Hello All,
I stumbled upon something interesting on kotaku.com on Wednesday. According to the British tabloid Daily Mail, injuries related to tree-climbing are down recently compared to the past. Kotaku cites the tabloid:
in 2006/07 – the latest year for which data is available – 1,067 children under 15 needed medical assistance for tree falls. In 1999/00 the figure was 1,823.
Meanwhile, the number of youngsters under 15 admitted to A&E after bed falls in 2006/07 was 2,531, up from 2,226 in 1999/2000.
The figures lend weight to the Government’s campaign to get more children away from computer games and into the great outdoors.
you can read the article in its entirety here.
I don’t usually read British tabloids, but now I wish I did. While we don’t specifically talk about videogames much in our class, this story does have some bearing on our discussions: online spaces can influence offline spaces. Also, as we talked before, the commentary that can follow can often put the events in question in proper perspective. A less informed (scratch that, a REALLY UNINFORMED) individual can look at this story and think that perhaps, it has some merit. Hmm… or maybe not. As a writer, I have been trained to discuss the opposition’s point of view, and explain why it is faulty. Here, I don’t have to. The article is suggesting that kids aren’t falling out of trees as much as they used, and that one, this is bad thing, and two, that videogames are to blame. While videogames are likely partially to blame for this, it is not the only possible reason. Maybe these kids just stopped reading the Daily Mail, and are just smarter because of it, keeping them from falling out of trees in the first place.
At the end of this article, there were two comments. Here is the more clever of the two. You can thank me for the laughs you will enjoy later.
They are absolutely right… A wrist an be healed quite shortly, and you learned something along the way about actions, risk and pain.
The RSS from playing games doesn’t bring you any of that, and can land you with a lifelong disability.
As a youngster, I guess I fell off pretty much anything that could be climbed, but did I end up a crippled wreck? No. I actually did learn quite a few things along the way, teachings and experiences that the growing generation of today are being denied.
- Chris, Dublin
2 Comments
You jest, but this is an important concept! Nature Deficit Disorder. Kids need to get outside and build forts in the woods! When I was young, I left the house in the morning, met up with my cousins and built forts in the woods! We dug holes, climbed trees, searched for bugs, lizards, frogs and kept them as pets (temporarily). We learned how to co-exist with nature, why things lived and why things died. We learned how to avoid injury – the warning bells go off the higher in the tree you climb!! Many kids today have not had these experiences, and have not developed self preservation skills, or their skills are stunted.
http://richardlouv.com/ is a site that tells you about an exciting new book by Richard Louv – Last Child in the Woods. I have listened to interviews, and read reviews – and as soon as I’m done with required reading, I plan to dive into this one.
I understand why it’s important for kids to play outside. My generation was probably the last one to really enjoy that benefit to the fullest. I always liked climbing trees myself. I liked forts too, and I used to look for turtles all the time (though I never did). You’re right.
I agree with your (and the tabloid’s) argument: kids need to play outside more. I was just irritated and amused the way they made that argument. As much as I don’t like kids, I won’t say that it’s bad that they don’t fall out of trees anymore. What the tabloid was saying is, kids don’t fall out trees anymore, this is bad. I thought that was funny.