"The research showed 24 percent of five- to seven-year-olds own a smartphone"

I'm not sure that 5 year olds are capable of owning a smart phone. Ownership comes with a level of responsibility (not to lose it, break it, keep it in good repair, liability, etc). Try explaining to a 5 year old the consequence of them breaking something they "own"... This is maybe the entire problem. The parents own the smartphone and all the responsibility that comes with it. If they choose to let their 5 year old have a phone that doesn't absolve the parent of responsibility.

How many times am I allowed to upvote your post?

It seems like World Economic Forum based their policies on 5 year olds. They own nothing and they are generally happy.

‘In [1]The Anxious Generation , social psychologist [2]Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s.’

‘He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.’

[1] https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/729231/the-anxious-generation-by-jonathan-haidt/

[2] https://jonathanhaidt.com/

Yes, children need play and independent exploration, but they ALSO need structure and discipline and guidance and direction and to be taught useful skills that they will require in their adult life.

Unfortunately most parents, teachers and childcare professionals are heavily biased to one extreme or the other when in reality you need to strike a balance somewhere.

Not necessarily exactly in the middle. The right balance depends very much on the child, because they have different personalities, interests and abilities. There is no one size fits all solution.

"There is no one size fits all solution."

Yet we strive for that one size fits all solution.

The alarming rise in medicalisation of children for ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and the problem-de-jure of gender.

Take the pills, go away, you will be cured.

"The alarming rise in medicalisation of children..."

It's not just children. It's the entire "psychiatric" system, what seems a bunch of charlatans who operate under the belief of their knowledge based upon...what, exactly? Their 'solution' is most often to medicate you into their perceived pattern of 'normalcy' and call it a day - they've done their job, as far as they are concerned. Never bothering to ask exactly what "normal" is, it is mostly a societal construct (ask the gays who were either castrated or lobotomized) and never bothering to ask "Am I sure that my beliefs in my 'treatment' are correct". They have been trained to believe they are correct, just like economists >:/

"ask the gays who were either castrated or lobotomized"

It seems we have returned to that phase.

I happened upon this last night where in the late 2000 lupron was being touted by some quacks as a cure for autism:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2009/05/critics_say_lupron_is_no_mirac.html

The 'quick fix take pills' approach really is killing people. I read a story about a young man who was at MIT being sponsored by the US Navy with a prospect of a great career ahead of him. He was burning the candle at both ends a bit too often so his doc prescribed him anti-depressants to fix the anxiety he was having. Then he had issues focusing on his work so he was diagnosed as ADHD and medicated for that and the result was a pretty much total breakdown. Another case was a lady working night shifts at a diner and had issues sleeping so her doc prescribed anti-depressants which then totally f-ed her up. After seeing another doc she was told that she should have never been prescribed such a high dose or been told to take them for more than a couple of weeks at absolute max.

In the US at least, it's the shitty doctors.

I fell out of my chair not paying attention sitting down, ended up really hard on the floor and messed up my back.

I went to the doctor looking for an x-ray or something to find out how bad it was. It really hurt.

The doctor went off on a tirade about pain pills and how he wasn't going to give them to me. I could not make him see I DID NOT WANT the pain pills, I just wanted him to do his job and diagnose what sort of condition my back was in.

Nope, can't do that.

I used to be able to go out in the back yard and play. I even used to be able to go into the woods and explore, or walk over and visit friends.

Now I see kids AREN'T EVEN ALLOWED OUT OF THE HOUSE. Even going into the back yard is not an option.

It's as bad as house arrest.

And we wonder why kids withdraw into phones and video games...

I'm one of the latchkey generation and so long as I was back for supper pretty much anything was OK. My father in law grew up in the deep south and his memaw would chuck all the grand kids out of the house in the morning and not let them back in.

Now it is over protective parents and helicopter parenting. 'let mommy check your food is the right temperature', 'play your game on the phone (so you don't bother me)' etc.

Yep, that was us: "Get out of the house, and if you're going out of sight let me, or one of the neighbours, know where you're going; AND MAKE SURE YOU'RE BACK IN TIME FOR TEA! Now get!"

And we got, it was great. Mind you we did grow up beside a huge tidal inlet, complete with mangrove swamps, so there was plenty of 'getting' to be going at.

