Just recently we spent several weeks in Florida. Beautiful weather every day, the kind of weather that, back in the day , would bring out neighborhood kids in flocks. You couldn't' t wait to get home from school to play with your friends. Every friend you had, you would also know their parents and interact with them as well.
The entire time we were on vacation, the only kids we saw were standing at the bus stop. There was no interaction between any of them as they were all wired in. The place we rented for 5 weeks was in a neighborhood full of kids that only appeared when getting on and off of the school bus. On weekends, with weather to kill for, it was like a ghost town. Only once did we see a kid outside over a weekend.
I said to @farm-mom, there is a kid. He was in the neighbor's yard, by himself. With a bat in hand, he threw up the ball and hit it. After striking the ball, he dropped the bat, left the ball where it landed and proceeded to go inside.
This whole scenario was depressing. Kids need to play, exercise and interact with others, but we saw none of that.
Technology is consuming these young minds. Where will this leave them in the future in the way of social skills, totally lost I'm afraid.
This type of behavior I lay at the feet of parents. It seems that just as long as the kid is busy and not disturbing their parents, then the parents are fine with this.
Social skills are learned by socializing. Only time will tell us just how far reaching this type of behavior has impacted their ability to function as a caring adult.
When all is said and done so many things that make us human will have gone the way of black and white televisions.
Lets just take the skill of learning to be empathetic. I see empathy as a must-learn skill that brings more ease and understanding to your life and relationships!
Cognitive empathy is the ability one has to identify and understand other people's emotions.
Without people interacting with one another, this one social skill of the many that should be manifested through interaction, is impossible to develop.