Before the 1990s, kids experienced more risk, more thrills, more physical injuries, and fewer psychological injuries than they do today. Kids had more freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. We have forgotten that kids are antifragile.
Fully 50 percent of a '70s boyhood was spent building bike jumps. The other 50 percent was spent recovering from broken bones from using bike jumps. https://t.co/FaOOx0uwzW
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@JonHaidt When it snowed in Seattle in the 80s, we had 11 year old children directing traffic while we plunged down steep hills on sleds unsupervised.
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@JonHaidt Amen. We calculated our risks, regardless of the likes. We erred on the side of action, versus the void of not being alive. We knew the Greeks, the Romans, and the English Poets without ever having read a single one. “Once more, into the breach!”
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@JonHaidt Look at the built environment, what about it is inviting or says children come play here? I love your work but it’s not that simple.
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@JonHaidt 💯 I used to watch a neighbourhood kid jump off ramps off the sidewalk into the street. Zero parental supervision. As long as I was home for dinner and when the street lights came on later, my parents gave zero fu*ks where I was and what I was doing.
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@JonHaidt Ah, the good old days when kids could be kids without a nanny state wrapping them in bubble wrap. Now they can't even scrape a knee without a "consultation." Bring back real play, not state-sanctioned supervision.
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@JonHaidt look, you’re gonna make my day if you continue being online friends with people at Reason
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@JonHaidt INCLUDING the 90’s! I think the 90’s were the last wild, free decade and things started to change in the 00’s.
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@JonHaidt Generally agree, but I also notice there were fewer cars, and more space, which have also changed in this timeframe One reason its hard to do this in LA (without driving) is the number of cars driving at high speeds I suspect in rural areas this still may be the case
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@JonHaidt My parents cared about me, but they didn't seem to worry about me. The modern world seems to be driving this anxiety epidemic. Is that causing over-parenting and obsession with safety?
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@JonHaidt Our jungle gyms were built over gravel to maximize the pain and blood from slips and falls.
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@JonHaidt We have also created a physical environment that actively prevents children from having access to this kind of free play. We must address car culture if we want to restore children’s freedom.
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@JonHaidt Except when they die. You omit that some of these physical injuries lead to death; the death rate was higher among children in past generations due to these risks we allowed them to take.
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@JonHaidt I would add that not only did they make mistakes, they were held accountable. Today, kids view life as video games - you just restart at 100%.
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@JonHaidt @DrJBhattacharya We and my buddy built a dirt track in the neighboring vacant lot, so we learned skills as well. Built a tree house (just the flooring), played outside all day, and bicycled throughout the neighborhood. That was many years ago and I used to think my parents controlled me and my
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@JonHaidt I would say mid 90s at least, the things I used to do, can't imagine kids doing it these days. I think mobile phones made it much worse. Kids used to leave their houses with no way to contact them and come back hours later.
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@JonHaidt Just bumped into this after retweeting a viral post by @RobertKennedyJr on another major way in which America has grown less healthier. Obesity is similarly horrible and easily avoidable as helicopter parenting (whatever one thinks about seed oils). 🇺🇸 https://t.co/G1wXoJZkwx
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@JonHaidt In late 60s & 70s we'd disappear for hours playing basketball & football (tackle without helmets, pads, etc), riding our bikes, exploring the nearby woods, etc. No adult knew what we were doing or where we were. I feel sorry for kids today. They're supervised like prisoners or
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@JonHaidt being a kid in the 70s was fun - dangerous, often, but hella fun and all the fun was outside.
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@JonHaidt I don’t really think Boomers and Gen X ended up all that much more mentally healthy than young people now, though. A lot are pretty screwed up from abuse and shame. There was a lot of trauma that got buried back then.
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@JonHaidt Partly true and partially not. 1st of all, psychological injuries as you call them are a much deeper problem than “just let them do dangerous stuff and they’ll be psychologically fine for sure if they survive physically”. 2nd, in the case of certain neurodevelopmental
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@JonHaidt All we did in the 90s was skate and run away from people that didn't want us skating
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@JonHaidt And damn was it glorious! I built my own bike jump ramp when I was 8, did stupid stuff skateboarding, climbed trees to unsafe heights, did brutal wrestling moves, climbed school roofs, rock climbed without ropes, and rode in the back of pickup trucks. No seatbelt! All unsafe.
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@JonHaidt An interesting case study could be done (maybe has?) supporting Haidt's points: India's TikTok ban. While controversial, it indirectly pushed kids back toward more traditional play and social interaction - exactly the kind of 'antifragile' experiences he discusses pre-1990s.
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@JonHaidt Subject often broached with friends. We are of that age. We were feral. We were allowed freedoms that would result in charges today. And the lessons learned completely autonomous from parents some good some bad were in fact valuable. In many ways we were nuisance to parents.
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@JonHaidt I broke my wrist, then later, my arm, doing stunts with other kids. It hurt. Today, using the wrong pronoun is said to hurt. Crash a bicycle at thirty MPH, or fall 10 feet from a rope swing, then tell me how much hearing "he" hurts.
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