So true, on my street there are several famlies that have small children. You never see them outside playing. I talk to their parents and they say they can't get them outside all they want to do is watch TV or play video games. One parent recently bought an RV and he was complaining that it had a CD-DVD player in it and that when the go camping the kids wouldn't want to go outside, all they want to do is watch DVD's.
When I was young you went outside in the morning and came back in when the streetlights came on. A lot of the younger adults are as bad as the children.
We are slowly moving off topic, but the observation is quite valid and is part of the overall problem.
I too grew up in small town rural settings where we went outside early and came back home and/or inside before it got too dark. But times have changed and at the same time so has the diagnoisis of ADD and ADHD in children in the US.
I noted when working with kids in foster care, that the first thing that a teacher or foster parent did when confronted with an active child was ask that they be put on Ritalin. My thoughts are that 20-30 years ealier when I was a kid, parents and teachers addressed that by taking kids out side to run off the energy. Teachers in particular also recognized normal attendtion spans and related butt limits and structured classes accordingly. Now, block scheduling with periods perhaps 90 minutes long are much more common with not surprisingly a much larger percentage of kids who cannot sit through, attend, or be productive through the whole period.
In the US, where we like simple soultions and magic pills, Ritalin or Stratera seem to be the preferred solutions. Consequently the US consumes 90% of the world's production of ADD/ADHD meds.
In contrast in Japan where ADD/ADHD is sreened for at an early age and is regarded as condition that can be addressed environmentally and behaviorally, the use of drugs is virtually unheard of as are children with ADD/ADHD.
In effect in the US we have experienced some major changes in how we recreate and how our children view recreation and outdoor activities and I may be showing my age, but I don't think the trend is a good one.
In fairness, some areas offer very little outdoor opportunities. In addition to diving, I like flying and shooting and in a less populated area where I lived during my formative years in my teens and 20's, places to do all of them were no more than 10-15 minutes away and the shooting and flying were at time a 5 minute walk. Where I live now, any of the three involve serious logistics, planning and travel. If I were raising kids now, their recreational opportunites would consequently be dramatically different than mine.
So from an LDS/scuba industry perspective, long term viability and growth of the sport may hinge on greater exposure in schools, rec programs, discover scuba activities and in greater development of interesting local dive opportunities and more importantly activities and opportunities at those locations that will interst teens and young adults enough to get them off the couch and/or away from the computer.
