to ask how young people passed their time before they had screens 24/7

[WeneverownedaniPad]

This is not a "it were all fields round here" post but ...

DD(14) has been getting a lot of headaches. The optician says it's a combination of tiredness and possibly too much screentime so I need to act.

Thing is, her teachers say she gives 100% in school and her behaviour is excellent. I never have to nag her to do homework and she is very sunny-natured - no adolescent mood swings. She trains a couple of evenings and every weekend for the team sport she competes in. The rest of the time she is on her phone/laptop/Netflix. She's not interested in social media and her friends don't seem to "hang out" in real life - probably because they're glued to their bloody phones!

What did we do (those of who are that old!) before there was so much screen time available?

What do your teens do?

I spent hours on the landline to my best friend, watched a lot of TV and read books!

Books, TV and homework - wasn't great time in my life TBH.

DH and the kids will chrome cast from their phones to the TV screen - so they are watching a bigger screen. My DC have audio books, books and craft things in their rooms and will sometimes do those instead of screens.

Phones have to be downstairs for bed otherwise they will sneak on them - though you can get settings that lower the light levels to more nocturnal levels which is supposed to help body produce the sleep hormone melatonin – apparently bright screens can inhibit its production.

I've read completely dark rooms at night and being outside - partly light levels and partly long distance viewing - all help eyes. Mine are outside more than most though not sure we also rack up the full 14 hours a week I’ve seen recommended mainly as we don’t drive so they have to be outside walking or waiting for buses.

I was a teen during hte 80's
After homework during hte week:
We rarely phoned each other because we were yelled at about the bill.
Watched TV, but we only had one and so we had to watch what my parents wanted to watch
Went to guides
Went to drama group
Went to youth group
read
At the weekend, rarely met up with school friends, but did socialise with friends rom the youth group - cinema, walks, bike rides, hanging out at each others houses.

I did the follwing

read
go out with friend to park/village/town
go cycling/exploring
sewing/knitting
guides
swimming
worked - used to cut grass, walk dogs etc
painted models
played board games/miniature games/cards
watched TV
wrote stories
listened to music
gardening (sometimes)
Cooked and baked

Read.
Taped Top of the Pops and listened to it over and over.
Spent ages on the phone while my mum hissed at me in the background to hang up 'someone might be trying to get through.'
Hung around the shopping centre or got a bus into town and wandered around the shops with friends
Went to the cinema

Read a huge amount, listened to music, crafty stuff and watched lots of tv and films. Never was one for activities and a lot of my friends lived too far away to hang around with

We did play a shitload of computer games in the 90s, hours at a time, but we had one console and 2 controllers between 5 kids and on the only TV we had, so it was a bit different!

Also

• played music, listened to music, practiced instruments, wrote songs etc
• read books
• smoking, snogging, cider. Of course.
• crafts, painting, drawing.
• games with siblings

We didn't have loads of money and lived rurally so there were no structured activities or clubs except guides and a church youth club (both run by mother! How embarrassing for a 14 year old )

At 14 I watched a shitntob if TV. If I thought really hard I bet I could remember the TV schedules of the time.

Home from school, TV on, Kids TV on BBC1 and ITV. Newsround at 5, Grange hill, byker grove or Blue Peter till 5.35, or home and away on ITV. Neighbours till 6 on BBC1. Then to BBC2 for Buffy, Due South, star Trek or The fresh Prince. Take you up to 7ish not long till the soaps would start at 7.30. 9oclock bed time.

As for weekends. Kids shows in the mornings, then afternoons would be Gladiators, Baywatch, steam reruns and night rider.

Sundays was all about the EastEnders Omnibus, recording the chart show, Howard's way and bullseye then a bath and bed.

So yeah... Lots and lots of TV.

@SushiMonster

What we didn't do, was get out a screen every time there was a few seconds downtime (at a bus top, in a lift, in a shop in a queue)

I think this is one of the big differences. They don’t know how to do nothing.

What we didn't do, was get out a screen every time there was a few seconds downtime (at a bus top, in a lift, in a shop in a queue)

Well over 40 here and sadly also guilty :(

At 14 I talked with my best friends for hours on the phone, wrote letters to my friends at school, wrote endless diaries, went for sleepovers as often as possible, made DIY face masks, dyed my hair with wash in wash out stuff, got the bus to my local town and hung around Bodyshop trying on lipbalms, watched TV, read magazines, and occasionally read books. I also did lots of swimming and in the summer rode my bike.

I watched TV, model-making, listened to records, homework, etc. I didn't do the hanging out with friends thing at all.

My son spends his time gaming, watching you tube, homework, etc. He doesn't "do" social media.

