Is it better for the environment that kids stay indoors and play computers?

Question

I am 41, when we were kids everyone played outside. Kids went shooting, fishing, poaching, cycling, rambling, played in all the woods, meadows and streams. Is it much better for the environment now that they all stay indoors and play computer games?

Or not? Why not?

Answer 1

Not.

In order to be motivated to protect the environment, you have to understand it. It has to be a part of your life.

Otherwise, people just won't care about it.

Answer 2

I guess it's all a "depends."

Are the kids inside playing on a low-energy computer with a LCD monitor (like a laptop) or other appliance (like a Playstation), or are they on a behemouth gaming/multipurpose PC/machine with a large cathode tube monitor? Both will use electricity (just the multipurpose computer more), and have the environmental costs associated with the gold and heavy metal (like mercury) accumulation in their construction process and eventual disposal... (Gold mining is at least as destructive as coal mining, if not worse...) But one will be better environmentally overall than the other...

Are the kids outside in a recreational vehicle or bicycle, tearing up paths, or just out for a nature hike or birdwatching (pack out everything you pack in)? Are they shooting at anything that moves, or is it a multi-day trek following and tracking/hunting a specific animal?

Are they catch-and-release fishing, are they fishing in season (or at least only keeping legal fish of proper size/species), are they going to attempt eating what they catch? (Many inland bodies of water and streams/rivers have become polluted over the years, and it's no longer safe to eat what you catch...)

Also, thanks to urban sprawl, it's getting harder and harder to find those nature areas to go out and play in, or at least nearby that a kid could walk to (not need to be driven there).

Sure, being outside a kid could learn more about nature and what is so wonderful about it that it deserves protecting. Or, a kid could learn that nature is just another place that man can play in and plunder, only deserving enough protecting so that they can reap its benefits.

Staying indoors on a computer, well the local footprint may be bigger or smaller - depends on the activity. If email/IM and even some multiplayer games, that could open up the world (long distance pen pals!) and you can do things virtually. (Racing dirt bikes in a video game is much better than tearing up some paths in a meadow or sand dunes...) But then you're inside and you don't get to observe simple things like the effects of wind and how different plants/animals react to sunlight or new scents... Different type of worldliness.

Answer 3

I don't know if this actually answers your question or not but it's my opinion. When it comes to kids and the environment, I don't give crap about the environment. It's the kids that matters. They don't need to be staying in and playing games all day. they need to go outside and experience life and having fun. I grew up in this generation of video games and all that but i wish i hadn't. the environment was obviously fine when kids where all outside compared to all the technology and stuff that they have now. We were better off back in the day rather than the future and now.

Answer 4

There are plenty of outdoor activities which don't harm the environment. Playing sports (other than the space taken up by the playing field), hiking, jogging, some of the ones you mentioned - cycling, playing in the woods, etc. etc.

It's just a matter of coexisting with the environment as opposed to destroying it. Our species has coexisted with the environment for millenia.

Answer 5

i does not say that youngsters have become spoiled via them yet ... being taught via the mothers and fathers allowing them to play video games all day that being lazy is okay. all of us have our moments yet it is all some childrens and youthful do. They flow to college, paintings and play video games. My concerns are that the toddlers will loose connection with the actual international and be too lost to care approximately having certainly human relationships. I see not something incorrect with young infants enjoying video games that at the instant are not overly violent in elementary terms a splash, analyze have shown that they have got extra powerful hand-eye coordination from a constrained quantity of play yet too lots merely breeds stupidity approximately what occurs outdoors of the video games. Violence and sexual content cloth are additionally extensive concerns. i think of that the video interest international desires some reform, they have long gone way too a ways. enjoying indoors is super, some young infants do not in elementary terms like the sunlight that lots or burn fairly or despite the fact that yet nevertheless like to play around and be young infants. merely get them outdoors some circumstances- bbq's are solid elementary elementary approaches to get them out, haha.

Answer 6

Kids have been playing outdoors for millions of years until the computer was invented. Did those kids ever posed a major threat to the environment? Dont think so.

Let kids just be kids.

Answer 7

yes it seems better for the Environment at first ,they are not breaking it or scaring the animals,but they will know it far less .

And Nature sings TO KNOW.KNOW ,KNOW ME IS TO LOVE ,LOVE ,LOVE ME.
so in the long run its not better ,

One could argue its better for the kids intellectual development to learn to drive the computer early and dive into the world.I recommend ,before they can even write, But outdoor kids are much healthier ,

So a happy Medium is needed ,
half the time electronic time .
but then time out ,outside and work in the garden .OR GO PLAY .

Be firm you pay the electricity and can turn it off.For every bodies sake.

Answer 8

I think that staying outdoors are way better than staying at home doing the computer because it is bad for children's eyes. And if you had children, you should let them stay outside and play so to make them healthy and strong.

Answer 9

No, because the computer is using electricity that is generated by burning fuel that emits CO2. And it is better for the kids to get exercise out doors anyway.

Answer 10

Technically, no. Computers use electricity. So by using computers, we actually burns more fossil fuels at the power plants, releasing more harmful greenhouse gas, causing global warming. OK, now i'm feeling guilty.