What Happened to the Local Kids? Where Have They Gone To?

Has anyone else noticed the lack of kids and adults playing sports just for fun?
I can remember just dreading the schools out season for the very fact you had to drive really carefully and avoid all the bikers/skate boarders/ roller bladders/ etc etc.

We first saw this coming about 9 years ago when enjoying Christmas morning at my brothers home the present opening was interrupted twice by his children texting their friends.

Not our place and so no bitching but we both were peeved to say the least, yep we are not parents and we want to know what you parents and non parents think about what I am posting.

In our city of about 75 thousand plus another rural population of about 20 thousand we have seen the following....

We have gone from 6 Bowling alleys down to 2 in the past 10 years. I know because I spent many years as a mechanic working at one of them.
We are in Canada and Hockey is a big deal here, yet now after building two new venues for it in the past 20 years they have closed one and talking about closing two more yet.

It used to be ice time was so sacred and scarce that the rinks almost never closed, not now they are almost giving ice time away.

Baseball parks are going unused, soccer/ football pitches are idle/ what is going on here?

Two out of 6 local High school football programs have been cancelled due to lack of players this past year.

When I tried out for our local High School team there were 300 people on the field, mind you that was back in the mid 70's.

Our city as I type this are planting trees left and right where once stood baseball diamonds and football fields and all the rest too.


Now to my opinion and my opinion only, Is this contrived? Myself and the wife are leaning that way because of how suddenly and severely this has come about in a very short time.

We had an up and down summer here weather wise hot/cold repeat and rinse but yet with 8 kids living within 5 homes of us we have not seen any of them hardly at all this year.


You always here about the internet troll living in the basement joke, I do believe that this may be the case now but instead of a troll you have your children sitting in the basement texting etc, and not playing outside.

Is all this technology available and pushed on kids to keep them indoors?
Hell yes I and the wife grew up as "Free Range Children" and every parent on the street was our parent.

We are seeing a lot of pale and sick looking kids in our neighbourhood in the last 6-7 years or so, they lack muscle definition and just don't do anything but walk up and down and yap or text on their phones.

The kids we are seeing now kind of remind us of the "Greys" as in Aliens. Not that they are greys but that is what it makes us think of.

Looking forward to any and all posts as we really want to hear from parents and non parents all the same.


Regards, Iwinder

Xbox 360, PS3, Wii etc etc etc...

Virtual reality these days seems to have a bigger more interesting draw than total reality and fresh air.

But on the plus side..

They have GREAT eye - hand coordination

things change..
when i was a kid sailing a home made kite was great,
playing woofle ball was great
playing in the dirt with matchbox toys was great
if we had video games back then....well probably wouldnt see us either

Originally posted by SLAYER69
Xbox 360, PS3, Wii etc etc etc...

Virtual reality these days seems to have a bigger more interesting draw than total reality and fresh air.

But on the plus side..

They have GREAT eye - hand coordination

Thanks for the laugh, Could they be future drone operators?

Regards, Iwinder

reply to post by Iwinder


I think you answered your own question!

I fully believe technology has pushed kids indoors more often than not. I work in higher education and deal with a lot of "kids" who are just coming out of high school. They're almost all your typical "call of duty" kids, except instead of being frail "grey like" kids, they're almost all chubby loners who are apathetic, short tempered, and huffy whiners.

Instead of going outside, running through the woods playing paintball, they're used to sitting on a couch playing Call of Duty or now they're playing pokemon or something.

I'm not going to sit here and say a whole lot though, I grew up playing games. BUT, I also had my fair share of running around in the woods playing paintball and doing the fun stuff outside. That's becoming less and less common though.

Originally posted by autopat51
things change..
when i was a kid sailing a home made kite was great,
playing woofle ball was great
playing in the dirt with matchbox toys was great
if we had video games back then....well probably wouldnt see us either

Thanks for the memories I just remembered my dad and me spending a whole saturday afternoon making a paper kite, him showing and me trying to help.......ten minutes later it was ripped to shreds by an Oak tree.....
Boy was I sad.......

Regards, Iwinder

My girlfriends, sisters kids come down the stairs with two fists rubbing their eyes because they are taking a break from hours of roblocks and minecraft.
Their bicycles have so much rust on their chains I thinks the links are seized, either that or one light touch turns it to a pile of FeO.
They are overweight too.

As far as baseball fields, the weeds and grass own them now, back years ago a weed never had a chance!.

When I was a kid in the 70's and early 80's we left the house right after breakfast, in the winter or the summer we didn't come home until our stomachs begged for supper.

