Bakerview Youth What's going on around Bakerview?

Plugged In

One of the questions I field the most since starting at Bakerview is why I don't allow electronics on Youth activities. Whether it be a regular youth event, or the youth retreats this past November, nothing raises the ire of youth like saying that ipods are off-limits.

I'm not surprised by it, if I'm being honest. This is a generation that lives their lives online. Whether it be Facebook, texting, or chatting, their primary form of communication is not the telephone or talking to one another, it's with a screen and the internet in-between. It develops shallow relationships, encourages distance, and reduces transparency. A strange juxtaposition from a generation that values authenticity more than anything else.

A recent study out of the US brings this to light. The New York Times says, "Those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day with such devices, compared with less than six and a half hours five years ago, when the study was last conducted. And that does not count the hour and a half that youths spend texting, or the half-hour they talk on their cellphones." You can read the full article here.

If you're looking for the original study, you can find it here.