19 Jul Roaming children through the generations

As a child of eight in 1926, George Thomas Of Sheffield, England, thought nothing of walking six miles to his favorite fishing hole. Today, his eight-year-old great-grandson Edward is forbidden to wander more than 300 yards from home. The London Daily Mail mapped the diminishing scope of childhood roaming through four generations.

Grandfather Jack, who turned eight in 1950, could roam through a one-mile radius. Mother Vicky, who turned eight in 1979, could walk unaccompanied half a mile to the local swimming pool.

Jack’s experience mirrors mine, as a 1953 eight-year-old in Chappaqua, NY, with a roaming scope of about one mile radius. My own children, who turned eight in 1978 and 1983, also had about a mile of roaming scope, but they were generational exceptions, growing up in ultra-rural Kempt Head, Cape Breton. We used a fog horn to summon them home from the beach or the woods. Their children, who are not yet eight, lead closely accompanied lives.

What is this doing to the next generation’s ability to manage danger and make decisions? How is it constricting and distorting their knowledge and understanding of the world?  Danah Boyd thinks children turn to social media sites [link fixed – thanks CC] on the Internet in part of fill this gap in their world experience.