Some may put this down to changing times, but there are others who are very alarmed by what ‘fun’ and ‘entertainment’ means to young children these days.
Nature Valley illustrated this powerfully in its latest campaign, ‘Rediscover Nature’. As part of the campaign, the Nature Valley team spoke to three generations of families and asked them one very simple question: when you were a kid, what did you do for fun?
While the grandparents waxed nostalgic over days spent fishing, fruit-picking and tobogganing, their middle-aged children recalled happy memories of outdoor games involving their friends from the local community.
When it was the turn of this generation of children however, a very different picture was presented. Kids responded with ‘video games’, ‘texts’, ‘email’ and ‘watching TV’. In some of the more concerning parts of the video montage, a little girl is seen saying that she would “die” if she didn’t have her tablet, while a boy confesses to having watched 23 episodes of a TV series in the space of four days.
If you feel yourself growing disillusioned with these kids’ ideas of fun, spare a thought for their parents and grandparents, who get visibly emotional as they are hit with the reality of what their children are saying to the camera.
Check out the video below – it will really make think about our children’s habits and their futures.
