don’t have to worry about cars speeding down the street or who is around, it’s just them on our property.

But even before we moved, technology was not a part of their life and I have worked really, really hard to make it that way (with a lot of opposition from those around me and little help in enforcing it when I’m not around)  With me, they rarely watch TV, aside from an earned family movie night once a week or when I need them to sit and be quiet for a little while (I call it my “mommy magic” but I haven’t had to use it in a very long time).  My girls had a tablet which I bought them to use for school work but they always fought over it and ultimately it got broken so they don’t have it anymore.  And they know how to behave in restaurants and other places without a screen in their face (we don’t even use screens on long car drives though we do occasionally on the airplane).

I do send them outside to play when they’re arguing, driving me crazy or just need to burn off some energy.  I do let them explore and collect things both in our yard and when we are out at the park and other places.  We do try to have picnics in the park and eat dinner outside when the weather allows.  But most importantly, I keep them away from technology by encouraging them to do other things and involving them in what I’m doing rather than directing them to a screen.

I work really hard to keep them away from screens and I think we’re all better off for it.  We have more conversation, they ask more questions, they are more curious about the world.  They love to read books and create art and build things and explore and make-believe together.  They know how to entertain themselves most of the time and are working on learning how to be bored.  They don’t ask for screen time because they know they’re not going to get it and they’ve learned how to live without it.

The point I’m trying to make is simple: technology may have taken over our world but that doesn’t mean we have to let it take over our children’s childhoods, too.

NOTE: While I was typing up this post, all three of my “big” kids were chasing each other around upstairs.  I sent them outside to run around instead and Honeybun decided to “draw pictures of nature.”  All the kids got in on it and this is what they produced, all on their own.