The great indoors: Today’s screen-hungry kids have little interest in being outside

LONDON — The Snapchat generation doesn’t seem to love the outdoors — at least not as much as doing other things. The average child between 6 and 16 years old spends only an hour a day outside, playing video games over twice as long, a new study finds.

Researchers at Decathlon, a sports retailer in the United Kingdom, recently surveyed more than 2,000 British parents and children, hoping to learn more about the recreational attitudes of society’s youngest generation. The researchers’ findings shed light on a number of phenomena.

Child laying on couch with phone
The average child between 6 and 16 years old spends only an hour a day outside, playing video games over twice as long, a new study finds.

Today’s children and teens, the survey found, prefer a whole host of activities over playing in the mud. These activities include gaming, watching TV, surfing the web, and listening to music. Believe it or not, some adolescents even preferred doing homework (10 percent) and completing chores (three percent) over enjoying the wilderness.

“With games such as ‘Fortnite’ taking over the lives of many young children, they would prefer to stay indoors than kick a football around with friends or wander through the woods,” says Chris Allen, a department manager at Decathlon, in a statement.

More shockers: four in ten British adolescents have never gone camping, nearly half have never built a den or fort, and more than half have never climbed a tree. Many who had tried these rites of passage couldn’t stop thinking about their devices.

“Today’s generation of children have more things than ever before to encourage them to stay inside – and it seems these gadgets are keeping them from enjoying the great outdoors,” says Allen. “We want to encourage parents and their children to head outside and enjoy a real-life family adventure!”

Parents, for their part, seem concerned. Over two-thirds worry that their children spend too little time outdoors, and nearly four in ten struggle so much to get their kids to leave the house that they actually have to force them to do so.

Three-fifths of parents blamed games like Fortnite for their child’s indoor tendencies, while three-fourths said they spent more time outside when they were the same age.

It’s not for a lack of effort: only a third of kids said they were even open to visiting a local park or garden.

Attitudes shift with maturity, so the jury is still out on whether kids will one day change their tune. Still, the early returns aren’t pretty.

Decathlon hired British market research firm OnePoll to conduct its survey earlier this year.

Comments

  1. Seems we always pine for the past, usually remembering it as happier and safer. To read the comments you’d think there never was a danger to any kid ever prior to 1980. Tell that to the pioneers who braved the frontier. Depending upon Indian activity or bandits, you may have to keep your kids inside the cabin for weeks at a time or risk horrific dangers to them. And even before that the indigenous peoples had to carefully guard their brood from other warring tribes, not to mention wild animals. All that said, we live in the country, and our screen-free kids spend most of the day outdoors in the summer and get plenty of sunshine in the school year too since they’re home educated. But even still there are times when I have to keep them in for safety: storms, suspicious vehicle, rattlesnakes, heat, cold, rabid skunk infestation (this last spring), that month leading up to Halloween when you know the weirdos are out collecting, air quality during wildfire season, typical stuff we worry about. I have to say though, perhaps one reason that kids in this study and in general don’t want to go outside is that they’re in the city or suburbs where there’s very little nature out there. Nothing to do. Can’t escape the hum of human activity. Houses are crammed in like sardines on postage stamp lots, and the pavement is suffocating. My kids spy on baby animals, catch lizards, behead grasshoppers, have insect wars and fight black widows with preying mantises, pick in the garden, play baseball, ride bikes, climb ropes into trees, build forts, explore ditches, do work, chase chickens, collect eggs, shoot bows, shoot guns, throw knives, and that’s just the girls,LOL! My son has a machete and loves to go bush whacking!

  2. The evidence is mounting ever larger about the catastrophic effects of such nature deficiency. Everything from mental health problems to poor academic peformance. Look into the issue and see for yourself. There is a huge trove of scholarly literature on this issue about children not getting enough time out in nature. And it is not good to say the very least.

  3. It’s sad to see. Those of us that played outside from dawn till dark, 365 days a year remember the good times with friends…We NEVER said “I’m bored”…We were too busy…This is why so many children are obese these days…

    These kids will be a burden in the future, socially, economically, mentally…it’s up to the parents to remove the distractions…It’s the parents buying these things, the kids sure don’t have the money…

    BAN GAMES!..:)…

  4. AND ALL OF THESE PEOPLE IN THE SUBURBS ALL WANT LARGE HOMES!!!!! WHY WOULD A KID GO OUTSIDE, IF THEY HAVE THEIR OWN ROOM, OWN BATHROOM, AND SEVERAL “FUN ROOMS” (DEN, FAMILY ROOM, MAN CAVE, ETC.)! THE FIRST THING THEY DO IS “FINISH THE BASEMENT”! (THEN KIDS HAVE NO PLACE TO “DO STUFF”! TOO MUCH FURNITURE, NOT ENOUGH SPACE TO BUILD THINGS, DO SCHOOL PROJECTS, ETC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
    I WANT TO GET A HOUSE WITH AN UNFINISHED BASEMENT AND A LARGE GARAGE! TO ACTUALLY DO STUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  5. The answer to this is simple, don’t give it to them in the first place. My first child was born 13 years ago and the closest thing to video games she played was some math game online. Same with my boys. We don’t have a game station, and no cable TV. I pick and choose educational youtube videos from time to time if we want to watch something. My kids play outside and make up their own stories and games, all of which is way more entertaining to listen to than some Hollywood pervert. I shake my head every time I see some two-year old playing on mommy’s iPad at the store. That mommy has no idea what kind of battles she’s in for later on in life. I’ve seen first hand the screaming and kicking of spoiled brats at moms for not being able to play.


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