Comment by parasubvert | Hacker News Reader

Comment by parasubvert | Hacker News Reader

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It’s a strange article from an outside-US perspective.

My 2.5 year old in daycare has lots of play time (at least 3 hours a day), plus at an hour at home in the morning and evening. Usually about 1 hour is on the iPad (Toca Blocks is her free play game), the rest with books, blocks, in the garden with flowers, on her tricycle...

The 9 year old’s “before and after school” program is all about free play time, plus two hours max screen time at home, though in summer this is usually replaced by bike rides and/or play dates or day camps, with ... lots of free time to balance out any structured activities. Other than studying for spelling quizzes, there has been no homework from Kindergarten through grade 3.

I regularly see kids at the mall or hanging out in parks. Free time abounds in our world... the biggest issue is there are fewer clusters of neighbourhood kids, friends are more geographically dispersed over a wider area, so play date coordination by parents is a must.

I grew up in Florida in the late 80's/early 90's and now have 2 children under the age of 7. Their days are almost exactly as you describe your children's days (and in public school). I think you need to take anything coming from US news with a healthy dose of skepticism. I do think it's healthy to discuss these topics to help remind us of its importance, but it's not as bad as everyone would have you believe in the online world.

>the Journal of Abnormal Psychology found that between 2009 and 2017, rates of depression rose by more than 60 percent among those ages 14 to 17, and 47 percent among those ages 12 to 13.

I also find this article strange, from where I live 12-15 year olds have plenty of free time and time to play. And after 16, well, it is to be expected to have less free time. You are about to become an adult.

USA is just slowly rotting away. From what I read here about how modern life in US looks like I seriously suspect that there will be some kind of massive epidemic mind deseases outburst there in 15-30 years.

That epidemic is here. After the opiod crisis, overdose is now the leading cause of death for those under 50. Suicide is increasing for all age cohorts, not just teenagers. Deaths from alcohol are increasing. Life expextancy in the US has been declining for 3 years. I actually suspect we'll start to get a handle on these problems in the next few years since we're beginning to collectively wake up to the importance of mental health and the damage our screens and isolation are doing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic_in_the_Unite...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_United_States

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2018/11/16/alcohol...

You forgot the most mind-related epidemic disease in the USA: obesity. Without the proper education or mind sanity, it's hard to resist the constant assault of junk food. Now 21% of the American teenagers are obese, and 39% of adults. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html

>That epidemic is here. After the opiod crisis, overdose is now the leading cause of death for those under 50.

I'm 34, in the past month or so 2 people I went to high school with have died via overdose. It's ridiculous.

You don't have to wait until people get that old to see an epidemic, we have a mass shooting in a school nearly daily.

It's false ideas like this that lead to the "we need to bubble wrap our kids" mentality.

This is a sweeping generalisation, I bet there are parts of the USA that are thriving and communities that are booming. What we need is more clarity about what is the root cause of the problem.

The motivation for my comment is we see similar trends in all developed countries and the symptoms are identical so calling out this issue as being USA is a missed opportunity to focus on the problem.

My follow up would be which people and communities are most affected ?

As a Swiss, when I see that constant supervision is mandated in many US states until 12 years old, then I have to think that there's more than just isolated communities there where it's going wrong. You basically have laws that make anything other than what we call helicopter parenting illegal.

But even here in switzerland.

For ex. we played cooking on my grandmothers house on a small toy kitchen where you have to use "META Tabletten" to make a fire. On my parents house we coocked with small children electric plates (10cm or less diameter). The panes where just large enough for an egg or so.

Today it is possible to buy large toy kitchen, but on no of them you really can cook. There are just no real children kitchen anymore .. to dangerous.

I remember those too. I still think there's a difference between making kids toys a bit safer and literally taking away their time and space to flourish and replace it with some insane adult-mandated schedule, and then have f-ing Jira boards with your kids as recently discussed here.

As a European who spent more than half a decade in the US, this is the US in general. Not just with children. The entire society is build as if its members are too ignorant/not educated enough to follow even basic principles or etiquette.

It's like instead of education the society revolves around babysitting.

I live in Geneva, where constant supervision is also required until 12 years old. Here in the French-speaking cantons, the attitude and regulations are different (even within the same country).

I completely agree with you.

What happens in the USA frequently happens in western countries a bit later.

I actually live in Ireland and I’m so surprised everytime I see parents giving their todlers a smartphone with a cartoon on it to keep them quiet.

And the same with kids. There even are tablets in mc donald’s !

And recently, Gardia (the police) stated that they gonna start alerting childcare if they find kids playing outside with no adult watching !

That’s not the way I raise my kids at all. Luckily we are in a house with a big garden and trees.

But, at least in Western Europe, we are sadly following this path..

Yeah, I agree. There's real issues that arent being addressed, and maybe they can't be addressed. I consider myself smart, but can't really tell whats true anymore. Which side should I be on, why is the USA declining, its complicated

There are plenty of good organizations out there still, providing good data. You have to use logic to rule out the impossible and improbable, look for biases, and support initiatives for open access to data.

America’s true success was in having a large contingent of people trustworthy enough to cultivate a society that didn’t get bogged down in small transaction costs like needing to bribe town officials or worry about deliveries or food/vehicle/road/etc safety and quality. If we lose that trust in America for each other overall, then we will unravel.

Not enough is being said publicly. This is one of the main issues.

The US became too prosperous, too fast. They're an example for other countries to learn from in their own development - emulate the good parts, avoid the bad. In Eastern Europe smart phones are just starting to become commonplace and people are already aware of how harmful they are, parents especially. The US does have one huge advantage the other countries don't though.

> I can't really tell what's true anymore

This is by design, and politics is just stagecraft meant to hypnotize the masses, distract and confuse them.

> The US does have one huge advantage the other countries don't though.

What's that?

It's here: depression. Opiate addiction. And the whole 2016 derangement.

It's already happening.

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