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A common thread in occasional conversations with parents over the past few months is that their children's understanding of what is a "normal amount of time" using digital devices has suffered the effects of hyperinflation caused by circuit breaker. I will admit to an increase in that category of argument in my own house since that time. Considering we are approaching one year since the announcement of school closure, it does certainly seem to be one of the more obstinate lasting effects of those eight weeks.
Linked to that phenomenon, I found myself reflecting recently on how impoverished our children's childhoods are, in some respects, compared with ours. The common sight of large groups of teenagers sitting together, each one glued to his own phone, is a daily reminder of this.
Now I would love to say that it was while hiking healthily up Bukit Timah Hill that these thoughts hit me; instead, it was viewing a YouTube clip in the back of a cab. The clip in question, and I will share it below, is from a show that I love to dip into now and again, called "Would I Lie to You". The format is fundamentally a parlour game in which the panelists recount a story from their past and it is for the other team to judge whether they are lying or telling the truth. In this particular clip, Bob Mortimer explains that he invented a game on his housing estate in Middlesbrough, called "Theft and Shrubbery" which, he claims with convincing passion, they would play in the early evening darkness, when the clocks have gone back.
I won't spoil the story –you should watch it –other than to say two things: (a) it is joyous and (b) that as you listen, you desperately desperately want it to be true. As I grew up on a housing estate too, I found myself reminiscing about similar games at the expense of my neighbours' peace and quiet that I used to play with my friends. And looking at my own children, I realised that this is an entire chunk of life experience that they have not had because they have had no similar need to find ways to entertain themselves.
Digital interaction is real interaction for them in many ways I know and I am not demonising it. But in the late 70s and 80s, my mother used to lament that the devil made work for idle hands; now he creates an app I guess.
Theft and Shrubbery for your enjoyment.
Have a restful weekend,
Brian
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