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A comment on U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person. Parent comment

Re:U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in p... by strken on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @03:02AM (#19498643)
When I did it about 15 years ago we got dumped in a fenced in bit of eucalypt forest with our pockets stuffed with "normal" items like knives/shoelaces/mueslibars/1.25L bottles of water/first aid kits and told to survive for 24 hours. Granted it's almost impossible to actually get yourself killed in 24 hours, we had quick access to leaders if we needed them, and we were all relatively trustworthy kids who'd trained for it, but it felt like more responsibility than arts and crafts.
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Re:U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in p... by Phenix88be on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @07:52AM (#19499935)
I think a lot of parents would refuse such exercise today since they precious children could get hurt. I also think no one will do it anyway since parent will hold you responsible for any scratchs or dommages.

> Granted it's almost impossible to actually get yourself killed in 24 hours

You should not under estimate the stupid thing children/adolescent can do today...

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Re:U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in p... by roganartu on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @08:51AM (#19500305)
The wording of their comment suggests heavily to me that they are from Australia. I participated in scouts in Australia about the same amount of time ago as we did somewhat similar things, going on camps where there was a reasonable amount of independence and I would have described it as arts and craftsy.

You mention concern about liability these days, but it's important to remember not everywhere is America. I can't speak to the rest of the world, but Australia is definitely nowhere near as litigious as the US. I could definitely see something like what they described still happening in Australia today.

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Re:U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in p... by mises on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @08:55AM (#19500330)
I was a Boy Scout in America; we did the same thing. It was a great experience.
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Re:U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in p... by ghaff on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @09:43AM (#19500713)
The US is a very large and diverse country. There are lots of outdoor adventure sort of activities in much of the country.
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Re:U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in p... by ams6110 on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @10:23AM (#19501026)
Very much so. Camping, hiking, fishing are very popular in a lot of places. There are still many areas where it's not uncommon for a boy to get a rifle or shotgun at around age 10 and start learning to hunt. This modern super-protective cocoon life is largely a suburban thing.
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Re:U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in p... by kingaillas on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @11:56AM (#19502205)
Wow, sounds like an Order of the Arrow (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Arrow) Ordeal. My large-city suburban US troop did this (I moved away before I was eligible to do it)!
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Re:U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in p... by Yhippa on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @01:50PM (#19503723)
I definitely remember doing this at OA.
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