As for reading books, I didn't as a child (I do now), and son doesn't at all. He just doesn't "get" fiction at all and has no interest in it. He'll happily read articles on real life things like football, nature, science, but he just won't read fiction. He never even read his set-texts for his GCSE English but still got a grade 7 - just by reading past paper and suggested question answer schemes he picked up enough to get a good pass.

I agree that kids nowadays don't seem to be able to just do nothing and get lost in their own thoughts. Not just kids of course, but the amount of people who seem incapable of just sitting quietly on a bus or train is crazy. Likewise at the bus stop some people can't seem to just stand and look around them and take in their surroundings - they have their head bend over their phone the entire time.

Watched some tv
Read books
Went to my friend's houses (my best friend lived round the corner)
Went to Starbucks
Hung out in the town eating co-ops own salt and vinegar sticks!

What we didn't do, was get out a screen every time there was a few seconds downtime (at a bus top, in a lift, in a shop in a queue)

My DH is terrible for this as well - mid 40s. It's worse when we are waiting for food - instead of talking to me or others he's on his phone, same waiting for buses or or trains -even on a local hill walk he was tweeting pictures and comments. In fact I think our children – two have phones are actually better than him they often want to talk.

A study released last week by Oxford Uni academics found that screentime is harmless.

There always has to be a bogeyman or moral panic in this society. In the past it was rock and roll music, punk culture, video nasties and computer games.

Load of nonsense.

It didn't find that screentime is harmless - it found that if part of a BALANCED life where it wasn't used much it was not inherently damaging.

HOwever what is clear from lots and lots of evidence - is that social media and the constant being 'on' for kids is damaging their mental health. That social media and phones are addictive - I konw that from my own use.

Recent research has shown that there is an actual thinning of the frontal cortex in the brain in children who spend prolonged times on screens.

You also have to ask what screens are replcing. THe study may have shown they aren't 'damaging' if looked at completely in isolation - but they are replacing bike riding/ free play/ building dens/ hanging around street corners building relationships and learning how to make decisions on your own without adults involved - heading out for adventures - being bored / thinking about things etc.

Before screens - children would have been outside for most of the day - that is pre-tv - watching tv is not 'the past' - the vast vast majority of humans existence was pre -screen/ pre-radio. Kids would have played/ been creative/ learnt resilience.

such an enormous loss from childrens lives that they no longer hve the freedom to just head outside and play with the kids who live near to them.

I rode my bike, worked part time as a hand on a ranch so I could ride the horses for free, got the bus to town to go to the large library, walked the dog, babysat for friends, youth group at church, girl scouts...

Hung out cafes/parks/pubs with hippies, scoring/smoking hash, having underage sex and generally behaving in a reprehensible fashion. In my defence, it was (just) the 60s.

The rest of the time I read. I developed a 3 books (or more) a week habit that is still with me nearly 50 years later.

Read a LOT of books
Wrote in my diary
Listened to music
Watched TV
Chatted to friends on the phone
Homework
Youth orchestra
In the holidays more stuff like bike rides, walking the dog, shopping, swimming, etc.

We mooched around town at weekends, or at the houses of those with the most accommodating parents. Had sleepovers. Sometimes went on day trips to nearby cities. Ride our bikes to the countryside in summer to explore woodlands and swim in the lake. I spent quite a bit of time volunteering at stables as I loved horses. Nothing particularly high-octane.

Museums, national trust, bird watching, beach, day trips, biking, butterfly counting, climbing/hiking, antique shopping, barbeques, walking, aquariums, lots of swimming, library, baking, crafts lots of crafts, art galleries and lots of high tea with grandma. High tea is a good one teaches young ladies manners which will get you very far in life. Its almost meditative and helps you take a quiet moment and teaches you how to be still and calm. Also the cakes are yummy.

Recent research has shown that there is an actual thinning of the frontal cortex in the brain in children who spend prolonged times on screens.

I just heard something on R4 about reliance on satnavs and not using maps or geophysical means of navigation is leading to underdevelopment of the hippocampus that could have implications for memory and dementia in years to come!

All this new-fangled internet, I always knew no good would come of it ...

Spent ages on the phone while my mum hissed at me in the background to hang up someone might be trying to get through

This thread is making me really nostalgic for my youth even though I didn't particularly enjoy it!

We did watch a lot of crap telly but as we only had one TV, our parents would often kick us out. And, yes, we'd just call for friends whereas today - and this is just my experience of DD's friends - they practically have to make an appointment via Snapchat to meet up and are rarely free.

Sounds a bit twee but me and my teen daughters sometimes had crafty Sunday afternoons. We'd get supplies from the local garden centre of wherever, then just sit and chat at the kitchen table for a couple of hours. It was very chill.

I remember we did some mosaic making, jewellery making, upcycling, that sort of thing.

Youngest also got fairly into baking for a while.