This ought to interest Jennifer: According to today’s NY Times, kids have become so attached to their computer games that they’ve got an associative disorder, a disconnect from the environment.
The author Richard Louv calls the problem “nature-deficit disorder.” He came up with the term, he said, to describe an environmental ennui flowing from children’s fixation on artificial entertainment rather than natural wonders. Those who are obsessed with computer games or are driven from sport to sport, he maintains, miss the restorative effects that come with the nimbler bodies, broader minds and sharper senses that are developed during random running-around at the relative edges of civilization.
Mr. Louv is the author of the upcoming book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder from Algonquin Books.
This quote from the book sums it up: “ I like to play indoors better ’ cause that’ s where all the electrical outlets are, †reports a Grade Four student.