Re: People prefer videogames to the outdoors

Well, Dave removed the PPT examples, so I have to look for another, more woodsy way of making the point. Still wish you had moved the whole thread to Off-Topic, Dave.

MTB is adamant in stating (having repeated something close to this several times)

Quote:

I feel completely correct in saying that older generations have a bias.

While it is true that some older people feel that the younger generation is going to hell in a handbasket (with statements like this written as far back as the ancient Greeks) and younger people feel that the older generation "just doesn't get it", it is probably more accurate to say, as the French do "plus ca change, plus ca meme chose."

But I have to quote a young man I encountered yesterday on my hike up Mission Peak (one of the shorter hikes I take several times a week for training, at 6.7 mi round trip, 2345 ft cumulative elevation change, 19.7 knot winds recorded on the summit yesterday). He and his young lady companion started about 15 minutes ahead of me (I was talking to another white-bearded Old Geezer about the use of hiking poles). I caught them about 2/3 of the way up to the summit (both altitude and distance), sitting on a bench, observing the beautiful view of the San Francisco Bay (well, I thought they were enjoying the view - turned out they were debating whether to continue this arduous hike on to the summit). I suggested that youngsters like them should have been at the top by then. The young man's reply was that according to some book, this hike is for "experienced hikers". He wanted to know how much farther to the top and whether it got steeper further along. And he said, "I'm a college student and I don't like having to walk from the dorm to my classes." Now, he and his lady friend looked to be in good shape, with no health problems or handicaps. Well, at least they were getting out. I continued on to the top, stayed for a while (measuring the wind speed and watching the hang glider/parapente crowd - Mission is a designated launch area), then headed down. I met the couple a couple hundred meters from the top, debating whether to continue farther, and got this question - "Is it really rocky up there? I don't want to take a chance on twisting an ankle or something."

Yes, indeed, the outdoors can be dangerous, even on a maintained trail that is used by the Open Space District's and hang glider association's members' cars, and regularly ridden by mountain bikers, as well as being used by runners on regular training runs. This Old Geezer typically takes 50-60 minutes going up and 35-45 minutes down, unless I am carrying the camera and shooting lots of photos. I frequently see both bald and golden eagles here, along with a variety of larks, hawks, falcons, and kestrels (who all seem to feed on the abundant fat ground squirrels - the eagles feed at Calaveras Reservoir, on the backside of Mission Peak). And I have seen (but not photographed) one mountain lion, along with photographing coyote and an abundance of wild turkeys in this Open Space Reserve. One side of the OSR borders Ohlone College. Yet these two college kids found this a challenging adventure.

MTB, the news and politicians are NOT representative of older generations, or anybody else for that matter. The media are looking for attention-grabbing, sensational stories that sell papers and get viewers/listeners. The regular every night listing of the latest half-dozen murders on the 10 o'clock news gets far more viewers than any story about the wonderful open spaces and parks we have here in the SFBay area. Politicians are looking for votes, and what better way to get them than creating controversy. As I look over the posts above, I don't see anyone "blaming" video games per se. I see comments about excesses and spending too much time on TV and video games, as well as other passive entertainment. And I see a large number of comments advocating that young people should somehow be enticed to get out into the hills and woods, getting familiar with the real world and not locked into the virtual world.

Anything can be practiced to excess. As Fred said above, moderation is the key. I would say that the emphasis on youth sports in this area is excessive, even beyond obsession (kids around here are in soccer leagues and Little League and Pop Warner, all at the same time and overlapping seasons, and the high schoolers have their swim teams and water polo and football, each of which has a before-school practice of a couple hours, followed by an after school practice of 3-4 hours, with the training season starting in early August and extending a couple weeks after the nominal end of the school year).