Nowadays the internet and video games are Way Funner!

I am glad to not be a kid today, I could play video games or play outside by myself.
BLEH!

Originally posted by Mapkar
reply to post by Iwinder

 

I think you answered your own question!

I fully believe technology has pushed kids indoors more often than not. I work in higher education and deal with a lot of "kids" who are just coming out of high school. They're almost all your typical "call of duty" kids, except instead of being frail "grey like" kids, they're almost all chubby loners who are apathetic, short tempered, and huffy whiners.

Instead of going outside, running through the woods playing paintball, they're used to sitting on a couch playing Call of Duty or now they're playing pokemon or something.

I'm not going to sit here and say a whole lot though, I grew up playing games. BUT, I also had my fair share of running around in the woods playing paintball and doing the fun stuff outside. That's becoming less and less common though.

Great post and thanks for your personal input on this situation, much appreciated.

Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by Iwinder
Thanks for the laugh, Could they be future drone operators?

reply to post by Iwinder


Thanks that was the first real giggle, laugh I have felt all day.

OP, youa re right, but there is always a balance so dont give up too soon.

Facebook happened..

Now the interaction is online with friends and even with family.. there are games and it has become entertainment mall. Requirement of being at least 12 years old doesn´t matter as parents make facebook accounts to their children... even to their pets.

Originally posted by SLAYER69

Originally posted by Iwinder
Thanks for the laugh, Could they be future drone operators?

Thanks for that video, I will have to wait till the wife gets home so she can tell what it is......I am deaf by legal definition so unless I crank it up big time I can't hear it.

I could crank it up as I have floor speakers here in the computer room, but the neighbourhood kids would probably call the cops on me for interfering with their indoor activities,


Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by antar
reply to post by Iwinder

 

Thanks that was the first real giggle, laugh I have felt all day.

OP, youa re right, but there is always a balance so dont give up too soon.

Glad you enjoyed it, I for one am not seeing a balance at all here, no sports and no healthy kids.


Thanks for posting,
Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by autopat51
things change..
when i was a kid sailing a home made kite was great,
playing woofle ball was great
playing in the dirt with matchbox toys was great
if we had video games back then....well probably wouldnt see us either

I too did not have call of duty/video games, but I totally understand the draw they have on today's kids. Using your examples:

I too enjoyed kites... However, we always turned it into dogfights, shredding each other's kites.

Wiffle ball always ended in fisticuffs.

Somehow, we always saved enough explosives from July 4th to have a year-long supply sufficient enough to lay waste to fleets of matchbox cars (and divisions of army men, toy boats, my sister's dolls...)

I would have never left mom's basement if I had COD...

Originally posted by Iwinder
I could crank it up as I have floor speakers here in the computer room, but the neighbourhood kids would probably call the cops on me for interfering with their indoor activities,

If you cranked that up that loud they'd probably recognize you as one of them...

Originally posted by dollukka
Facebook happened..

Now the interaction is online with friends and even with family.. there are games and it has become entertainment mall. Requirement of being at least 12 years old doesn´t matter as parents make facebook accounts to their children... even to their pets.

I must assume you are not joking about the facebook accounts for pets......scary times indeed.

We don't do facebook or any twitter crap or other either.

Great Post
Regards, Iwinder

And when we were kids Adults weren't sat at computer screens, philosophising about what is happening in the world and who/what's to blame. No, they were in social clubs, pubs or sat in front of the T.V.

With the technology revolution comes an evolution into how civilization adapts to this. The changes we are witnessing is the birth of this evolution.

Originally posted by Cobaltic1978
And when we were kids Adults weren't sat at computer screens, philosophising about what is happening in the world and who/what's to blame. No, they were in social clubs, pubs or sat in front of the T.V.

With the technology revolution comes an evolution into how civilization adapts to this. The changes we are witnessing is the birth of this evolution.

edit on 8/9/13 by Cobaltic1978 because: (no reason given)

True enough and thanks for the great post, I will say this and this is the truth, just today I cut the lawn, weeded the garden with help of the wife. Weedwacked the whole property, and also cleaned out the gutters.

First time I was on the computer today was when I posted my thread, why? because all that time I spent today in the yard I was asking myself where are the kids?


Regards, Iwinder

My kid can't run around the block.

But her thumbs could crush a Volkswagen.

Originally posted by whyamIhere
My kid can't run around the block.

But her thumbs could crush a Volkswagen.

Laughing here
Regards, Iwinder