My favourite words to hear as a kid were: "Go out and play" Indeed. It was the mantra when I was a kid. In my neighborhood, if I said that to my kid, he'd be

My favourite words to hear as a kid were: "Go out and play" Indeed. It was the mantra when I was a kid. In my neighborhood, if I said that to my kid, he'd be the only one out there. The rest of the kids are inside, playing video games or studying. Last summer, my 13 yr old didn't see one of his friends face-to-face, but had a summer of playing with them and talking while doing so over Skype. He went to a bunch of camps, and saw kids his own age there, and spent a week with his cousins, but saw none of his school friends in person. Yeah, it was very disturbing to me, and I tried many times to insist "wouldn't you like to have some friends over?" only to hear "no, I'm good"... several times I thought about forcing him outside, but really, the playgrounds have only young kids with parents hovering over them. He would have been alone out there. I'm been saying to anyone that would listen that there will be unintended consequences for this shift. Dramatic ones. I hope they aren't too bad for our kids and society, and that I'm overstating it. I would love to be wrong here.