Play Deprivation Is a Major Cause of the Teen Mental Health Crisis

Re:Play Deprivation Is a Major Cause of the Teen Mental Heal... by bmitc on Friday July 28, 2023 @03:14PM (#36911803)

It's a curious thing to only be able to teach the dangers of something by having children try out and experience the reprecussions of dangers. I think an important skill in life is to actually predict and understand danger ahead of time. As in, a knife won't just give you a bruise, it could be easily fatal if used in even the most mildly wrong way. Falling/jumping from great heights isn't something to just experiment with and try. Running in a busy street isn't something to try just to understand the dangers. Running up to an American bison isn't something to just try and see what happens. Etc.

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Re:Play Deprivation Is a Major Cause of the Teen Mental Heal... by evandale on Friday July 28, 2023 @03:55PM (#36912416)

Some of these dangers are relative though. A 6 foot fall for a toddler is probably not going to kill them but relative to the size of the kid it's a great height they can experiment with. A 10 foot drop for an 8 year old is a great height to them but they'll survive.

The bison example, I would think any child would be very wary of walking up to a bison. On top of that, if a child were to approach a bison I highly doubt the bison would come out with full offensive. They'd probably assume a defensive posture to scare the kid away. If the kid kept coming you should keep in mind that mammals recognize babies of other mammals. It would be pretty extraordinary for the bison to consider a human child as a threat and attack them.

The cars though, yeah. I don't even want to get into that.

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Re:Play Deprivation Is a Major Cause of the Teen Mental Heal... by watwut on Friday July 28, 2023 @04:19PM (#36912713)

Mammals eat babies of other mammals. Nature ain't nice to babies.

Famously, lions kills lion babies, that is babies of own species when they encounter babies of another lion group.

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Re:Play Deprivation Is a Major Cause of the Teen Mental Heal... by bmitc on Friday July 28, 2023 @11:16PM (#36916510)

Not that the particular example even matters, but bison have absolutely attacked both children and adults and have killed a handful of people. I won't post the videos, but you can find the bison attacking even children on YouTube. In one instance, the child seemed fine, but the horn moving an inch to the left or right could have gored the kid.

The point is that you are at their mercy and that it takes training and education to understand and predict that danger ahead of time. Even adults are ignorant along these lines. Everything is a spectrum, but there is a threshold, in my opinion, in which the probabilities of disaster become 100% out of your control for certain activities.

For example, you can watch this guy on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV1fzwfJpmQ who appears to be calm and an "expert" on interacting with bears. However, you can also watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqwYUkJYRQc in which a grizzly shows absolutely insane stamina and strength, covering huge distances of rough terrain and water. It means that the guy in the previous video is 100% at complete mercy of the bear, no matter what he says. (As an aside, I'm actually surprised that guy hasn't had more trouble, as he clearly seeks out bear encounters.)

I think my larger point is that part of the education of both children and adults is teaching to understand and ultimately respect the reality in which we live in. Animals, physics, biology, etc. all exist and we must live within those rules and understand the consequences of pushing them. I can't go jump into the sun just to try it out. And a project manager stating a schedule as if it dictates reality doesn't mean it does. Lol. This scene from The Counselor is getting at these lines of thought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIn7y4ejIFM.

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Re:Play Deprivation Is a Major Cause of the Teen Mental Heal... by borski on Friday July 28, 2023 @03:56PM (#36912418)

> Falling/jumping from great heights isn't something to just experiment with and try. Running in a busy street isn't something to try just to understand the dangers.

Unless your kids are interested in and want to learn free running and parkour, at which point this is how you learn. Of course there is reason to be careful, but fear often plays a large role in that.

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