It's such a narrow band that he's looking in to, it's both right and fundamentally wrong. He is looking down at the problem, not upwards.

I grew up in the 1990's. I didn't get a Nintendo until I was 9 years old, I didn't get a PC until I was 10 years old. I became an "adult" in the late 2000's and went in to the big bad world looking for a job just as the arse fell out of the world. I'm even older now, with a 2 year old child, in a world that continues to throw it's guts downwards and where life has been on a steady decline ever since. I too have suffered with depression and sought medication for it, to the point where on this medication I came incredibly close to ending it all in 2019. Let me tell you, every day I look at my child I think back to that day in 2019 and simultaneously thank myself for not ending, and hating myself for wanting to end it.

What caused my issues? Well I will tell you right now that it wasn't the Nintendo, it wasn't the PC, it wasn't the mobile phone I got as a 13 year old, nor access to dial up internet at the age of 14. My issues stem from the world around me, the way the world working, and how in reality the adult life I was "prepared" for as a child was nothing like what it was meant to be. The generation before my parents and I, whether you want to read this or not, believed the next generation should at a minimum have the same chances as their parents. My generation, and subsequent others, do not have that chance. We cannot walk in to any job, we cannot save a third of our pay for bills, a third for fun, and a third for housing. The playing field, while not level in generations before, was not the Everest it is now.

You come in to the adult world thinking you may at least have the same chances and opportunities as your parents. But you end up working for people who tell you that their workplace is "fast paced" but it's OK because we have a football table and a bean bag. Be happy with the pizza every month. Do not fucking dare consult a union. Be happy you have a job here. Be happy you have a medical plan that will bump you back to the NHS once they work out your cancer is too expensive to treat.

My generation involved in the timeframe here, our childhoods were fucking wonderful compared to the shit show as what adult life has turned out to be. Most of the meditations you're told to do, colouring in for example, aren't all of them really adult versions of what we wanted to do as children but told to stop because we needed to "grow up"?

Look up from these problems to see what transcends in to them. The need, not choice, of both parents having to work resulting in less time in the family unit. The need, not choice, to cut back on spending time in the family unit. The constant need to be seen to be doing the same as everyone else or to be seen as being a "good parent" which results in you throwing your phone in front of your child's face when they're going through a fairly normal tantrum - just because some old twat of a couple are looking at you staring at you thinking "will you shut that child up? I'm trying to eat".

Top to bottom, this adult life is the cause of many problems in life. Not the technology as a child.

"because we have a football table and a bean bag"

Oh, this crap! My previous employer did this as well as making themed meeting rooms including 'nuclear bunker'. So you've not fixed any of the toxic aspects of the company but you've spent a load of cash on pointless junk.. I left very soon after.

Sadly, the reality is that every generation has to try to learn to cope with the crapness of other human beings, and with their own crapness. Just as every generation has reasons to wonder if they will be the last generation. One day probably there will be a 'last generation', given the way we human beings behave towards each other and the planet.

The thing is, notwithstanding our fundamental crapness, there is another side to all of this, which is the matter of choosing my response. It's about making decisions about the person we are going to work at being even, and especially, in the face of my crapness, and the crapness of others. Out of those who choose for good, the good things that we truly value and rejoice in come to be. Those good choices and the good actions that come from the choices, bring hope to others, and so it goes, in every generation.

The child looks to the 'parent' (genetic or otherwise) for hope and direction. What they are given will have a big impact on the person they become, their view of themselves and the world, and the choices they will make and why they will make them. But it won't be decisive, in the end that child, that person, must come to take responsibility for their choices and the consequences that flow from them. And so it goes ...

Maybe there's more going on than we commonly think there is, but whatever 'life' is all about, as far as anyone knows, we only get one shot at it, whatever circumstances we find ourselves having to deal with. Might as well try to make the best of it, not just for ourselves but for those around us, and if others choose to be self-serving gits, well that is their responsibility. No need to let their choices define who we are.

By misunderstood you mean with age people learn about money and greed and try to enrich themselves on the most vulnerable ones, as they are the easiest target?

And adults aren't??

The big difference is that kids have yet to learn the positive traits of rights and wrongs and that adults have since learnt the negative traits of vindictiveness and jealousy.

In that respect, yes. They don't grow up, they just grow older.

The adults shouldn't have guns either though.